60 pages • 2 hours read
Hafsah FaizalA Tempest of Tea
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2024A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Historical Context: The East India Trading Company and British Colonialism in Victorian England
Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses enslavement and racist violence.
The EJC within the novel is a near-exact parallel of the East India Company, a British company that exercised trade and rule over South and Southeast Asia from 1600 to 1874. The EIC was responsible for much of the global trade during the 1700s and 1800s, as well as atrocities and colonialism. The company was deeply involved in enslavement and the establishment of the British Raj (British rule) in India. The end of the EIC coincided with the beginning of the Victorian Era, which lasted from roughly 1837 to 1901, during the reign of Queen Victoria. During her early rule, the EJC’s power in India was severely weakened when the British government stepped in to establish direct rule over India in the wake of the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Within the context of the novel, the revelation that Lady Linden and the Ram are the same person reflects this historical change in power, demonstrating that the colonizing power of the EJC/EIC and the crown are one and the same—not separate entities, as the characters formerly believed.
In this and other instances, A Tempest of Tea plays loosely with Victorian England’s gender norms, primarily through the role of Lady Linden. In real life, women were never in charge of companies like the EIC, but Lady Linden’s power over the government and over the capitalist interests of Ettenia represents the overarching effect of Queen Victoria’s rule. Historically, Queen Victoria herself had an immense impact on the colonization of India, even naming herself the Empress of India in an official capacity and adopting Sara Forbes Bonetta—born Aina to the Yoruba people—as her goddaughter. Within the novel, Flick’s adoption is a direct parallel to the latter instance. Ultimately, although Queen Victoria believed in many humanitarian causes, she also increased the power of British imperialism and colonist rule worldwide, causing immense damage to Indigenous people, groups, and governments in the name of British power.
Literary Context: Arthurian Legend and Vampire Mythology
A Tempest of Tea utilizes two distinct branches of mythology and folklore to tell its story—Arthurian legend and vampire literature. The most prominent example of Arthurian influence is found in Arthie’s own name and that of her shapeshifting weapon, Calibore. Although Arthurian myths are wide and varied in nature, vampires in the modern sense are not present in these tales. Instead, Hafsah Faizal combines these two disparate literary influences to create a unique story that examines the widespread effects of colonialism and power. Arthurian legend, after all, is titled the “Matter of Britain,” and even today is considered to be the patriotic origin of the nation, even if the national origins of these tales were far more varied. (In most original versions, Arthur was Welsh.) Similarly, modern vampire mythology is derived in large part from Bram Stoker’s Dracula, a work with significant postcolonial importance.
Within the context of the novel, Arthie’s name and control over Calibore represents a new version of the power of resistance that Arthur and Excalibur had over the Welsh people. While modern colonialism as a concept did not affect the early Welsh people, the incursion of the Anglo-Normans forever reshaped their country and culture, destroying their control over England. Many believe that Arthur’s return from the dead represented the Welsh people’s hope that they would one day regain control of their country from invaders. British rulers later used Arthur and Excalibur as symbols to support their claim to the divine right to rule, and the Welsh connection was erased under the umbrella of British power.
Although less connected to the Arthurian roots of the story, the importance of the colonial vampire is also vital to the novel’s makeup. Bram Stoker’s Dracula was written during the decline of the British Empire, and when analyzed through a postcolonial lens, the narrative is understood to represent a xenophobic fear that foreign influences were entering the “pure” British civilization. The character of Dracula is othered and described as being deeply foreign to the British and American characters in the novel, and he therefore represents the perception at the time that non-white people represented a threat to British power. Notably, Faizal reverses this colonial narrative, reestablishing vampires not as foreign threats but as victims of Ettenia’s colonization.
