The practice of theatrical adaptation of Shakespeare's works has been popular for almost four hundred years (Fischlin and Fortier 1); the high points of appropriation were the Restoration and the second half of the 20th century. Recent adaptations often adapt his plays to other mediums, such as cinema or novels. Fischlin and Fortier note that “adaptations. . . often attempt to recontextualize Shakespeare politically” (5). According to Terence Hawkes, the meaning attributed to a text at any given moment is always ideologically dependent and contextualized by history and occasion; therefore, it is impossible to attribute to it any final, out-of-context truth or meaning (1-10). Placing Hawkes's notion of the dependence of meaning on context within the realm of adaptation studies suggests that each adaptation, in this case Shakespeare's, creates its own meaning by reworking the original text in a new context. Shakespeare's works lend themselves so well to adaptation or appropriation because of the gaps they left; his works often exclude motivations or depth of character, prompting adapters to attempt to fill in these gaps, often to impose a certain perspective. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay In most of Shakespeare's plays, the female characters fall quite flat; their motivations are vague or non-existent, and they seem to exist solely to help men achieve their goals, or act as their motivation. A curious theme seems to be the absence of mothers: “mothers are conspicuously absent from The Tempest, King Lear, Othello, The Merchant of Venice and Measure for Measure. Even more striking, in the six most famous romantic comedies (Love Lost, The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, Much Ado About Nothing, and Twelfth Night), no mother 'appears' (Rose 292). ). The feminism or gender angle has been used in many adaptations; For example, Paula Vogel's Desdemona: A Play About a Handkerchief recontextualizes Othello to draw attention to the role of women. The main and unique characters who interact and appear on stage are Desdemona, Emilia and Bianca, female characters who appear quite flat in the original play; Desdemona is Othello's obedient wife, an upper-class lady; Emilia is his servant who is very loyal to her husband Iago; and Bianca is a prostitute. According to Fischlin and Fortier, “the society of women. . . is at best a minor element in the Shakespearean original” (234). In Vogel's play, although they occupy the same positions in society, these women are more rounded and dynamic characters; they can express their wishes and motivations, which are in some ways opposite to those of their namesakes in Shakespeare's work: Bianca wants to get married and settle down, Emilia is a cunning but naive woman who aspires above all to climb the social ladder (even though it would require the death of her husband) and Desdemona replaces Bianca on Tuesday nights, enjoying the freedom of being a prostitute and fantasizing about traveling the world. Another example of recasting a Shakespeare play to impose a feminist perspective is Lear's Daughters by Elaine Feinstein and the Women's Theater Group: written as a prequel to the original play, this work attempts to explain why Cordelia opposes his father and why Regan and Gonerill turn out to be so evil, describing the difficulties they faced in their youth at the hands of their malicious father. Take responsibility for theirdevelopment on the shoulders of King Lear, by transforming him into an abusive, adulterous man with incestuous tendencies, justifies to a certain extent the future behavior of his daughters. Women are placed at the forefront of the story and given context, a more developed personality, and clear motivations for their actions. The Tempest, one of Shakespeare's last plays, tells the story of Prospero, the former Duke of Milan. His brother Antonio envied his position and conspired with Alonso, the king of Naples, to eliminate Prospero, sending him and his daughter Miranda out to sea on a raft; they survive and find themselves on a desert island, thanks to the charity of Gonzalo who brings them provisions and Prospero's magic books. They stay on the island for twelve years, time which Prospero uses to enslave both a spirit called Ariel and a native named Caliban. When a ship carrying his enemies and their associates appears near the island, Prospero raises a storm to force them off the ship and strategically scatters his enemies and acquaintances across the island in order to execute his complicated plan to reclaim his old position. The only women in the room are Miranda, Claribel, and Sycorax, who are greatly outnumbered by ten men. Furthermore, the last two of these three women only appear briefly in the description