I haven't seen anyone else post about this yet, so I will throw it out there. There seem to be some interesting connections between Shakespeare's play "The Tempest" and Lost.
Have a quick read through the synopsis at Wikipedia here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tempest

It is a very complex, weird, and confusing plot, which is why it is one of my least favorite plays by Shakespeare, but some things stood out to me in the plot:
-People stranded on an island and then having the power to make others get stranded there too (I know Ben didn't call the plane or the freighter to the island, but things definitely are drawn there, like the Black Rock, Oceanic 815, etc.)
- The people who are stranded are divided into 3 groups, each not knowing that the others are still alive (like the Losties, Tailies, and Others)
- The play then follows those three story lines (much like Lost did in its early seasons)

Those are the main ones that stood out to me, but there are others.
Anyone have any thoughts? This certainly isn't the first literary reference Lost has had.

This is probably one of my favorite Shakespeare play, but I'm having a hard time imagining Ben as Prospero, even though he does have a little girl and an excellent library on the Island.

Rereading this bit of the synopsis made me smile at the thought of Ben arranging the Oceanic Six's return to the outside world:

Prospero manipulates the course of his enemies' path through the island, drawing them closer and closer to him. In the conclusion, all the main characters are brought together before Prospero, who forgives Alonso (as well as his own brother's betrayal, and warns Antonio and Sebastian about further attempts at betrayal) and finally uses his magic to ensure that everyone returns to Italy.

There's a lot of revolutions, betrayals, a staged shipwreck, a deposed ruler and complicated family relations etc. We could be here all night. :biggrin:

It definitely relates in a few ways. Ben would be the obvious choice for the Prospero role but he hasn't really been betrayed as of yet. We also don't have a Caliban, for me the most important character in the play. Nor do we have an Ariel.

It definitely relates in a few ways. Ben would be the obvious choice for the Prospero role but he hasn't really been betrayed as of yet. We also don't have a Caliban, for me the most important character in the play. Nor do we have an Ariel.

"Prospero maintains Ariel's loyalty by repeatedly promising to release the "airy spirit" from servitude, but continually defers that promise to a future date"

Sounds a lot like Juliet to me.

Something else I find interesting comes from a film inspired by The Tempest, the sci-fi classic, Forbidden Planet. In the film, the character inspired by Prospero, Dr. Morbius, has a tie to a murderous invisible monster. The monster is controlled by the inner desires of his subconscious mind (the Id).


DLKD-

I see Ben more as a Caliban than a Prospero. Remember that Prospero was a magician, Caliban the unwanted monster child who loved Miranda, but Miranda loved and was loved by a shipwrecked prince. That gives us Ben, Miranda and Goodwin (now Jack) but with no magician in sight. My money's on Jacob or Richard.

"Prospero maintains Ariel's loyalty by repeatedly promising to release the "airy spirit" from servitude, but continually defers that promise to a future date"

Sounds a lot like Juliet to me.


DLKD-

Well...in The Tempest, the spirit of Ariel disguised itself as a harpy to deliver a message from Prospero. I think Harper may qualify, since she delivered a message for Ben.

I see Ben more as a Caliban than a Prospero. Remember that Prospero was a magician, Caliban the unwanted monster child who loved Miranda, but Miranda loved and was loved by a shipwrecked prince. That gives us Ben, Miranda and Goodwin (now Jack) but with no magician in sight. My money's on Jacob or Richard.

Yes, someone like Jacob does fit the "deposed ruler" bill better and Ben is definitely uwanted monster who pines for a girl who doesn't love him.

As for Ariel, I thought Ben promising Locke to reveal the secrets of the Island and the Island itself make for a better parallel, especially since Ben is only using Jacob to manipulate the Others and the Island doesn't actually like him (hence the tumor).

It is a very complex, weird, and confusing plot, which is why it is one of my least favorite plays by Shakespeare, but some things stood out to me in the plot:
-People stranded on an island and then having the power to make others get stranded there too (I know Ben didn't call the plane or the freighter to the island, but things definitely are drawn there, like the Black Rock, Oceanic 815, etc.)
- The people who are stranded are divided into 3 groups, each not knowing that the others are still alive (like the Losties, Tailies, and Others)
- The play then follows those three story lines (much like Lost did in its early seasons) Those are some interesting parallels, especially the one about people being drawn to the Island by an outside force. Ben really doesn’t seem to be the “force” behind it, but I’ll bet the Island itself, or maybe whoever those Whisperers are, or maybe even Fate, had a hand in making these people end up on this Island (though I REALLY rooting for Free Will).

"Prospero maintains Ariel's loyalty by repeatedly promising to release the "airy spirit" from servitude, but continually defers that promise to a future date"

Sounds a lot like Juliet to me.It sure does.

