Choose Your Own Tempest

Welcome to an adventure fraught with tension and well tension. In this adventure you can play as one or several characters to see all sides of the story. Or well that is the eventual goal. Please keep in mind that there is a ‘traditional path’ to take which follows the plot of the Original Tempest very closely or you can avoid that path. It’s up to you and your will. So which path will you choose? [[The Ship]] [[a Person]]

Congratulations! You are tasked with the honor of carrying the King of Naples and his entourage. It's been many years as a wooden servant to the Crown and this is your last voyage. You can recall the feeling of being a tree and listening to the sounds around you, but you can now hear a familiar sound: //A tempestuous noise of thunder and lightning// [[1]] What do you do? [[Continue on boat-ing]] [[PANIC!!]]

“The Tempest - Act 1, Scene 1: Folger Shakespeare Library.” Act 1, Scene 1 | Folger Shakespeare Library, www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/the-tempest/read/1/1/. Accessed 3 May 2023. [[The Ship]]

You hear a clatter and pounding on your deck. What are the Duke of Milan and King of Naples doing? Distantly you hear: //All lost! To prayers, to prayers! All lost!// [[1]] Suppose that means it’s time to [[PANIC!!]]

Congratulations! Your tenure as a boat has come to an end. You feel the wood creak and crack even as the sea floor rushes to meet you. You will forever be separated from your other half, torn asunder and left to drift across the sea floor. One day someone might find your remains however most likely you are doomed to be forgotten in the annals of history. It’s okay. I’m sure someone will mourn you. Or they would if you weren’t an inanimate object. Do you want to try to be [[a Person]]?

Oh wow! You've been born! And lived an indeterminate amount of years! What name have you suffered with? [[Miranda]] [[Prospero]]

You are called Miranda? That’s cool. How do you want to do this? [[I’m too cool to be a gentle and compassionate 15 year old, I wanna rock!]] I'm a [[compassionate, starry-eyed girl]]

As Prospero you have a servant of the air and a servant of the earth. You also have a daughter called Miranda that you've raised since she was just a toddler on an island in the middle of nowhere. As Miranda looks horrified at the shipwreck occuring in the distance, you internally cackle with glee. Soon revenge will be yours! [[revenge?]]

While this is a fun retelling of Shakespeare’s Tempest Act 1, it will also touch upon some heavy topics. The purpose of this story isn’t just to entertain but also to inform and draw comparisons to real life situations. In this retelling of Shakespeare’s Tempest Prospero is not just the disposed ruler Milan, but also a woman. With Prospero’s character as a Trans-Woman we are going to be able to look at current events through Shakespeare. After all “Nowhere else is there any group of women at all to be compared with those of Shakspere.” [[2]] So shall we begin? [[Choose Your Own Tempest ]] Also the Shakespeare excerpts are pulled from [[3]]

Hapgood, Norman. “Chapter II Ideals of Women.” Why Janet Should Read Shakspere, The Century Co, New York, 1929. [[Disclaimer]]

You are so right. So do you want to [[wait]] and see who is on the ship you and your mother are watching sink or do you want to [[plot]] escape with the disgruntled Caliban?

You know for someone who claims they want to Rock and Roll, you sure are being passive. You might want to try the main plotline as the [[compassionate, starry-eyed girl]]

You've had a lovely childhood Miranda and now you are going to plot against your mother with her treacherous servant Caliban. Caliban has a secret agenda. What is the [[Secert Agenda]]? Do you want to go back to being a [[compassionate, starry-eyed girl]] ?

In the distance a ship is sinking, you swear you heard the faint noises of ship-like panic. Weird. Your beloved Mother is watching the ship sink with you. You ask your Mother to save the ship, if not for the people on board but for your own sake. //O, I have suffered With those that I saw suffer!// After a small speech about how you'd save everyone if you could, your Mother starts to speak. Do you [[listen]] or have an [[internal monolouge]]?

“The Tempest - Act 1, Scene 2: Folger Shakespeare Library.” Act 1, Scene 2 | Folger Shakespeare Library, https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/the-tempest/read/1/2/. Back to being a [[compassionate, starry-eyed girl]]

Your Mother offers you her cloak, reassuring you that no one in the wreck was hurt and begins to tell you a tale of woe. She has hidden your birthright from you in an attempt to protect you [[Look at her in astonishment]]

Did you know that it is rude to talk to yourself while people are speaking to you? if you want to stay here well, you must understand that your Mother is hiding a secret from you. It would behoove you to [[listen]] okay?

