Shakespeare's Politics of Invisibility: Power and Ideology in The Tempest
'Use your authority! (The Tempest, 1.1.20 21) The boatswain's ironic appeal to Gonzalo in the very first scene of The Tempest sets the tone and uncovers the most pervasive theme of the play: power relations. His cruel emphasis on the powerlessness of the Italian statesmen at the hands of the raging elements highlights the complex status of authority. The struggle for the control of power on the island invites socio political readings of the play. In the second part of the twentieth century, one of the main concerns of modern criticism has been to undermine Prospero's dominant discourse, pointing at the emergence of alternative voices. The present article reasserts the supremacy of his vision and its ineluctability by focusing on the paradox of authority, which raises a number of unsolved questions: how does the hard kernel of authority subtly move from invisible power to invisible ideology? But also, how does Prospero manage to sustain a consistent vision and what does it tell us in terms of dynamics of power?