The epilogue

• 'Please you draw near'
• Prospero's final words were probably intended to invite the other characters into the cell
• But they could also be taken as an invitation to the audience to enter into a new and intimate relationship with Prospero himself

Act 5 Scene 1

We can have no idea up to this point what Prospero intends to do with his victims

Even Ariel, the disembodied spirit incapable of human sympathies is moved to plead for them

• Prosper seems to have been affected by this
• Perhaps even made ashamed by the extremes to which he has pursued his revenge
• The rarer actions is / In virtue than in vengeance

Fully in command of himself he can utter his reproach with out the angry excitement that he showed when he first told Miranda of the injuries he had suffered and is even able to extend his forgiveness to his brother

Antonio and Alonso have few words to say. Perhaps they hear the threat of future blackmail when Prospero says

• at this time / I will tell no tales.

Caliban seems to reach some kind of enlightenment

• I'll be wise hereafter, / and seek for grace.

Act 4 Scene 1

Prospero's anger is also the frustrated anger of the Renaissance humanist and educational theorist, once optimistic about the ability of nurture to improve upon and even transform nature

The theory fails - not, as Prospero sees it,because of any fault in his methodology, but because his pupils have been essentially good or bad by nature

Caliban urges them on, gaining an ascendency over them which is expressed first in his speech - verse and not prose - and then in his contempt for their greedy seizure of the 'trumpery'

Now Prospero is a truly terrifying figure: we know that he is able and willing to inflict great pain, and he has given ample demonstrations of his power to paralyse  and disarm any one who opposes him

• At this hour / Lies at my mercy all mine enemies

Act 3 Scene 2

Non-stop drinking has given Stephano, flattered by the servile grovellings of his 'servant monster', illusions of grandeur which respond readily to Caliban's suggestions


Caliban is showing new depths to his baseness: his tongue had been liberated by the alcohol, and with vindictive impotence he urges Stephano to do what he himself  dare not do

• 'brain him'

Most of the seven deadly sins have been released in this single, initially comic scene:

• Anger, pride, gluttony, envy, covetousness, lust - and perhaps sloth too, in Stephano's lazy refusal to hear Trinculo's warning

Act 3 Scene 1

Like one of the knights in medieval chivalric fiction


It is a meeting of innocence and experience.

• The sophisticated Ferdinand knows the conventions of courtship and is fluent in it's vocabulary
• Miranda knows nothing od such niceties and easily takes the initiative
• "Do you love me" when the response is satisfactory, the consequence, for Miranda, is obvious
• "I am your wife if you will marry me; / If not, I'll die your maid"
• Doesn't understand the grand gestures and subtleties of courtship - needs it spelled out

Act 2 Scene 3

The mood of the play shifts into comedy

• At first it is a crude, farcical comedy, laughing at the Elizabethan delight in creatures from the New World
• But more serious issues arise when Caliban kneels and worships the 'brave god' with the 'celestial liquor'

The native inhabitants of the New World presented many ethical problems to the European colonists, and the moral issues were widely debated

• Caliban presents himself to Stephano with the same hospitality that he had shown to Prospero twelve years earlier
• "I'll show you the best spring; I'll pluck thee berries /  I'll fish for thee, and get thee wood enough"
• Although Trinculo mocks, Stephano seizes the offer of service, only too ready to exploit the 'monster'

Act 2 Scene 1

A certain edginess is beginning to set into the jesting


Antonio's arguments are witty and persuasive, and Sebastian seems to be dazzled by the rhetoric and slow to comprehend the meaning

• "But for your conscience?"
• "Ay, sir, where lies that?"
• The answer confirms Antonio' status as one of Shakespeare's blackest villains
• He is guilty of ingratitude, treachery, and since he intended Prospero to die, fratricide

Act 1 Scene 2

His speech grows more passionate as he remembers the treachery of his brother: the syntax becomes irregular and elisions are frequent...

• 't' advance', 'chang'd 'em', 'new form'd 'em'

Prospero returns to the past, which is now present and active in the tenses of his verbs

• 'thinks me now incapable'
• 'hearkens my brother's suit'

Immediately the whole scene is lightened: Prospero's impassioned tones, narrating a solemn and tear jerking account


Prospero establishes the time of day at about two in the afternoon

• The time at which any Elizabethan or Jacobean theatrical performance would be expected to start
• Prospero states it must be accomplished ''twixt six and now' - Shakespeare has chosen to observe 'the unity of time' and wants to make sure the audience knows it

Ariel

• Such disobedience is usual (according to the Elizabethan authorities on witch craft) for the spirits who have been somehow forced into the service of a magician: their efforts are always involuntary and are always impatient about being held captive

