First Impressions of The Tempest

      Let's be honest.  Shakespeare is not for everyone.  The plays are good, the sonnets can be romantic and/or funny, but the language kind of kills you.  My main problem when reading Shakespeare is that I have no clue what the characters are saying! I may be exaggerating a little.  It's not that I can't understand Shakespeare--it might actually be that I don't enjoy deciphering the language and so I want to give up a page into the play. I just don't want to try.  That's probably closer to the truth.
      So, imagine my utter joy when I discovered a place where I could read both an original and a modernized version of the play side by side.  Truly a miraculous find.

      So, The Tempest.  I have never read this play before now.  I'm only through Act 1, but I can see that the play is so far very typical from what I have seen of other Shakespeare works.  The first scene is intriguing, beginning the story with a bang and creating a certain amount of suspense that absorbs the reader into the rest of the play. Shakespeare also often uses elements of magic in his works, as in Macbeth and A Midsummer Night's Dream. I enjoy the character Ariel, Prospero's magical slave, who was responsible for the havoc wreaked on the ship.  Clearly Prospero has some dastardly plan in mind for Ferdinand and company, and I'm excited to see what other magical mischief Prospero and Ariel will create.
      I do have somewhat of a problem with the romance between Miranda and Ferdinand.  Let's all just admit that this whole" love at first sight" thing is completely ridiculous.  What man with half a brain would take one look at a woman and resolve to make her the queen of Naples?  The characters appear to be very narrow-minded in their judgments of others, as when Miranda focuses solely on Ferdinand's appearance to determine his character, saying: "There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple. / If the ill spirit have so fair a house, / Good things will strive to dwell with 't."  Basically, "He's too attractive to be a bad person."  After knowing him for exactly one minute, she is willing to guarantee his goodness, which she bases entirely on his looks.  Ariel enchanted Ferdinand in some way, from what I understand, but I don't think she did it to Miranda.  So, I don't know how Miranda managed to contrive such a deliciously outlandish fallacy in her logic, but I am impressed with her ability to think so shallowly.  That takes talent.  But of course, this type of thing is again a common occurrence in Shakespeare's plays, so I gather that people had much different ideas of love back then than we do now.  I accept that.  I suppose actually developing the romance would leave less time for the development of the rest of the more interesting events in the story, so I'm willing to let this "romance" slide.  Just this once.
      That's all for now on my first impressions. More to come.  Over and out.  Amen.