Your Mother speaks, a pensive look falling o'er her face. "//The hour’s now come//." [[Pay attention to your heritage]] Ignore your mother and enjoy an [[internal monolouge]]

Your Mother looks fondly at you before the pensive look returns to her face. //Thou wast not out three years old. Thy mother was the Duchess of Milan and a princess of power. My brother and thy uncle, called Antonio— he whom next thyself of all the world I loved, and to him put The manage of my state, as at that time Through all the signories it was the first, The government I cast upon my brother And to my state grew stranger, being transported And rapt in secret studies. Thy false uncle—// She pauses for a moment before [[continuing]]

Your mother looks pained as she recounts her betrayal by her brother: // Being once perfected how to grant suits, How to deny them, who t’ advance, and who To trash for overtopping, new created The creatures that were mine, I say, or changed ’em, Or else new formed ’em, having both the key Of officer and office, set all hearts i’ th’ state To what tune pleased his ear, that now he was The ivy which had hid my princely trunk And sucked my verdure out on ’t. I, thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated To closeness and the bettering of my mind With that which, but by being so retired, O’erprized all popular rate, in my false brother Awaked an evil nature, and my trust.// [[listen in rapt attention]]

It's like a story out of one of the books your Mother reads you to show you the world. Now stop daydreaming and listen: //A falsehood in its contrary as great As my trust was, which had indeed no limit, A confidence sans bound. He being thus lorded, Not only with what my revenue yielded But what my power might else exact, To credit his own lie, he did believe He was indeed the Duke, out o’ th’ substitution And executing th’ outward face of royalty With all prerogative. Hence, his ambition growing— Of temporal royalties He thinks me now incapable; confederates, So dry he was for sway, wi’ th’ King of Naples To give him annual tribute, do him homage, Subject his coronet to his crown, and bend This King of Naples, being an enemy To me inveterate, hearkens my brother’s suit,// [[The King of Naples sided with your evil uncle?! It's a conspiracy!]]

As your Mother continues her tale of woe, you start to wonder what this all has to do with the shipwreck you watched sink. //Which was that he, in lieu o’ th’ premises Of homage and I know not how much tribute, Should presently extirpate me and mine Out, and confer fair Milan, With all the honors, on my brother; whereon, A treacherous army levied, one midnight Fated to th’ purpose did Antonio open The gates of Milan, and i’ th’ dead of darkness The ministers for th’ purpose hurried thence Me and thy crying self. In few, they hurried us aboard a bark, Bore us some leagues to sea, where they prepared A rotten carcass of a butt, not rigged, Nor tackle, sail, nor mast; the very rats Instinctively have quit it. There they hoist us To cry to th’ sea that roared to us, to sigh To th’ winds, whose pity, sighing back again,// [[How did we survive?]]

With a deep breathe your Mother started to wind down her tale. //By providence divine. Some food we had, and some fresh water, that A noble Neapolitan, Gonzalo, Out of his charity, who being then appointed Master of this design, did give us, with Rich garments, linens, stuffs, and necessaries, Which since have steaded much. So, of his gentleness, Knowing I loved my books, he furnished me From mine own library with volumes that I prize above my duchessdom. Here in this island we arrived, and here Have I, thy schoolmaster, made thee more profit Than other princes can, that have more time For vainer hours and tutors not so careful. Know thus far forth: By accident most strange, bountiful Fortune, Now my dear lady, hath mine enemies Brought to this shore; and by my prescience I find my zenith doth depend upon A most auspicious star, whose influence If now I court not, but omit, my fortunes Will ever after droop.// [[How does she know that her enemies are on that ship? Did she sink it?]]

Your Mother senses your train of thought and her tone switches to that of the calming lullabyes: // Here cease more questions. Thou art inclined to sleep. ’Tis a good dullness, And give it way. I know thou canst not choose.// Your eyes start to droop and before you lose conciousness fully, you feel your Mother grab her cloak back. Time to dream of being [[a Person]]

Yes Prospero! Revenge. Your brother Antonio stole your Duchessdom by conspiring with your enemy the King of Naples! Where is your anger? [[I'm not sure why I'm angry?]] [[Embrace the anger]]

Prospero, your brother took advantage of the King of Naples' policies regarding people of your gender identity. [[How so?]]

Vengence will be yours and it will be sweet. [[Time for Miranda to sleep and for you to have a discussion with your airy servant.]]