and therefore have no dialogue: Claribel is Alonso's daughter, recently married to the Prince of Tunis; his character's sole purpose is to serve as fodder for snide remarks towards Alonso for selling out the kingdom, as well as to explain why Alonso, Ferdinand, Sebastian, Antonio, Gonzalo, Stephano and Trinculo are on a boat near the one of Prospero. island. Sycorax, an evil witch banished to the island, died several years before the beginning of The Tempest story. She is the mother of Caliban and imprisoned Ariel in a tree; she serves as a foil to Prospero, contrasting his darkness with his white magic, and serves as justification for Caliban to claim ownership of the island. Prospero also constantly reminds Ariel of the cruel treatment given to Sycorax to maintain the spirit's service. Both women exist to motivate and justify the actions of men; Sycorax also makes Prospero and Miranda look good in comparison. Miranda plays a larger role as the only woman with any dialogue. However, she seems to be only one piece on Prospero's political chessboard: "Like Caliban, Miranda has been 'colonized and deceived' and exists only 'as the other side of man, his side denied , abused and hidden. of a non-culture »» (Feral cited in Donaldson 68). Miranda is used by her father to restore his position, by making her fall in love with her and Ferdinand, the Prince of Naples: "His motivation for arranging the marriage of Ferdinand and Miranda is not to arrange the happiness of his daughter, but her own security” ( Flaherty 146). Even preventing Miranda from being raped by Caliban is not an action done out of love or concern: "His main concern as a father is to keep Miranda's virginity intact at all costs." Only then can he do it. . . support the price that the desirable groom Ferdinand demands of his wife” (Sachdev 232). Caliban's motivation for his attempt to rape Miranda is "I had populated other islands with Calibans" (1.2.503-4); it seems that possessing Miranda is tantamount to repossessing the island. Thus, Miranda is established as a subject territory that can be conquered or claimed (Flaherty 170). As in many of Shakespeare's plays, women are not fully realized characters in The Tempest, ensuring a perfect gap for appropriation. In The Tempest by Julie Taymor, an adaptationcinematographic of the 2010 play, the issue of female underrepresentation is addressed by the casting of Hellen Mirren. like the female Prospera. By changing the gender of the protagonist, Prospero/a's oppression also symbolizes female oppression and sexism: Prospera, former wife of the Duke of Milan, is accused of having killed her husband by witchcraft and sent away only because she is a woman. The translation of The Tempest from paper to screen offers new possibilities for conveying emotion, and the film takes advantage of this opportunity to depict a new dynamic between Miranda and her parents. Both Propero and Prospera assert, "I have done nothing but take care of you, my beloved, you, my daughter" (1.2.104), but given the development of the plot, Prospero does not does not appear to be authentic. Prospera's words seem more believable because of the way she looks at Miranda while saying these words, looking into her daughter's eyes while touching the back of her (Taymor) neck. While Prospero primarily treats Miranda as a political object that he can use to get what he desires, Prospera seems to harbor genuine affection for his daughter: several times the film shows her caressing or looking at Miranda with affection. Taymor states that Prospera "had her whole life taken away from her because she was a woman" (Breznican), and that she wants to save her daughter from the same fate. Prospera's gender can also be interpreted as a way to make her powers even more impressive; a woman who traps a group of men on an island, takes revenge, and manages to get her life back demands more respect than a man who does the same, especially in this era. Ariel's role is not changed; however, the questionable nature of their gender is emphasized by the fact that their genitals are blurred and they are shown with and without breasts at different times. Aside from its radical change regarding Prospero's gender, Taymor's film remains relatively faithful to the original play; the dialogue consists mainly of the original lines from the play, and the added lines are always in Shakespearean style. The plot undergoes a few other changes, but all relatively minor from a feminist point of view: the mask is replaced by Ferdinand's song and Prospero's epilogue is omitted. Taymor's adaptation attempts to remain faithful to the original play in many respects, and the protagonist's gender change does not convey a message critical of Shakespeare: the director states: "I