I see Ben more as a Caliban than a Prospero. Remember that Prospero was a magician, Caliban the unwanted monster child who loved Miranda, but Miranda loved and was loved by a shipwrecked prince. That gives us Ben, Miranda and Goodwin (now Jack) but with no magician in sight. My money's on Jacob or Richard.The “unloved monster” sure seems to fit Ben, and Juliet and Jack are a good fit for Miranda and Ferdinand, Jack even more so, as he is one of those who was forced to the Island as Ferdinand was. As for no magician though, if this episode does follow some themes in Shakespeare’s play, it doesn’t have to follow them all, but if there had to be a magician, I’d say the Island would fit that part to a “T”.



I haven’t read The Tempest in years, and don’t remember it fondly enough to reread it, so I took a trip down memory lane via Sparknotes (http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/tempest/themes.html) and found some other things that might relate to this episode:

The Illusion of Justice
The Tempest tells a fairly straightforward story involving an unjust act, the usurpation of Prospero’s throne by his brother, and Prospero’s quest to re-establish justice by restoring himself to power. However, the idea of justice that the play works toward seems highly subjective, since this idea represents the view of one character who controls the fate of all the other characters. Though Prospero presents himself as a victim of injustice working to right the wrongs that have been done to him, Prospero’s idea of justice and injustice is somewhat hypocritical—though he is furious with his brother for taking his power, he has no qualms about enslaving Ariel and Caliban in order to achieve his ends.That sounds a helluva lot like Ben. So far we’ve seen him do horrible things, but he always had his “reasons” – tricking Juliet into coming to the Island, only to keep her there, under the pretense of helping pregnant women on the Island. Though like Prospero, it seems, after tonight’s episode, that Ben was really just doing it for himself. He keeps her captive to meet his own ends, just as Prospero did Caliban and Ariel. Seems as if Ben is working on his own illusion of justice off the Island too – he’s got a list of people that need to be terminated, justifying it to Sayid by telling him that doing so would save Sayid’s friends.


At many moments throughout the play, Prospero’s sense of justice seems extremely one-sided and mainly involves what is good for Prospero. Moreover, because the play offers no notion of higher order or justice to supersede Prospero’s interpretation of events, the play is morally ambiguous.THAT sounds just like LOST. Every character we’ve met on LOST seems to be a certain way, until we see their flashback, and all becomes clear. As mentioned above, Prospero’s actions are one-sided and benefit Prospero, and the same could be said for Ben. Is it possible the writers will take it a step further than Shakespeare did and clear up Ben’s ‘moral ambiguity’ by the end of the show? Or are they going to leave us wondering?


The Tempest
The tempest . . . symbolizes the suffering Prospero endured, and which he wants to inflict on others . . . Prospero must make his enemies suffer as he has suffered so that they will learn from their suffering, as he has from his. The tempest is also a symbol of Prospero’s magic, and of the frightening, potentially malevolent side of his power.That sounded a lot like the scene where Ben drags Juliet out to see Goodwin’s body. He could have just told her, that would have been bad enough, but he made her suffer even more by showing her his body, and letting her know he died because of her, because she hurt Ben – because she belonged to Ben. And that part of the scene where Ben says, “Take as much time as you need.” – that was just . . . creepy. As if he didn’t hold it against Juliet, as if he was just ‘teaching her a lesson’ – by making her suffer.


The Game of Chess
The object of chess is to capture the king . . . Prospero has caught the king . . . This is the final move in Prospero’s plot, which began with the tempest. He has maneuvered the different passengers of Alonso’s ship around the island with the skill of a great chess player.Aside from the obvious black and white symbolism, replace the word “maneuvered” with “manipulated” and that last line could easily be applied to Ben - we even had a mobisode where he played chess with Jack (and won). Ben is the ultimate chess player on the Island.


Also mentioned under the “Themes, Motifs, and Symbols” section was “The Difficulty of Distinguishing ‘Men’ from ‘Monsters’” which again sounds exactly like the theme the writers of LOST express through every one of the characters.


Maybe that’s way too far to read into it – maybe it’s as simple as the hatch being named “The Tempest” because that’s what the releasing the toxic gas would seem like. Or maybe it’s just nod the play, which seems to share many of the same themes as LOST itself. All these correlations seem to fit Ben, and though he was a significant part in The Other Woman, it really was a Juliet-centric episode.

But those parallels, they sure are interesting.

[QUOTE=KarnoDal;1805413
Something else I find interesting comes from a film inspired by The Tempest, the sci-fi classic, Forbidden Planet. In the film, the character inspired by Prospero, Dr. Morbius, has a tie to a murderous invisible monster. The monster is controlled by the inner desires of his subconscious mind (the Id).


