Abstract
Garnering inspiration from Carole Levin’s study of the elaborate protocols of re-gendering absolute power in public representations of Elizabeth I, this essay analyzes the re-gendering of the absolute power of Shakespeare’s magus-ruler Prospero as feminine in Julie Taymor’s 2010 film adaptation of The Tempest, starring Helen Mirren as Prospera. Through casting, narrative, and performance choices as well as spectacular set and costume design, the film develops a new myth of absolute feminine power. Prospero’s power of magical language is here superseded by Prospera’s power over space. Yet this new myth suggests to contemporary cinema audiences that the wielding of absolute power by a woman is an endeavor whose precariousness and loneliness surpass by far the experience of exile of Shakespeare’s Duke of Milan.
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