Date Thesis Awarded

5-2023

Access Type

Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only

Degree Name

Bachelors of Arts (BA)

Department

English

Advisor

Alicia Andrzejewski

Committee Members

Erin Minear

Nicholas Popper

R. Benedito Ferrão

Abstract

Caliban spends Shakespeare’s Tempest “fetch[ing] in [Prospero’s] wood” (Shakespeare, 1.2.311-312) from a place where there’s “neither bush nor scrub” (2.2.18) to a place surrounded by a “grove” (5.1.10) while Ferdinand suffers under “wooden slavery” (3.1.63) as a “patient log-man” (3.1.67) who enters “bearing” (3.1.1sd) one of “thousands of…logs” (3.1.10) to be burned green (3.1.19) in order to heat but a “poor cell” (1.2.20). But what are the implications of this deforestation? This thesis argues that Shakespeare employs arboreal image patterns to situate colonial power dynamics in The Tempest and that Shakespeare’s treatment of logs in The Tempestis the culmination of his treatment of moving trees in

Caliban spends Shakespeare’s Tempest “fetch[ing] in [Prospero’s] wood” (Shakespeare, 1.2.311-312) from a place where there’s “neither bush nor scrub” (2.2.18) to a place surrounded by a “grove” (5.1.10) while Ferdinand suffers under “wooden slavery” (3.1.63) as a “patient log-man” (3.1.67) who enters “bearing” (3.1.1sd) one of “thousands of…logs” (3.1.10) to be burned green (3.1.19) in order to heat but a “poor cell” (1.2.20). But what are the implications of this deforestation? This thesis argues that Shakespeare employs arboreal image patterns to situate colonial power dynamics in The Tempest and that Shakespeare’s treatment of logs in The Tempest is the culmination of his treatment of moving trees in Macbeth and that of the rooted forest in As You Like It. I ultimately argue that Shakespeare offers a critique of deforestation used to reinforce political power. The thesis traces the progression between these plays in their own early modern ecological contexts and extends that progression forward into the 21st century, both on stage in a production of The Tempest and off stage in the context of postcolonial power dynamics and deforestation.

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