Comparisons between Caliban and Ariel

• the one light as air and quick as thought, the other heavy, slow, and earth-bound

Miranda who has so far spoken for herself, surprises us now with the strength of her attack

• Abhorred slave, Which any print of goodness wilt not take

Up until this point the play has been looking back, but now the forward movement begins when Ferdinand is brought onto the stage


Brings a gentleness into the play

• 'At first sight / They have changed eyes' a sure sign (in Elizabethan romantic convention) of a genuine passion
• A promise of marriage is offered with the promise 'I'll make thee / The Queen of Naples' but romantic convention now insists on a trial of truth and constancy for Ferdinand's sincerity

Act 1 Scene 1

Creating a storm

• Stage directions - 'thunder and lighting'
• 'the clipped economy of the prose generates urgency' "fall to yarely"
• Realistic

'With the entry of the royal passengers there is a clash of language, manners, and priorities which serves to establish the personalities of most of the characters of the play'

• Alonso's courtesy is out of place - "Good boatswain, have care."
• Gonzalo's insistence on decorum - "remember who though has aboard"
• All men are equal at a time like this
• Boatswain is the only one with power
• Sebastian and Antonia blame the sailors "Hang, cur, hang, you whoreson insolent noisemaker!" (Antonio)
• Gonzalo retains a cheerful good humour "He'll be hang'd yet, Though every of water swear against it"

Quotes about Shakespeare

• He is of no age — nor, I may add, of any religion, or party, or profession. The body and substance of his works came out of the unfathomable depths of his own oceanic mind.
• Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Specimens of the Table Talk of the Late Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Vol. II (1835), p. 301.
• But my God, how beautiful Shakespeare is, who else is as mysterious as he is; his language and method are like a brush trembling with excitement and ecstasy. But one must learn to read, just as one must learn to see and learn to live.
• Vincent van Gogh, in a letter to Theo van Gogh (July 1880) as translated by Mrs. Johanna van Gogh-Bonger
• He was not of an age, but for all time!
• Ben Jonson, To the Memory of my Beloved, the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare (1623)
• Shakespeare has united the powers of exciting laughter and sorrow not only in one mind but in one composition. Almost all his plays are divided between serious and Ludicrous characters and they sometimes produce sorrow and sometimes laughter.
  That this is a practice contrary to the rules of criticism will be readily allowed; but there is always an appeal open from criticism to nature.
• Samuel Johnson, The plays of William Shakespeare, Vol. I (1765), Preface.
• When I read Shakespeare I am struck with wonder
  That such trivial people should muse and thunder
  In such lovely language.
• D. H. Lawrence, "When I read Shakespeare," from Pansies (1929).
• Shakespeare led a life of Allegory; his works are the comments on it.
• John Keats, in a letter to George and Georgiana Keats (19 February 1819).
• Shakespeare — the nearest thing in incarnation to the eye of God.
• Laurence Olivier, quoted in Kenneth Harris, "Sir Laurence Olivier," from Kenneth Harris Talking To... (1971).
• The shape of the Globe gives words power, but you're the wordsmith! The one true genius; the only one clever enough to do it. … Trust yourself. When you're locked away in your room, the words just come, don't they, like magic. Words, the right sound, the right shape, the right rhythm, words that last forever. That's what you do, Will. You choose perfect words. Do it. Improvise!
• Gareth Roberts, The tenth incarnation of The Doctor in The Shakespeare Code episode of Doctor Who

1. Ralph Waldo Emerson

“He breathed upon dead bodies and brought them into life. 

New words

Machiavellian - "the employment of cunning and duplicity in statecraft or in general conduct".




Irascible - having a tendency to anger easily


Patriarchal - a system of society or government in which the father or eldest male is head of the family and descent is reckoned through the male line.


Sedition - conduct or speech inciting people to rebel against the authority of a state or monarch.


Credulous -

having or showing too great a readiness to believe things.


Fratricide - the killing of one's brother or sister.


Farcical - relating to or resembling farce, especially because of absurd or ridiculous aspects.


Farce - a comic dramatic work using buffoonery and horseplay and typically including crude characterization and ludicrously improbable situations.


Elision - the omission of a sound or syllable when speaking (as in I'm, let's ).

