Loyalty and trust. Ah we see it again. If you think back two or three weeks ago, we had a good discussion about trusting others. Both Hamlet and the Winter's Tale deal with trust. Now, here in Acts 2 and 3 of the "Tempest", Caliban and Stephano's relationship is set up to tell a similar ironic story. Shakespeare loves to do this.Caliban says in Act 2 that he will be loyal to Stephano...
Caliban:
"I'll swear upon that bottle to be thy true subject; for the liquor is not earthly." Lines 1213/1214
"I'll kiss thy foot; I'll swear myself thy subject" Line 1239
Here he is swearing loyalty to someone when he has another master, Prospero. In the next act (Act 3) they plot together against Prospero, Caliban's master. As I mentioned in an old post about loyalty, there is a principle of integrity that if someone does not uphold (a) s/he will not be trustworthy themselves and (b) s/he will usually not trust others. Here, after swearing loyalty to Stephano, Caliban goes
against any loyalty he had to Prospero. This is just like telling someone a secret you "promised not to tell" and in return they trust you with a secret you "promise" not to tell. It doesn't make sense! Nor does it make sense to tell someone a secret you want to keep secret when they just proved they could not do so.I bet Caliban will betray Stephano by the end of the play, it's in his character. Get him in an intense situation and he becomes self-interested. What do you think?
See if you can connect Atlas with this post. Who knows their Greek mythology?
This is an awesome post. One of my favorite TV shows is the Dick Van Dyke show. In it, Laura and Millie are neighbors and best friends that tell each other EVERYTHING... Laura promised her husband, Rob (Dick Van Dyke), she wouldn't tell anyone a secret (pretty funny one) they had. And Laura tries to help Millie guess their secret, but only after Millie convinced her by saying, "I'll never again tell you anything I promised not to."
ReplyDeleteI really like the principle that you outlined. I think it's the same with gossiping. If I hear someone fuel a conversation about someone, why should I trust that person to not talk behind my back? Trust is a huge theme in Shakespeare and in our lives.
Yeah, anyone who gives up or gives out their loyalty too quickly probably doesn't value loyalty that much.
ReplyDeleteJust replace "kissing" with "loyalty" in this quote from Spencer W. Kimball:
“Kissing has … degenerated to develop and express lust instead of affection, honor, and admiration. To kiss in casual dating is asking for trouble. What do kisses mean when given out like pretzels and robbed of sacredness?”
haha Thanks for that quote by President Kimball J.J.. Shakespeare understood the importance of loyalty and we can find examples of it everywhere!
ReplyDeleteMatt, I honestly don't know anything about Greek Mythology. Could you fill me in on who Atlas is please? I'm guessing he has importance with the world.... just a guess ;)