Discovery: The Tempest & Gran Torino

DISCOVERY TRANSCRIPT

Discoveries are multifarious catalysts for introspection, which prompt a tranformative reconsideration of what is known and an impetus for reform. Exemplified by Shakespeare’s mythopoeic tragicomedy “The Tempest” and Clint Eastwood’s Drama “Gran Torino”, which explore didactic discovery, reflection and the forfeit of prejudicial enmity for humanitarianism.

In The Tempest, Shakespeare establishes a microcosmic isle wherein characters, reconsider pursuits to enrich their humanitarian values through the prompt of catalysts. Usurped by his “false brother” Antonio, Prospero the duke of Milan spent twelve embittered years perfecting his “secret studies”, cherishing the machiavellian constructs of revenge and power, enacting them upon his betrayers. Yet in Act 5 scene 1, as his corruptive “project gathers to a head” the ubiquitous spirit Ariel recounts the sufferance of the courtiers, stating that “if you beheld them, your affections would become tender.” Insisting that “mine would sir, were I human”.

The ironic personification of the impassive spirits empathy, juxtaposed with Prospero’s lascivity for redemption conjures reconsideration within Prospero, who discovers that “the rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance”. The ironic alliteration of virtue and vengeance, being contradictory values of providence and machiavellianism signifies their bicameral influence over morality. This discovery of humanity, provokes a change of directive within Prospero from revenge to reconciliation, resulting in an abandonment of magic and forgivance of Antonio, inspiring a metatheatrical discovery within the audience, who reconsider his tyranny during his soliloquy and ultimately use their “indulgence to set him free”

Gran Torino, similarly explores how a reconsideration of enmity, evokes maturation and a forfeit of prejudice. Walt Kowalski is a cantankerous, racist living in Highland Park, Detroit, which has devolved into a gang-driven ghetto. Walt himself is the last stubborn remnant of Americanism, epitomised by his tireless preservation of the titular 1972 Gran Torino, a coexstensive motif for Walt’s antipathy for modernisation.

Walt, as a veteran of Korea is embittered through prejudice, blaming his sufferance on Asians regardless of origin. The catalyst for Walt’s retribution is his delinquent, Hmong neighbour, Thao. Walt mentors Thao’s jungian quest from juvenile crime into maturation with distaste, sardonically addressing him by racial slangs like “chink” and “zipperhead”. Yet their association prompts a dichotic maturation within both Walt and Thao and through a hybridisation of time-drawn wisdom and youth culture,  both Thao and Walt reconsider prejudice, developing a near-paternal friendship. Through this Walt ultimately finds peace, typified at his funeral through a diegetic church organ, which symbolically plays  “chant de paix” or “Song of peace”.