Discovering Caliban

• Caliban interacts with all characters
• Portrayed as different, deformed and as other - Act 1 Scene 2 line 233
• Initially treated well - sort of like a pet
• Caliban instinctive and self centred
• Prospero rules through magic and threats
• Finds out that  Stephano and Trinculo aren't equal with Prospero - Act 5 Scene 1 line 292-95
• Seen as a novelty or a monster in Shakespeare's time
• Seen as a primitive degenerate figure who is lustful and greedy - as imagined by Europeans to justify colonisation
• Implacable spirit - never totally subjugated (because of his implacable spirit)
• Noble savage - not as civilised but has indomitable spirit
• Complex
• Caliban is angry
• Often isn't logical - until later on when he becomes manipulative as he becomes civilised

Different style of language

• If language is power Caliban isn't equal
• Communicates in insults - Miranda calls it "gabble"
• Sometimes able to talk coherently like in the speech about sweet airs
• Shows his complexity
• Develops ability to think and speak intelligently

Caliban' place in society

• Fits into the hierarchical and patriarchal society
• Perhaps Caliban has the ability to move across all elements in the play because he is not in society
• Caliban discovers a lot from his interactions with other characters
• Discovers humanity?
• Doesn't find complete humanity - can't go back into a civilised world as Prospero does
• "this thing of darkness!" - contrasts to Miranda's white
• "Whelp" "Demi devil" "Poor credulous monster" "hag seed"

Sympathy

• Treatment from Prospero
• Interactions with the 'civilised' Stephano and Trinculo

Act 5, Scene 1 - Deneument

Section 1

• Ariel asks for mercy and Prospero gives up his magic
• Purpose - for us to like Prospero more? - development of character
• Sad regretful Prospero - adds melancholy to the moment

Section 2

• Enchanted arrival and Prospero attacking and forgiving them in their trance and then speaking with them
• Ferdinand and Miranda are revealed playing chess - important - game about power
• Change in tone towards happy ending
• Boatswain arrives
• Stephano and Trinculo ridiculed

Oh brave new world that has such people in't

• Going to be freed
• Fear for Miranda in her innocence and naivety - sadness and concern

Setting Ariel free

• Sadness, melancholy - worn out
• Ariel isn't sad
• In production Ariel didn't even look at Prospero

Epilogue

• The audience and Prospero emotionally connected
• Play can't end without the audience - power
• Ends with a direct address
• Says I can't be free unless you applaud
• Moves audience back from fiction to reality
• Conventional - a natural way of ending the play and getting applause
• Realise that in a play about power it is the audience that has it

Act 3, Scene 3 - the harpy speech

The Climax - direct conflict of good versus evil

Staging

• Often above the other characters - judging, position of power, godlike/divine
• Scary/imposing/loud

Quotable lines


"I have made you mad"


"You are three men of sin"

• Declarative - not subjective, blunt

"Your swords are now to massy for your strength"

• Powerlessness - a visual representation

"You fools"

• Mocking tone

Theme

• Revenge and punishment
• What happens to sinners
• The sinful characters are forgiven
• Punishment and forgiveness

Divine justice

• Strongly Christian
• Represented by Ariel
• Can't get away with sin
• Concept of fate/destiny - a predetermined course of events

Ferdinand and Meranda

• In blank verse
• Hyperbole of love and passion
• Dramatic convention (how would expect it to be)
• Figurative expression - metaphors, similes...
• Emotional exclamation - heightened emotions
• Pronoun use - Changes from thee/thou to you - You expresses a closeness - Thee/thou respectful

Writing about language

Everything is crafted for effect


When quoting a line it is worth mentioning the dramatic conventions and why

Dialogue
Idiolect - a character's particular way of speaking - evidenced in dialogue


Blank verse - rhythm to it - regular rhythm - pentameter (often Iambic)
'Blank' because it is non rhyming
Prose - no syllable count just to the end of the page

• Conventionally/often high ranking characters would speak in blank verse
• Lower characters and comedy would be in prose
• Caliban is an exception - most of time prose - but at times (when reflecting) in blank verse - gives a more considered tone

Length of turns
Long turn purpose

• Fill in backstory, exposition
• Thinking aloud
• Pace

Short turns purpose

• Conflict, argument
• Humour (often similar to an argument)
• Faster pace

Shakespeare switches the pace to keep the audience engage


The difference between a monologue and a soliloquy

• If just a character is thinking out loud alone to no one other than the audience it is a soliloquy
• If other characters a re there to hear it is a monologue

Act 2, Scene 2 - Caliban, Stephano and Triculo

Caliban

• Anger at treatment (especially in the film)
• Tormented - helps us to feel sympathy at his position
• Funny - comes from laughing at him at his idiotic, drunk, clumsiness - basic, low level, comedy, base comedy
• Reacts with awe to the new comes
• Motivated to get away from Prospero with hopes of them protecting him