wanted to do it because there are actresses like Helen Mirren who never do it. to be able to play these fantastic roles because they were not written for women” (Breznican). Wanting to give actresses a chance to play male roles can be interpreted as a feminist motive, but it seems that it was not Taymor's direct intention to give the film itself a feminist overtone. She previously adapted Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus for the screen in her film Titus, implying that her appropriations are either a case of idolatry or an attempt to exploit the bard's cultural heritage. Margaret Atwood's Hag-Seed is much more liberal with material borrowed from Shakespeare: the novel is a metafictional work that contains a fictional stage production of The Tempest as well as a plot that, to some extent, imitates the plot of The Tempest Storm. The protagonist, Felix, is a well-known theater director. His wife died after childbirth and meningitis proved fatal for his three-year-old daughter Miranda, but memories of Miranda haunt him daily. Felix plans a production of The Tempest; However, after an unsuspected act of betrayal, he is removed from his position and decides to spend the restof his life in exile. After twelve years, Félix has the chance to teach a theater class in a nearby prison; he accepts the job under a false name and, after several years, is given the opportunity to take revenge on the men who destroyed his career. Fittingly, a production of The Tempest is used as a trap to trap its enemies. In both layers of the plot, the figure of Miranda is singled out and elevated by Atwood. Felix's life outside the prison theater, which we will henceforth call the main plot, features no living Miranda; instead, she lingers in his life as a spirit. Felix is ​​consumed by grief; his first attempt at staging The Tempest was motivated by Miranda's premature death: "just after the funeral. . . he had immersed himself in The Tempest. It was an escape. . . but it must also be a kind of reincarnation. Miranda would become the girl who was not lost” (Atwood 15). Felix plans to play Prospero himself to complete the imagery: at least in the play he would be able to protect his daughter. The play becomes an unhealthy obsession for him, because “inside the enchanted bubble he was creating, his Miranda would live again” (17). As his life in exile progresses, Felix begins to imagine Miranda as she would age, a practice that quickly turns into a half-belief that she is actually there with him. He begins to see her and converse with her, but keeps reminding himself that she isn't actually real. Having Miranda like this is beneficial for Felix: “she gently scolded him when he didn't eat enough” (46), she warns him not to exhaust himself, encourages him to eat more vegetables and he finds in her a conversation partner . By killing her, Atwood paradoxically gives her greater importance in the story. The affection of Felix or Prospero in the main plot towards Miranda is emphasized. Interestingly, Atwood merges the characters of Ariel and Miranda by making her a spirit. When Felix leaves a copy of The Tempest lying around, Miranda finds it and insists on playing Miranda, but Felix forbids it; However, when she decides to dub Ariel, he supports her: “She has found the only role that will allow her to integrate perfectly into rehearsals. Only he will be able to see her, from time to time. Only he will hear it. It will be invisible to all other eyes. “My brave spirit! “he cries” (180). The use of language mimics that of Shakespeare's play: "invisible to all other eyes" (1.2.443-4) and "my brave spirit!" » (1.2.326) are literal quotes, both addressed to Ariel in the original work. During the performance of the play with the prisoners, Miranda is actually present and her voice can also be heard by the others. She delivers her lines and moves the action forward. At the end of the novel, Felix realizes that he must let go of the past: “What was he thinking – keeping her attached to him all this time? Force her to do what he wants? How selfish he was! Yes, he loves her: his beloved, his only daughter. But he knows what she really wants and what he owes her. “To the elements, be free,” he told her. And finally, she is” (Atwood 283). Once again, a direct quote from the original play is used to free Miranda/Ariel. Assigning the role of Ariel – which is crucially important in Shakespeare's work – to Miranda gives her a bigger and more important role to play in Atwood's story. Miranda is placed front and center as a key motivator of the novel's main plot, from beginning to end. The novel's metafictional subplot, the staging of The Tempest by the inmates Felix works with, also features a Miranda. The inmates who will play the role.