Signet Essay Contest Winner 2017: Gerard Mijares

Gerard Mijares

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The works of William Shakespeare are held in high esteem for their diverse casts and distinct characters, a fact exemplified through Trinculo and Stephano, the pair of blundering buffoons of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. On the surface, this minor comic duo of jester and butler exists merely to lighten the mood between more significant scenes or perhaps to afford the more prominent actors time to change into their next costumes. A deeper read into the text, however, reveals that Trinculo’s and Stephano’s drunken misadventures tell a meaningful message in their own right. Every line of The Tempest bears significance crucial to understanding the work as a whole, and those of Trinculo and Stephano are no exception—in fact, their actions reveal more about the play’s meaning and characters than the two themselves could ever fathom.

Stephano and Trinculo are first introduced to the audience in the second scene of the play’s second act. Following The Tempest’s titular tumult, the two find themselves stranded on an unnamed island and separated from the nobility of Naples, who would usually keep the pair in line. They then come across each other as well as the downtrodden Caliban, who immediately affiliates himself with the newcomers. Caliban’s willingness to place himself in subservience to a complete stranger marks Stephano as a foil to Prospero, the protagonist, who took Caliban into his service several years prior to the events of the play. Prospero, upon finding himself dethroned from his position as Duke of Milan and exiled to a faraway island, begins a colonization of his new prison, establishing dominance over the native populations, from the isle’s whimsical spirits to the lowly Caliban. While Prospero is a reasonably benevolent ruler, his domineering nature is antagonistic to Caliban’s very livelihood. Prior to Prospero’s arrival, Caliban lived an idyllic lifestyle, free of all responsibility. Under Prospero, however, Caliban is saddled with duties, and it is in fact during one of these, the gathering of firewood, that he first meets Trinculo and Stephano. Stephano, mistaking Caliban for “some monster of the isle,” attempts his own sort of colonization, using a bottle of wine in order to tame and capture the beast. Caliban worships Stephano as “a brave god” who “bears celestial liquor,” but it is more than the alcohol that sways him from Prospero to Stephano. While Prospero maintains a rather overbearing presence on the island, Stephano presents a laxer alternative more analogous to Caliban’s original lifestyle. Furthermore, although Stephano treats Caliban with much less respect than Prospero did, his unruly nature allows Caliban more autonomy than Prospero’s calculating leadership—in fact, Caliban likely holds more influence over Stephano than the other way around. And so, Caliban decides to abandon his former master to tag along with the drunken jester and butler.

This odd trio next appears in the third act’s second scene. Here, Caliban tells the other two of Prospero, calling him “a sorcerer that by his cunning hath cheated [Caliban] of the island.” He then convinces the other two to help him murder Prospero, promising that Stephano would become the new leader of the island. The idea that the three could ever succeed in such an endeavor is, quite deliberately so, laughable, but their efforts to do so once again parallel the actions of the play’s other characters. The Tempest is full of plots of assassination and upheaval, from the original usurping of the Duke of Milan to Sebastian’s and Antonio’s attempted murder of Alonso in Act II’s first scene. While Stephano’s and Trinculo’s farcical attempts to murder Prospero do serve to elicit a laugh from the audience, it is of equal import that they serve to highlight the senselessness and futility of using violence to take power. This is a theme Shakespeare covered in many of his works, and it once again takes center stage in The Tempest, which focuses on a hero who, having lost everything in his life to treason and betrayal, can find it within himself to not only take back what is his without violence but also forgive each of those who have sinned against him.

At the end of Act IV, Stephano and Trinculo are, of course, caught, and the way in which their plot is foiled provides yet another reflection on other characters. Prospero distracts the two by displaying an assortment of garish clothing on a nearby clothesline, which they immediately start trying to steal. Caliban, to no avail, attempts to get the group back on task, but it is no use: Stephano and Trinculo care more about the superficial trivialities associated with power than actually possessing it. The same can be said of Antonio, for this flaw is his downfall as well. Prospero, as Duke of Milan, became so engrossed with his books and the pursuit of knowledge that he left the matters of the state to his brother Antonio. Antonio became a great politician bearing much influence, but the man desired Prospero’s position more than his power. Thus, he subjugated himself to Alonso, King of Naples, and turned over his power in order to purloin the title of Duke of Milan. Indeed, like Stephano and Trinculo, Antonio was more concerned with the “gaudy garment” of a title than the power and faith that his brother entrusted in him. In the play’s final act, Antonio and Sebastian even have the gall to poke fun at their comic counterparts for the failed insurrection, even though Antonio convinced Sebastian to carry out much the same plot against Alonso mere hours earlier. Trinculo and Stephano may be a pair of bumbling fools, but considering the fact that they at least have the grace to show shame for their misdeeds, it is not a stretch to say that they learned more in their brief time on the island than Antonio learned in the twelve years since he first betrayed his brother.

Comparing Trinculo and Stephano with the other characters of The Tempest allows the perceptive audience member to gain a firmer grasp of what Shakespeare told the masses about key themes such as the purpose of power and the meaning of a title. Generally speaking, although they never manage to get themselves into too much trouble, Trinculo and Stephano provide a comedic dramatization of just what good leaders, or even decent people, should not do. Even so, it can be a little difficult to pin a lot of blame on the duo, even for the characters tasked with reprimanding them. After all, it is a well known fact that it can always prove a bit difficult to get too upset with everybody’s favorite pair of buffoons.