Stephano and Trinculo

• Mock Caliban, laugh at him, trick him
• Want to exploit him
• => Exhibiting strange looking people as freaks was common
• Stephano says "we will inherit here" - want power

Act 1 Scene 2 - Miranda and Ferdinand

Miranda and Ferdinand - Line 375 - end of scene


Ferdinand - vulnerable, sympathy, attractive, young, lost, confused, alone - creates sympathy


Song - eerie, creates tension, other worldly, hypnotic, magical


Reaction to the island

• Ferdinand is in awe doesn't see it as hostile
• The island changes depending on who you are

Prospero wants them to get together and then stops it

• "They are both in either’s powers, but this swift business
  I must uneasy make lest too light winning
  Make the prize light."
• Adds value - makes them want to do it even more
• Adds suspense, tension, conflict

"I might call him a thing divine..."
=> Naivety - curious, hypnotised by him


"It goes on as my soul prompts it."
=> Not entirely natural - staged


"At first sight they have changed eyes."
=> Congratulates Ariel as if has something to do with it


Checking her virginity - confident of himself


"There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple."
=> Naïve, shallow, childlike innocence


"Space enough have I in such a prison"
=> Hyperbole of love

Act 1 Scene 2 - Caliban, Prospero and Miranda

Caliban, Prospero and Miranda - line 321 - line 375


We hear the backstory - fill in their relationship

• The relationship changed at the rape
• Miranda is scared of Caliban
• 2 sides of the story
• No respect
• Doesn't like it when Prospero makes him feel small

Nature nuture

• Influence of inherited
• Big question at the time
• Arguments for colonising - civilise them teach them - improve their lives

Sympathy for him but also disgust as he refuses to repent the rape - animalistic, can't control lust

"For this be sure thou shalt have cramps."
=> Only the magic, violence and threats that allows Prospero to have control




"Poisonous slave" - insults Caliban


"You taught me language and my profit on't is I know how to curse"


"I had peopled else the isle with Calibans" - Motivation for rape - sympathy but also disgust and abhorrence




"Woud't had been done!"


"I must obey; his art is of such power"

Setting, symbolism and magic

What we lose as a modern day audience

• Jacobean audience wouldn't have expected things and attitudes we take for granted
• Different ideas of self the relationship between countries and their colonies and what constitutes a good government
• Jacobeans would not have taken the negative view of Prospero
• Jacobeans would have recognised things

The Island

• The heath where Lear is put
• The heath where Henry VI wanders and finds understanding
• The wood from a midsummer nights dream where everyone loses and finds themselves
• The wood in as you like it
• The wood of medieval romance and self discovery
• Anything can happen and you come out changed
• Gonzalo says "people didn't know each other and know they know themselves"

The names

• People would have known a bit of Latin
• Prospero - look for, hope for the future - optimistic
• Miranda - that which should be wondered at - miraculous, marvellous
• Ariel - connected with air
• Caliban - anagram of cannibal

Prospero's history

• A failed ruler who failed - like Lear - by concentrating too much on what he wanted rather than the good of the country
• Unlike Lear Prospero gets a second chance to learn what power is and what it costs

Magus

• Jacobean audience would have recognised Prosper as a Magus
• Not just magic
• The art of understanding this universe both spiritually and materially
• Achieves this power through study and prayer and holiness
• Can manipulate forces to help God
• Magus include - Elias Ashmole, Sir Issac Newton
• Goetia different as it is magic for the self
• Magus work not for themselves but for the greater good
• Jacobean audience would have been familiar with the discipline

Elements

• Caliban earth
• Ariel - air
• Ferdinand and Caliban both carrying logs - fire
• Surrounded by water

Act 1 Scene 2 - Prospero and Ariel

Prospero and Ariel - Line 190 - 295




The relationship between them and the attitudes towards each other...




Mutual respect, complex, changing, intimate, close, physical




Ariel - Trying to please, delights/revels in mischief, respect for Prospero, fear, obligation, reluctant, eager to please, wants to make Prospero proud






Prospero - Condescending, tells off Ariel




Like a father son/daughter relationship




Address terms




Prospero initially calls Ariel nice things such as "My brave spirit!" "My spirit"
=> After Ariel asks for his freedom becomes "malignant thing"
=> Also "moody" "Chick"






Ariel initially calls Prospero "sir"
=> After he is told off becomes "master"






Key Quotes

"be't to fly, to swim, to dive into the fire, to ride on the curled clouds" - Shows enjoyment




"All hail great master, grave sir hail!"




"Not a blemish but greater than before." - Eager to please


"Thou Knowst what a torment I did find thee in." - Manipulation

Act 1 Scene 2 - Prospero and Miranda

Looking at the relationships between the characters...