Around the time you began to retreat into your library, The King of Naples began to slowly restrict the knowledge of his subjects. It started with the banning of the knowledge that people could be born the wrong gender and that every relationship must look like a man and a woman. [[That's terrible!]] [[Real World Example]]

It is indeed terrible Prospero. And since you were born as Antonio's Brother, when you embraced your womanhood it felt like a betrayal to him. He began to plot against you then. [[This is a bit meta]]

In the state of Florida, the governor Ron DeSantis was able to claim another victory in his fight against children learning about gender identites and sexual orientation. Originally, his infamous 'Don't Say Gay' Bill targeted Kindergarten through third grade but the state board approved an expension that covers the remaining grades. So in Florida sexual orientation and gender identity are forbidden from being taught in grades K-12. The only listed exception is if the instruction is mandated by state standards or as part of the optional reproductive health education. Izaguirre, Anthony. “Florida Expands 'Don't Say Gay'; House OKS Anti-LGBTQ Bills.” AP NEWS, Associated Press, 19 Apr. 2023, https://apnews.com/article/desantis-florida-dont-say-gay-ban-684ed25a303f83208a89c556543183cb. [[That's terrible!]]

Well that's because while you are learning about your history, you are also telling Miranda about how you came to inhabit this island. It's important that you realize that while the targets of your vengence are headed to the island you must be wary. [[Time for Miranda to sleep and for you to have a discussion with your airy servant.]]

After spelling your child to sleep. It comes time to conspire with your servant of air. [[Come away, servant, come. I am ready now.]] Approach, my Ariel. Come.

Your servant speaks: // All hail, great master! Grave sir, hail! I come To answer thy best pleasure. Be ’t to fly, To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride On the curled clouds, to thy strong bidding task Ariel and all his quality.// [[ Hast thou, spirit, performed to point the tempest that I bade thee?]]

Why are you asking questions? How do you think the ship sank? //To every article. I boarded the King’s ship; All but mariners Plunged in the foaming brine and quit the vessel, Then all afire with me. The King’s son, Ferdinand, With hair up-staring—then like reeds, not hair— Was the first man that leaped; cried “Hell is empty, And all the devils are here.”// [[Why, that’s my spirit! But was not this nigh shore?]]

It's time to make sure your enemies are safe. Question that air spirit! //Close by, my mistress. Not a hair perished. On their sustaining garments not a blemish, But fresher than before; and, as thou bad’st me, In troops I have dispersed them ’bout the isle. The King’s son have I landed by himself, Whom I left cooling of the air with sighs In an odd angle of the isle, and sitting, His arms in this sad knot. // [[Of the King’s ship, The mariners say how thou hast disposed, And all the rest o’ th’ fleet.]]

// Safely in harbor Is the King’s ship. In the deep nook The mariners all under hatches stowed, Who, with a charm joined to their suffered labor, I have left asleep. And for the rest o’ th’ fleet, Which I dispersed, they all have met again And are upon the Mediterranean float, Bound sadly home for Naples, Supposing that they saw the King’s ship wracked And his great person perish.// [[Ariel, thy charge Exactly is performed. But there’s more work.]]

//That’s my noble master. What shall I do? Say, what? What shall I do? Go make thyself like a nymph o’ th’ sea. Be subject To no sight but thine and mine, invisible To every eyeball else. Go, take this shape,// [[And hither come in ’t. Go, hence with diligence!]]

You watch Ariel leave and nudge your child awake. [[Awake, dear heart, awake. Thou hast slept well. Awake.]]

You watch as Miranda blinks awake. Do you feel any sort of guilty for essentially drugging your child? Oh pay attention she speaks to you! // The strangeness of your story put Heaviness in me.// [[Shake it off.]]

Congratulations! Your time as Prospero has come to an end. Mayhaps you'd like to reread the[[Disclaimer]]?

You lean closer to Caliban and listen as they tell you the people from the ship are coming to save you. [[save me?]]

Caliban starts to talk about the reason your Mother was really expelled from Milan. "It wasn't just the books, nor was it your uncle. Your so called mother was born a man" [[What does that mean???]]

Caliban cackles evilly. "Why Miranda it's simple. Your Mother is really your Father and the people on the ship are going to save you from his bad influence." [[But the ship wrecked?]] [[I don't need saving!]]

"Oh my dear, it's fine. I'll keep you safe while we wait for the nice men to save you. Now sleep" [[Sleep and learn about real world atrocities]]

Caliban's face fills with an evil grin. "That doesn't matter." And suddenly you feel your eyes getting heavy. But wait. You have to. Warn.... [[Sleep and learn about real world atrocities]]

The Florida Legislature aims to make gender-affirming care for minors a form of child abuse. Which means that it has the potential to "strip parental rights from parents who support their transgender children" it would inflict "criminal penalties on providers who give gender-affirming care; it would take licenses away from those providers; and it would prohibit Medicare from covering gender-affirming care for transgender youth or adults." But where does that stop? How long before these lawas targeting Transfolx become more wide spread? Breaking: Florida Senate passes extreme gender-affirming care ban. Human Rights Campaign. (n.d.). https://www.hrc.org/press-releases/breaking-florida-senate-passes-extreme-gender-affirming-care-ban [[Disclaimer]]