Act 1 Scene 2 Flashcards
“If by your art, my dearest father […]”
-Miranda
-“if by your art, my dearest father, you have/ put the wild waters in this roar, allay them”
-the “if” indicates a hint that the storm is an artificial, created storm.
-the binary of real and created and real and magic
“Had i been […]/ have sunk the sea […]”
-Miranda
-“Had i been any god of power, i would/ Have sunk the sea within the earth”
-white magic contrasts with black magic
-powers used for a good cause
-conditional (what could have been if that had happened)
“There’s […]”
-Prospero
-“there’s no harm done”
-that is what will happen to all the characters as will on the island and from the shipwreck. It can be seen as an affirmation as the kind of power he may want to wield.
-there is a power discourse as he is the one who set the storm, he is also the one organising the consequences
-he is sapient and the word sapience comes into Midsummer Night’s Dream as one of the greatest qualities of a ruler, of one who exercises power.
-if you exercise power then you have to exercise it wisely with no harm done
“A brave vessel […] Dashed […]”
-Miranda
-“a brave vessel […] Dashed all to pieces […] Poor souls, they perished”
-we are getting the reinforcement of the idea of death.
-the audience does not know yet that this is a comedy and there is the presumed death.
“Tis time […] from me”
“The hour’s now come”
-Prospero
- “Tis time/ I should inform thee farther./ Lend thy hand/ And pluck my magic garment from me”
-the unity of time and it is all happening within a fixed number of hours
-he puts his art to one side and foreshadowing precisely of what he will do at the very end of the play.
-he will take off the mantle and renounce his art
-the exposition is when the characters tell the audience their story and the backstory told by Prospero
“I have with such […] no soul/ […] as an hair”
-Prospero
-“i have with such provision in mine art/ so safely ordered that there is no soul/ No, not so much perdition as an hair”
-magic protective bubble
-not even a wet hair
-metaphorical shipwreck
-alludes to the domineering power that Prospero possessed
“A prince of […]”
-prospero
-“a prince of power”
-the prince also would for the audience echo machiavelli and his discourse
-formerly he had institutional power
-now he is a magus, and the latter is a personal pursuit of knowledge
“Set all hearts i’th state […] my verdure out on’t”
-Prospero
-“Set all hearts i’th state/ to what tune pleased his ear, that now he was/ the ivy which had hid my princely trunk/ and sucked my verdure out on’t”
-verdure is power
-music trope and manipulation
-antonio retuned Prospero’s followers
“False brother” ,“[…]”
-Prospero
-“false brother”; “awaked in evil nature”
“And executing […]/growing”
-Prospero
-“and executing th’ outward face of royalty/ With all prerogative, hence his ambition growing”
-machiavellian pursuit of power
-appearance vs reality
“By providence […]”
-Prospero
-“by providence divine”
-christian concept, everything will turn out well in the end
-divine providence is the sovereign guidance and care of God over all his creation
-he acknowledges divine providence in the kindness of Gonzalo, who despite the cruelty of antonio and alonso, ensured Prospero’s survival by secretly providing him “some food” and “fresh water”.
-gonzalo’s act of mercy aligns with the play’s theme of fate and higher powers shaping events for ultimate justice and restoration.
“He furnished me/[…]/ i prize above my dukedom”
-Prospero
-“he furnished me/ from mine own library with volumes that/ i prize above my dukedom”
-minor acts of power as Gonzalo provided the tools to set Prospero with immense power
-it is clear here that Art for Prospero is worth more than political power
-power does not last but art lasts forever?