Prospero and Miranda (line 1 - line 32)

Close, understanding, reassuring

Prospero -

Calm, reassuring, collected, imperatives used (soft commands), authority figure who knows everything


Dual role

• Authoritative, powerful leader
• Also a father
• Taking off his cloak symbolises this change

Miranda -

Deferential, submissive, empathetic


"I have done nothing but in care of thee"


"Had I been any God of power" - Powerless


"Oh, I have suffered with those that I saw suffer."

Questions and answers

1. When was the play first performed?
- 1st November 1611 (16 hundreds, 17th century)
2. How is the theme of power introduced in the first scene?
- The courtiers are completely powerless on the ship
- No influence - reversed hierarchy
3. What props are used to symbolise Prospero's magical powers?
- Books, cape, staff
4. What is the purpose of Prospero explaining why they are there?
- Fill in audience on backstory and why he created the storm
- Miranda takes the place of the audience - we are as clueless as she is - Prospero fills us in
- We know about the past from what Prospero tells us
5. What is Ariel's attitude towards her tasks?
- At first reluctant
- After reminder he/she is willing and treads carefully
- Ariel is a sprite and genderless
- Ariel is mischievous and loves causing chaos - tricksy
6. How does Caliban mirror the indigenous population of a colonised land?
- Colonisation was happening a lot in the 17th century
- Caliban is angry at his loss - resents Prospero
- Worships Stephano
- Showed them everything and treated them kindly
7. What is Ariel's song about?
- First about dancing by the seashore
- Second part about Alonso's death and being drowned
- Ariel is convincing Ferdinand Alonso is dead
8. What does Gonzalo's Utopia involve?
- No power hierarchy
- Equality
- (Everyone wants power when they arrive on the island)
9.Why does Antonio want Sebastian to kill Alonso?
- Wants the power over Naples
10. What is the dramatic purpose of Stephano and Trinculo?
- Very low characters
- Comedy, humour, fun, entertainment
- Shakespeare trying to cater to a wide audience
11. How does Prospero punish Ferdinand?
- Makes him carry wood
- Prince is reduced to a slave
12. How does Caliban persuade Stephano help him overthrow Prospero?
- Talks about being able to have Miranda
- Miranda is nothing more than a reward - can be owned
13. At the Banquet in what form does Ariel appear to them?
- Harpy - Greek mythological creature
- Head and torso of a woman
- Bad omen - omen of vengeance
- Ariel takes power by fear
14. How is Miranda and Ferdinand's betrothal celebrated?
- Masque
- Performance by spirits - short play about fertility
15. What distracts Stephano and Trinculo
- Clothes 'finery' but Caliban calls it 'trumpery' - fake, rubbish
- Stephano and Trinculo taken in by it
16. "We are such stuff that dreams are made of"
- We think that we are in control and important
17. What does Prospero give up in Act 5 Scene 1?
- Magical powers - destroys magical objects
- Desire for revenge
- No vengeance - looks for forgiveness
18. What are Ferdinand and Ariel doing when they are seen in Act 5 Scene 1?
- Playing chess
- Power battle - all about toppling the king
- About gaining and losing power
19. Which character has the most ambiguous ending?
- Shakespeare often leaves one character
- Caliban doesn't get an ending
20. What is interesting about the epilogue?
- Prospero talking to the audience - asking audience to applaud
- Audience has the power to set Prospero free
- Recognition of the fictional nature of the play

Stand out quotes

"How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world that has such people in't!"
Miranda - Act 5 Scene 1 (page 137)


"Oh, she is ten times more gentle than her father's crabbed"
Ferdinand - Act 3 Scene 1


"Hell is empty, and all the devils are here"
Ariel - Act 1 Scene 2 (pg 21)


"You taught me language and my profit on't is I know how to curse."
Caliban - Act 1 Scene 2

Ferdinand and Miranda

• Love at first sight - dramatic convenience
• Not enough time for relationship to slowly develop

Power in the Tempest

Prospero

• Power over Miranda, Ariel and Caliban
• Caliban equal till rape?
• Ariel has power over events but always under Prospero's Command

Caliban tries to exert power over Miranda
Stephano over Caliban

Act 1, Scene 1 - the transcience of power

The atmosphere is...
Chaotic, manic hectic, loud, energetic, action-packed, panicked, overwhelming


Grabs the audience's attention - hard to stage


 Who is in charge?
The sailors shout orders at the king/courtiers
The power hierarchy completely flips
The transience of power - it can all change in a moment
The king is powerless in the first seen - all he can do is pray