Sara Munson Deats — February 18th, 2021 at 2:00 - 2:40 pm Shakespeare’s Sea Voyages

Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
— Ariel’s Song from The Tempest

The term “the sea” evokes vastly different associations for different people. For some, “the sea” conjures images of freedom, adventure, escape. For others, “the sea,” the great mother of all life, connotes serenity and peace. Still, others find the image of “the sea” ominous and threatening. However, most prevalent in Western philosophy and religion is the association of “the sea” with regeneration and rebirth, a spiritual renewal memorially described in the quotation from The Tempest above. On a
literal level, Ariel’s song refers to the transformation of the body of Ferdinand’s father created by the sea. However, on a metaphorical level, the bard is referring to the profound spiritual transformation not only the King, but all those who have suffered a “sea-change” on Prospero’s magical island have experienced. Echoing Shakespeare, in the English language, the phrase “a sea-change” has come to signify any kind of profound psychological change caused by free will.

Extending the metaphor of “the sea” as a cauldron of rejuvenation and rebirth, the “sea voyage” has in Western literature become symbolic for a journey into identity, the kind of excursion into in self-recognition lauded by the Greek oracle at Delphi in the famous words “Know Thyself,” the kind of passage into self-awareness also associated by the Greeks with the tragic hero. The examples of “the sea voyage” as a metaphor for self-discovery in Western literature are many: the perilous wanderings of Odysseus or the fantastic travels of Gulliver or the tumultuous treks of Candide, to mention only a few. But because of time limitations, I will limit my discussion today to the tempest-tossed journeys of Shakespeare’s eponymous hero Pericles and of both Prospero and his enemies in The Tempest as epitomizing the recurrent association of the sea-voyage with the motif of self-discovery and sea-change as a metaphor for regeneration. To register: http://www.artsofstpete.com.

The St. Petersburg Celebration of the Arts highlights our remarkable city’s creative ambiance, renowned
for its numerous, splendid cultural organizations. The annual February festival features diverse groups
exploring a singular theme, with this year’s topic being The Sea. Previous subjects have included
Shakespeare and Tolerance and Acceptance. Art historian Michele Kidwell Gilbert and her husband,
neurologist Dr. Gordon Joel Gilbert, founded and organized this cultural festival several years ago.
Both are active patrons of the arts and passionate about doing what they can to bring the community
members closer together.