“Thy schoolteacher, made thee more profit […]”
-prospero
-“thy schoolteacher, made thee more profit/ than other princes, that have ,more time/ for vainer hours and tutors not so careful”
-alludes the importance of spending the precious time correctly
-didactic power of Prospero, teachers empowers the students and give them power to think, to react, to read and to understand
“My prescience/ i find my zenith […] will ever after droop”
-Prospero
-“my prescience/ i find my zenith doth depend upon/ a most auspicious star, whose influence/ if now i court not, but omit, my fortunes/ will ever after droop”
-accident, fortune, foreknowledge. Magic words
-now it is the time and they need to take the opportunity
“Here cease more questions […]”
-“here cease more questions/ thou art inclined to sleep”
-controls speech and proceedings of the play
-sleeping spell
“I am ready […]”
-Prospero
-“i am ready now”
-this readiness is brought right forwards to the beginning of the play because all that backstory of usurpation and exile is in the past
-this readiness has brewed over several years
“All hail great master […]thy best pleasure”
“My brave spirit”
-Ariel
-“all hail great master; grave sir, hail! I come/ to answer thy best pleasure”
-this reinforces the slave and master dynamic
-language of power and submission
-Prospero relies on Ariel for the pursuit of his power
“Jove’s lightning” “dreadful […]”; “fire […]”; “sulphurous […]” “his dread trident shake”
-Ariel
-“jove’s lightning”, “dreadful thunderclaps”, “fire and cracks”, “sulphurous roaring”
-ariel describes all the tricks of the sonics of the first scene that created this spectacle
-hellish and associated with devils
-“his dread trident shake” (Neptune is the god of sea)
“Not a hair […]” ; Ferdinand “Hell is empty […]”
-Ariel
-“Not a hair perished”
-“Hell is empty/ And all the devils are here”
-Ferdinand the first one to leave so could be associated to rats as rats tend to be the first to leave
-immersed in hellish conditions
“On their sustaining garments […]”
-Ariel
-“On their sustaining garments not a blemish/ But fresher than before”
-cleansing ritual for trial
-metaphorical cleanse
-replenish sins
-their old lives being erased
-magic protected them from the tumultuous seas
“Let me remember […] yet performed me” “before the […]”
-ariel
-“Let me remember thee what thou hast promised/ which is not yet performed me” “my liberty”
-“before the time be out?”
-every act of renunciation, forgiveness and liberation is controlled by the passage and unity of time
“This damned witch Sycorax/ […]/ thou knowst was banished”
-Prospero
-“this damned witch Sycorax/ For mischiefs manifold and sorceries terrible/ to enter human hearing from Algiers, thou knowst was banished”
-Prospero’s point of narrative dominates as he controls the narrative (the story of Sycorax)
- the theme of other, inferior, subaltern
-sycorax and prospero have parallel destinies and backstories as they were sent away from exile, not killed
-correspondence
-witch and wizard
-she was too a victim of power struggles
“Save for her son, […], a human shape”
-Prospero
-“Save for her son, that she did litter here/ a freckled whelp, hag-born-not honoured with a human shape”
-grants the costume designer ample space of interpretation. Half human, half fish, he has to be scary and be the foil of Ariel
-the conquerors called the natives cannibals, caliban is an anagram of cannibal
“Thy groans/ […] the damned”
-prospero
-“thy groans/ did make wolves howl, and penetrate the breasts/ of ever-angry bears; it was torment/ to lay upon the damned
-torment associated with bears and animalistic. His power seems to be white magic and stronger than Sycorax’s black magic
“I will rend […] entrails”
-Prospero
-“i will rend an oak/ and peg thee in his knotty entrails”
-reinstates master-servant relationship
-an oak tree is a symbol of durability
“It was mine art […] the pine let you out”
-Prospero
-“it was mine art,/ when i arrived and heard thee, that made gape/ the pine and let you out”
-the balance of powers between white and dark magic
-slavery is an exercise of power and an exercise of commerce
-power and authority used in certain ways leads to slavery and subservience
-excuses for the uses of power
“Be subject/ […] eyeball else”
-prospero
-“Be subject/ to no sight but thine and mine, invisible/ to every eyeball else”
-we have established the thing that the Audience has with Puck in Midsummer Night’s Dream. The invisible character playing the mechanics of the lover
-dramatic irony as the audience can see Ariel
“What ho! […] thou speak”
“Thou […]”
“Fine […] Ariel”
-Prospero
-“What ho! Slave, Caliban/ thou earth, thou speak”
-“thou tortoise”
-“fine apparition! My quaint Ariel”
-caliban is identified as spirit of the earth and Ariel comes from above
-ariel is nymph-like and quick, a direct foil to Caliban
“He does […] wood […] profit us”
-prospero
-“he does make our fire,/ fetch in our wood, and serves in offices/ that profit us”
