Island, Storm, and Moral Environment: An Ecocritical Reading of The Tempest

Authors

  • Sharif Mohammad Shahidullah BGMEA University of Fashion and Technology (BUFT), Bangladesh
  • Md Nurul Islam King Saud University, Saudi Arabia
  • Mohammad Samsul Arefeen University of Bisha, Saudi Arabia
  • Nusrat Jahan BGMEA University of Fashion and Technology (BUFT), Bangladesh
  • Khalid Ibn Hassan ASSIST Community Services Centre, Canada

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53103/cjlls.v6i3.280

Keywords:

The Tempest, William Shakespeare, Ecocritical, Nature, Anthropocentrism

Abstract

The Tempest by William Shakespeare is an opulent basis of ecocritical analysis since it is a work that discovers the affiliation between nature and humans. This paper searches the interface of environmental forces and moral actions, with the island milieu which raises storm and the ethical and social progressions they produce. Applying a present-day ecocritical framework, the research discovers the role of ecological phenomena, such as landscape, storms and isolation as active forces that impact character development, ethical verdict, and narrative termination. Close textual analysis is used as the methodology of the present study, which is supported by contemporary and historical ecocritical literature, to ask question that the human accomplishments and natural forces are interlinked. Results reveal that Shakespeare sets nature not as a locale but as a dynamic intermediary of ethical knowledge, specifically in the ethical overhaul of Prospero and the exposure of hubris, and reconciliation and human ambition. The storms, island setting, spatial isolation are all instruments of insightful training with ecological ethics that emphasises the consequences of the inevitability of environmental awareness and anthropocentrism. It is proposed that future studies should apply this ecocritical approach to comparative studies of other Shakespearean comedies and tragedies, with a particular focus on the timelessness of early modern ecological consciousness. Finally, this paper shows that The Tempest prefigures the ethical and didactic agency of nature, providing clues to the ethical and ecological interrelations that are at the heart of human experience.

References

Adams, J. (2012). Shakespeare and ecology of drama. London: Routledge. pp. 200–230.

Anderson, M. (2010). Ethical mediators in early modern drama: Storms. Shakespeare Quarterly, 61(3), 205–225.

Arden Shakespeare. (2006). The Tempest (3 rd ed.). London: Arden Shakespeare.

Bennett, A. (2016). Early modern literature, nature, and ethics. ELH: English Literary History, 83(1), 55–90.

Bradbrook, M. (2001). Shakespearean late plays and their themes and structures. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 55–60.

Buell, L. (2005). The future of environmental criticism: Environmental crisis and literary imagination. Malden, MA: Blackwell. pp. 2–25.

Cole, R. (2017). Shakespeare and ethics and ecology. Journal of Early Modern Studies, 6(2), 140–175.

Fisher, T. (2013). Islands and moral landscapes in The Tempest. Renaissance Drama, 41, 112–140.

Foster, H. (2009). Interdependence of humans and the environment in Shakespearean drama. Shakespearean Ecology, 3(4), 330–355.

Garrard, G. (2012). Ecocriticism. London: Routledge. pp. 15–35; 40–55.

Kahn, C. (2016). The moral authority and ecological agency of Prospero. Shakespeare, Nature, and Ethics, 11(3), 500–525.

Lee, S. (2009). Liminal islands and early modern ethics. Renaissance Studies, 23(3), 347–370.

Loomba, A. (2002). Colonialism/postcolonialism (2nd ed.). London: Routledge. pp. 45–50.

Martin, R. (2014). The ecological forces in Shakespearean story. Early Modern Literary Studies, 20(1), 80–110.

McAlindon, T. (2014). The didactic force of the storm. Shakespeare Survey, 67, 60–68.

Smith, J. (2015). Shakespearean Island ethics and environmental awareness. Studies in English Literature, 55(1), 50–70.

Taylor, P. (2010). Space, ethics, and environment in early modern drama. Journal of Literary Ecology, 5(1), 25–60.

Wilson, D. (2011). Nature as ethical intermediary in the late Shakespearean plays. Shakespeare Studies, 39, 220–245.

Adams, R. (2015). Ariel, Caliban, and ecological agency. Shakespeare Quarterly, 66(2), 145–170.

Bennett, T. (2012). Moral thinking by the forces of nature. Journal of Early Modern Literature, 7(3), 100125.

Brown, L. (2013). The frailty of man and the stormy world. Shakespeare Research, 22, 80–110.

Foster, K. (2014). The Tempest and nature, pedagogy and moral insight. ELH: English Literary History, 81(4), 350–375.

Garrard, P. (2015). Ecology and literature: Introduction. London: Routledge. pp. 55–90.

Hughes, M. (2013). Ecological and moral interdependence. Renaissance Ecology Review, 9(2), 190–220.

Kahn, R. (2015). The ethics of magical mediation. Shakespearean Ethics, 12(1), 480–510.

Lee, J. (2011). Moral development and spatial isolation. Early Modern Studies Journal, 14(3), 310–340.

McAlindon, S. (2013). The tempest as a pedagogical space. Shakespeare Studies, 41, 50–75.

Smith, A. (2012). Island sceneries and human morals. Journal of Shakespearean Ecology, 2(1), 4570.

Taylor, D. (2013). Ecological imagery in late Shakespeare. Renaissance Literary Ecology, 6(2), 60–95.

Downloads

Published

2026-05-06

How to Cite

Shahidullah, S. M., Islam, M. N., Arefeen, M. S., Jahan, N., & Hassan, K. I. (2026). Island, Storm, and Moral Environment: An Ecocritical Reading of The Tempest. Canadian Journal of Language and Literature Studies, 6(3), 85–96. https://doi.org/10.53103/cjlls.v6i3.280

Issue

Section

Articles