The Culture Of The And The Tempest By William Shakespeare

The culture of a space has a powerful influence on the people inhabiting that space, an influence that alters inhabitants to varying degrees. Through the writings of Kant, Montaigne, and Shakespeare–in particular their works What is Enlightenment?, Of Cannibals, and The Tempest, respectively–this idea of cultural influence is able to take shape. Culture is something that all people carry with them, pieces of places and people they have known and groups to which they have been a member. The natural state of people is twisted by culture until there default worldview is changed as if looking through a bias lens. All people carry with them a view of normalcy that is a product of their environments. Montaigne presents this argument about culture’s creation of a bias lens in Of Cannibals. The reader is forced to acknowledge that a view of barbarism stems from what is unfamiliar. Cannibalism is not a norm of the reader’s culture, and as such the reader is forced to question why cannibalism appears so barbaric when compared with the atrocities of their own culture. The familiarity of the evil that is known is what makes that evil appear less barbaric. In reality, and as Montaigne helps his reader to see, the forms of torture that are familiar to the reader are no less indecent than the cannibalistic society, but the culture that practices cannibalism seems uncivilized because to the reader because cannibalism is something taboo in their culture. Societal structures and norm create aShow MoreRelatedComparing The Cultures of The Tempest and Ours in The Tempest by William Shakespeare894 Words   |  4 PagesComparing The Cultures of The Tempest and Ours in The Tempest b y William Shakespeare All men are created equal is one of the declarations that American culture is built on. 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