Dead Hand Rising: Dialectics Beyond Last Wills in The Merchant of Venice and The Tempest

Abstract

The Tempest instantiates Shakespeare’s penchant for the young, in battles of will between forebears and followers. While Prospero’s magic seems to render his will omnipotent, the break in the Masque, at 4.1, undermines that appearance, as well as revealing that will’s partiality; Prospero’s will vis-à-vis his daughter is suggested as potentially incestuous. The play’s happy ending is reached through a marriage alliance beyond the wills of Prospero and his ancient enemy, Naples. Here is further evidence of Shakespeare’s penchant for the young: those whose freedom relies on a space protected from the forebear’s will. The broader political relevance of tensions between the wills of forebears and followers is underlined, not only by the crown of Naples’ dependence on the outcome of a passionate father—daughter parting, but also by Prospero’s musings, in 5.1, on the kind of law that would be given by elves who leave no footprints. A forebear giving such a law would refrain from enforcing his will on following generations. Prospero’s magic is representation without enforcement, a lightening of passing law.