-used for the production and exchanged of goods (subservient)
-hauling of wood is a role of a servant
“Thou shall be […] than bees that made em”
-prospero
-“thou shall be pinched/ as thick as honeycomb, each pinch more stinging/ than bees that made’ em”
-this is a torture power relationship (As Sycorax tortured Ariel)
-prospero’s retaliation when a slave turns up on him. He verbally whips him. His exercise of power is not always benevolent and can be self-interested
-more than the pain that nature itself can exert on Ariel
“For i am […] in this hard rock […] rest o’th’ island”
-caliban
-“for i am all the subjects that you have,/ which first was mine own king and here you sty me/ in this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me/ the rest o’th’ island”
-the native welcomes the incomer. Caliban here could be seen as getting the audience’s sympathy
“I have used thee/[…] the honour of my child”
-prospero
-“i have used thee/ filth as thou art with human care, and lodged thee/ in mine own cell, till thou didst seek to violate/ the honour of my child”
-Caliban here wanted to rape Miranda
-instinctive perhaps, and adheres to his biological urges and so not nurtured
-instinct to mate has different moral implications
“Would’t had been done […] calibans”
-caliban
-“would’t had been done/ thou didst prevent me, i had peopled else/this isle with Calibans”
-populate it as feels lonely
-otherness is poignant here
“Took pains to make thee speak […]”
-Prospero
-“Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour/ one thing or other”
-schoolteacher
-civilising force and the teaching of a language and culture that is dominant
-enforcing the idea of a superior culture
-the teaching of moral codes
“You taught me language […]”
-caliban
-“You taught me language, and my profit of’t/ is i know how to curse”
-subaltern speaks and pounces back
-“red plague” “your language”
-infectious, permeating and poisoning his culture and roots
“I must obey […] make a vassal of him”
-Caliban
-“i must obey; his art is of such power/ it would control my dam’s god Setebos/ and make a vassal of him”
-setebos is the god of the patagonians. He is a distant god and as far away as possible. Shakespeare is giving Caliban his very own cosmology, a belief system and his own culture and if what a god would be. Caliban is not entirely an animal
-imperial Prospero
“Full fathom Five thy father lies […] nothing of him that doth fade”
-Ariel
-“Full fathom five thy father lies/ of his bones are coral made/ those pearls that were his eyes/ nothing of him that doth fade”
-we have the introduction of harmonious music. The first announcement of harmony and invisible Ariel leads the first survivor on shore and this is the first manifestation of what Ariel said that they are all okay, they have all survived
-music accompanies all the most transformative aspects of the play
-alonso is transformed into this supernatural aquatic form.
“The ditty […] is hear it now above me”
-Ferdinand
-“the ditty does remember my drowned father lies/ this is no mortal business […] i hear it now above me”
-there is magic in the play
-magical and spiritual effects and influences of the words of the song
“It carries a […]”
-Miranda
-“It carries a brave form”
-recurring theme of brave and often associated to unknown and new sites
-love at first sight
-first encounter of another individual
“My language […] ‘tis spoken”
-Ferdinand
-“My language! Heavens!/ i am the best of them that speaks this speech/ were i but where tis spoken”
-language is power and an uniting force
-transforms the unknown to known
“A thing […] so noble”
“Most sure […]”
-ferdinand and Miranda
-“a thing divine, for nothing natural/ i ever saw so noble”
-“most sure the goddess”
-ethereal qualities and heavenly attributes
“They are both […] make the prize light”
-Prospero
-“they are both in either’s powers, but this swift business/ i must uneasy make, lest too light winning/ make the prize light’
-prospero the director and controls even this intimate and personal realm of love
-paternal instincts or patriarchal authority
“I charge thee […] thou dost here usurp […]”
-Prospero
-“i charge thee/ that thou attend me. Thou dost here usurp/ the name thou ow’st not and hast put thyself/ upon this island as a spy, to win it. From me, the lord on’t”
-prospero is testing him here. Prospero is the one who is running the surveillance on this island and he is using Ariel as a spy all the time. He is accusing Ferdinand, the incomer, of being a spy.
“Put thy […] so possessed with guilt”
-prospero
-“put thy sword up, traitor/ who mak’st show but dar’st not strike, thy conscience/ is so possessed with guilt”
-prospero wants to imprison Ferdinand
-treason is the betrayal of power and treason is the usurpation of prospero
-they draw swords
“Thou shalt be […] command”
-Prospero
-“thou shalt be free/ as mountain winds/ but then exactly do/ all points of my command”
-everything is tethered together via Prospero’s orders and commands and everyone’s liberty is dependent on him.
