Act 1 Sc. 2 Flashcards
‘if by your art, my dearest father, you have put the wild waters in this roar, allay them’
AO1/2: Miranda introduced as somewhat of a prototypical female of the renaissance era - emotional as she pleads with her father to pursue forgiveness rather than revenge
AO3: acts as a moral beacon, playing into the idea that women = paragons of morality.
- ‘allay them’ = imperative, demanding thereby she challenges the supreme masculine power on the isle = unaware of the social taboo this is bc of her isolation? - AO5 link to Bleiman & Vaughan
‘the sky…pour down stinking pitch’
AO1/2: relentless action of pour = Prospero’s unwillingness to stop his pursuit of revenge
- ‘stinking pitch’ = hot, oppressive, clings to people rather like an identifier or physical marker of their sin
‘O I have suffered with those I have seen suffer’
AO1/2: Miranda introduced as somewhat of a prototypical female of the renaissance era - empathises with the suffering of others thus becoming the emotionally driven female of the Jacobean period.
‘suffered’ = emotional pain - perhaps indicative of her emotional weakness
‘Had I been…God of Power, I would have sunk the sea’
- pondering having power = v. subversive
- ‘God of Power’ - recog. of P. as extremely powerful & of great auth. but still critiques his actions
- ‘would’, ‘had’ - verbs = awareness of her lim. capabilities as a woman
- Hyperbolic- Miranda would eliminate everything to save the people aboard the ship, plays into the stereotype that women cannot be trusted with power as they are too emotionally driven to be logical.
‘I have done nothing but in care of thee’
AO1/2: suggests an emotional manipulation and blackmail of miranda
- protective - plays the role of the typical renaissance father
- A05 - Bleiman - ‘strong father daughter relationship’
‘pluck my magic garment from me’
- distinction of Prospero’s multiple identities - est. him as a magus figure
- metatheatrical - costume change = everything within the Island is merely a performance by P.
- unable to function as both a magus & father fig.
‘Dost thou attend me?’
P deploys a series of rhetoricals = reeestablishes his authority, even auditory authority, ensuring that M is indoctrinaed to only believe his version of events = desperation & self-importance of P
- rhetorics - commanding, ensures her obedience to him as a father & authoritarian figure
‘My library was dukedom enough’
advances view of P as an unreliable narrator - his own obsession w the pursuit of knowledge led to his removal from his dukedom
- Est. view that P wasn’t committed to his responsibilities
‘ivy that hid my princely trunk and suck’d the verdure out on’t it’
AO1/2: nature metaphor = Antonio as a perfidious & poisonous character, evokes the idea that this was his innate nature - he was born immoral.
- parasitic relationship - Antonio assumed not only P’s role but his life, draining him of his ‘verdure’.
‘suck’d’ = forceful, demonstrates the extreme impacts of power lust as Antonios greed transcends familial bonds
‘cherubim…smile infused with fortitude from heaven’
AO1/2: angelic imagery depicts Miranda as a salvation for her father.
Heavenly & innocent connotations of ‘cherubim’ = Prospero still sees Miranda as an innocent babe rather than a 15 year old girl on the brink of womanhood, is he potentially infantilising her?
AO3: Reflects Jacobean attitudes that women were expected to be pure & virginal & meek creatures, by classifying Miranda as a ‘cherubim’, Prospero infuses Miranda with the idealised, angelic qualities of a jacobean woman.
AO5: Bleiman ‘not a typical father-daughter relationship’ as there seems to be genuinely paternal love for Miranda.
‘I, thy schoolmaster, made thee more profit than other princes can’
AO1/2: Prospero has given Miranda an advantage like no other in life as he has clearly provided her with an education.
AO3/5: Highly unusual & rather progressive/feminist because Prospero allows his daughter to receive an education, an opportunity unavailable to women in the Jacobean era because education was reserved for men.
‘All hail, great master!’ - Ariel
AO1/2: establishes Ariel’s willingness to serve Prospero, unlike Caliban who continuously curses P and verbally revolts against his rule, Ariel seems to submit with ease.
‘hail…great master’ - evokes a sense of reverence & deference, Ariel - despite being a spirit/nymph and of greater magical capabilities than Propsero - seems to humour the idea that Prospero is a figure to be worshipped.
AO5: Gibson - Ariel offers a Eurocentric view of colonisation as he is desperate to please his master = his only goal in life is to serve!!
‘Dost thou forget from what torment I did free thee? ‘
‘Thou liest, malignant thing!’
‘Hast thou forgot her?…Thou has! Where was she born? Speak. Tell me!
Prospero’s frenzied list of questions and exclamations serve as a further way for him to dominate Ariel = utterly commanding & insulting.
Stichomythia of these lines = Prospero literally dominates this conversation, regaining authority by reasserting his narrative of himself as the righteous coloniser who rescued Ariel from native life.