DLKD-[/QUOTE]


Exactly what came to my mind when I heard the tempest refered to! It all seems to fit too, doesn't it! Morbius was possesive & protective of his daughter & when he saw her falling for the earth ship's captain, he subconsciously sent out the "monster from the id."

Yeah, given what I know about the Tempest, I am surprised it has taken this long for them to make a reference to it.

Well...in The Tempest, the spirit of Ariel disguised itself as a harpy to deliver a message from Prospero. I think Harper may qualify, since she delivered a message for Ben.I thought this was the most direct reference specifically from tonight's episode.

The Tempest/Lost comparisons have interested me for some time. But it isn't easy. There are many general comparisons, but no direct answers. Much like Shakespeare's writing Lost defies any single interpretation. Much like Shakespeare the writers of lost have borrowed and stolen from many many sources. They have shown their prowess and knowledge of contemporary literature, classical literature, religious interpretation, mythology, etc. Just to name a few.

There's no doubt The Tempest is a source. But I'm left with the complexity of the plot and the writing are the greatest comparisons.

Isn't a Tempest also some sorta of electrical storm?

Probably more like a wind storm.

I see Ben more as a Caliban than a Prospero. Remember that Prospero was a magician, Caliban the unwanted monster child who loved Miranda, but Miranda loved and was loved by a shipwrecked prince. That gives us Ben, Miranda and Goodwin (now Jack) but with no magician in sight. My money's on Jacob or Richard.

i didn't know The tempest but from the sum up i read i agree with you! And i see jacob as Prospero!;)

An interesting side note about the Tempest but I have no idea if its relevent to the show or not.

Some sources say it was based on the wreck of the Sea Venture off the coast of Bermuda. Everyone survived...even a dog! They spent nine months there...a man named Stephen Hopkins tried to start a mutiny and was almost hanged for it.

He was saved from the noose and made it back to England. He later returned to the 'New World' with his family..on the Mayflower. He wasn't religious..he was just along for the money and the adventure.

Some say he was the inspiration for Stephano..the drunken butler in The Tempest. I have no idea...but the reason I know all this is because he was my great something grandfather.

Its kind of funny but I've known about this for some time and have watched this show from day 1... this is the first time I saw any parallels to LOST..both in the play and in the true story that supposedly inspired it.

"Prospero maintains Ariel's loyalty by repeatedly promising to release the "airy spirit" from servitude, but continually defers that promise to a future date"

Sounds a lot like Juliet to me.

Something else I find interesting comes from a film inspired by The Tempest, the sci-fi classic, Forbidden Planet. In the film, the character inspired by Prospero, Dr. Morbius, has a tie to a murderous invisible monster. The monster is controlled by the inner desires of his subconscious mind (the Id).


DLKD-


Yup!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbidden_Planet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbidden_Planet)

Reading the plot synopsis a few things leap out.

Morbius tells the Commander he has been reconstructing the history of the Krell, the long-extinct natives of the planet. They had possessed a technology far in advance of that of the humans, but had all died 200,000 years before in one mysterious night of destruction.

The party then leave the Krell lab and are taken on a tour of the Krell facilities. This includes an underground machine in the shape of a cube 20 miles square, powered by 9200 thermonuclear reactors, which has been operating, self-repairing and self-maintaining, its purpose unknown, since the extinction of the Krell. The sweeping semi-animated effects shots convey images of enormous, miles-deep shafts with huge structures moving up and down, transferring powerful arcs of energy. Power meters indicate the tremendous energy this vast machine could generate, each meter representing ten times the power of the previous one.

Just some of the other things that "leapt out".

Well...in The Tempest, the spirit of Ariel disguised itself as a harpy to deliver a message from Prospero. I think Harper may qualify, since she delivered a message for Ben.

Right on the money there, shootfire.

The Ariel-Juliet connection is also pretty strong. Perhaps all of the Others can be linked to The Tempest. Probably not, but just a thought. What is also interesting is that The Tempest is a romance, and that would fit with much of what we saw in The Other Woman.

Peace
M

I really like this theory as well!! wow.. I am never not going to be lost with lost!

TPTB are nerds. We've established that. :biggrin:

An interesting side note about the Tempest but I have no idea if its relevent to the show or not.

Some sources say it was based on the wreck of the Sea Venture off the coast of Bermuda. Everyone survived...even a dog! They spent nine months there...a man named Stephen Hopkins tried to start a mutiny and was almost hanged for it.

He was saved from the noose and made it back to England. He later returned to the 'New World' with his family..on the Mayflower. He wasn't religious..he was just along for the money and the adventure.

Some say he was the inspiration for Stephano..the drunken butler in The Tempest. I have no idea...but the reason I know all this is because he was my great something grandfather.