‘This islands mine…by my mother’
Power gluttony is upheld by Prospero, considered hypocritical for his admonishments of Antonio’s immorality whilst he himself has acted as a usurper towards Caliban reveals the true nature of Prospero reflecting the idea that one’s status doesn’t automatically make them a moral ruler. This shows that Prospero ignores dynastic rules/lineage for his own gain.
‘thou shalt have cramps…pinched as thick as honeycomb’ &
‘urchins…bees’
Violent, hate fuelled language ‘pinched’ demonstrates the utter cruelty of P. as he deliberately wishes to cause Caliban physical harm, leaving him with a physical reminder or ‘branding’ of his status as P’s slave. This metaphorical branding of Caliban merely dehumanises him further, comparing him to cattle or other commodified, lesser animals.
- Prospero’s self-affirming view that he is more dignified and refined than the ‘savage’ and uncouth native drives him to abuse and terrorise Caliban for refusing to adhere to his own moral code.
- Prospero is constantly corrupting the natural world around him, true extent of his evil is underpinned by his perversion of the natural isle as tools for abuse rather than harmony
- exploitation of nature to harm natives
A05: Post-colonial perspective - Prospero as the exploitative and abusive coloniser
‘thou strokest me…’
AO1/2: Evidences P’s manipulation & dehumanisation of C whom he treats as a pet, ‘strokest’ animalises Caliban, portraying him as yet another piece of property.
- Evokes a somewhat paternal, doting image of P in contrast to P’s current attitude showing the true nature of colonialism which hides behind the façade of ‘enlightening’ natives.
- Grim connotations of rearing Caliban for the purpose of servitude
- Perhaps Caliban is acting as XP’s mouthpiece to criticise colonialism and force Jacobean society to understand the immorality of colonisation.
’ thou didst seek to…’
‘…violate the honour of my child’
A sexual attack would remove Miranda’s value within the marriage market
AO5: disadvantages P. as Miranda is his ‘political pawn’ & ‘sexual bait’ thus if her virginity is not intact he cannot barter for his position in the Italian court.
- possessive ‘my’ -commodification of the female = her violation is acc an attack on the male
‘child’ - infantilises Miranda
Alternatively, this infantilisation demonstrates Prospero’s status as the typical Jacobean father
‘peopled else this isle with Calibans’
Caliban’s wit - Recognises the insult that violating virginity of a woman is.
- plays into the stereotype of the savage native bc he threatens to commit immoral acts
‘pitied thee. Took pains to make thee speak..’
AO5 - ‘Miranda is an allegory for softer colonialism’:
‘pitied’ - empathetic lang. = compassionate nature of civilising mission
M. & P.’s goal as European colonisers is to ‘enlighten’ natives
motif/sf of uncivilised/savage native/subhuman:
‘savage’
‘gabble…thing most brutish’
‘vile race’
Miranda’s vitriolic xenophobic lang. dehumanises & depersonalises Caliban as he becomes a ‘thing’ = inhuman, highlighting the utter pervasive nature of colonisation
‘You taught me language…my profit on’t I know how to curse’
- Cultural assimilation although ‘civilising’ the native can actually ‘backfire’ as Caliban still feels a cultural disconnect instead ‘cursing’ his oppressor because he feels even more alienated from the isle and nature.
- ‘curse’ = polysemic, expression of anger but also magical connotations so P has inadvertently granted C more power bc C can vocalise his hatred for him. = language as a tool for rebellion.
‘fringed curtains of thine eye advance’
AO1/2:
suggests obscured vision by something that is delicate and fragile but also protective = perhaps M’s ignorance and naïve obliviousness to the inner workings of the isle and society. which prevents her from seeing the ugly truth that her father is merely attempting to sell her off.
- Metatheatrical lang. = illustrate the likely falsity of M’s love for F as this is merely an act initiated by P to regain status by having his daughter marry a noble man.
AO5: Miranda as ‘sexual bait’
‘lest too light winning make the prize light’
- link to act 4 scene 1
AO1/2: Semantic field of economy commodifies Miranda & her virginity, dehumanising her. The casual objectification of his own daughter a ‘the prize’ reveals P’s emotional detachment & ultimate lust for power.
AO3/5: Miranda is Prospero’s ‘political pawn’ and ‘sexual bait’ as he commodifies her retained virginity to ascend in status, a common practice in Jacobean social circles.
‘a thing divine…so noble…such a temple’
AO1/2: motif of deities - Miranda deifies Ferdinand, conjuring an image of a male of pure and godly qualities. This demonstrates her utter admiration of Ferd.
A03/5: However this could be learned behaviour/social attitudes as with Miranda growing up under P’s patriarchal control she may have learnt to ‘worship’ males because she genuinely believes that they are otherworldly, powerful beings. Links to social attitude of Jacobean era that women were meant to devote themselves to their husbands & men’s position on the G.C.B
From fem. perspective, links to Caliban’s deification of his colonial oppressors - shared dynamic as both are somewhat complicit in their systematic oppression.