Hey, elf! It's good to see you again. :smile: Wow, that's incredibly cool. Hehe. So they had a Vincent of their own?

The imprisoned Ariel for me would be Jacob/the Island, and I was thinking that while I can see Jack as Ferdinand...

the son and heir of King Alonso of Naples. Ferdinand is the first to leap overboard during the tempest; and in keeping with Prospero's plan, he lands on the island alone, separated from his father's group. Ariel uses song to convince the youth that his father is dead and that the island is enchanted...

Juliet is no sweet, innocent Miranda who also kicks butt when need be. That's Alex for those of you who think of Ben as more of a Prospero than Caliban, so I guess that would make sweet, dorky, breathing-through-his-mouth Karl Ferdinand. :D

I was just about to post this same thread! I've never read it, but read the synopsis on wikipedia, and was struck by the many parallels. I'm assuming Ben is the sorcerer Prospero. Jacob/Smokey is his enslaved monster Caliban. Juliette is the spirit Ariel he freed from captivity and strings along with promises of being able to leave the island. What I haven't seen mentioned in the thread yet, he used his magic to know that his enemies were passing by, and to caused a storm to make them crash on the island, and then to separate into two groups, each thinking the other was dead!

i didn't know The tempest but from the sum up i read i agree with you! And i see jacob as Prospero!;)

same here

caliban = smokey
prospero = jacob
ariel = ben

but im no expert

"The imprisoned Ariel for me would be Jacob/the Island" I thought this also.

Wow, Wow, and Wow!!! That's crazy!!

I've read Tempest years ago, so I'm not certain on this but isn't it the Tempest which brings things and people to the island? Could the Tempest station have the same ability?

Another thing... In the end of the play, Prospero was begging the audience to set him free. It sounds like Jacob begging help from Locke.

By the way, I heard that Jack Bender has directed an adaptation of Tempest for TV in 90s, and Harold Perrineau was playing Ariel in it =)

I'm glad to see people addressing the chess and brother-betrayal aspects of The Tempest, which I haven't seen raised elsewhere in the discussion of how it might apply to LOST. I'm not so much of one for trying to find direct one-to-one matchups between TT and LOST, but have been thinking more broadly and thematically of how they are enmeshed:

Chess - Is a big deal in TT, and in LOST. In TT, Ferdinand and Miranda actually have their primary courtship over a game of chess. There are scholars who have broken down the play into a series of chess moves (another text scholars have been able to apply this analytical approach to: Through the Looking Glass!).

Brother Betraying Brother - We already have Jacob (and Esau?). We also have a crop of powerful and mysterious fathers who are about the same age (Cooper, Shephard, Widmore). Maybe TT points to a backstory that is not completely unveiled yet, in that some of the power struggle we're witnessing is a family affair.

Natural Man - In TT, Prospero is deposed as the rightful Duke of Milan only to get to the island and depose the island's Natural Man (Caliban) who, with his mother, was previously at the top of the island food chain. This is part of the uncertain ethical terrain that TT negotiates, and that we definitely see shared with LOST. And the notion of Natural Man takes us back to Rousseau (and Hobbes).

The Illusion of Danger - Many times in TT, characters are allowed to feel that they are in true danger when they are not. This is part of Prospero establishing his power, proving his superiority, demonstrating the full capacity of his 'magic' (for what we later learn is a final exercise before he 'drowns his book'), and dominating the moral landscape with his enforced 'lessons'. But we've seen this many times in LOST as well, and I've had the feeling many times that the characters are being tested within what they believe is a perilous setting but with non-perilous intent.

Latin: tempestas is season, weather, storm.
tempus is time.
So I was trying to figure out what this had to do with an electrical station. I found a reference to Transient ElectroMagnetic Pulse Surveillance Technology (http://www.fas.org/irp/program/security/tempest.htm)(TEMPEST).

Never had to read it but it sounds like a spot on match to me.

caliban = smokey
prospero = jacob
ariel = ben

Excellent excellent OP!! Thanks!

Okay, here's my own interpretation of the lineup for the Tempest cast:


Prospero (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prospero) = Ben
Miranda (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miranda_%28Shakespeare%29) = Juliet
Ariel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariel_%28Shakespeare%29) = Smokey
Sycorax (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sycorax_%28Shakespeare%29) = Jacob
Caliban (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caliban_%28character%29) = Mikhail
Antonio = Jack
Stephano (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephano%28Shakespeare%29) and Trinculo = Charlie and Hurley
King Alonso = Locke
Gonzolo = Boone
Antonio and Sebastian = Sawyer and Sayid

Here's the synopsis of the Tempest (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tempest#Synopsis) for reference to these characters. Again, this is just my own interpretation, meaning I don't think it is "correct" or anything more than just simple fun. :)