Act 2. Sc. 1

Question 1

‘our garments….rather new dyed than stained with salt water’

Answer 1

‘new dyed’ - metaphor for the rebirth of identity that the island and the tempest enact on the courtly party

Question 2

‘Had I plantation of this isle…and were the king…riches, poverty, and use of services, none.’

Answer 2

AO1/2: Theme of exploitation through ‘plantation’ - highly ironic that his utopic vision, despite not having a class or monetary system, still has Gonzalo as a ‘king’.
- Could be asserted that even the most ‘moral’ characters in this play are morally grey as they still seek self-gain.
AO5: From a post colonial perspective - Gonzalo as a softer colonialism? perhaps demonstrates the fact that colonialism is cyclical

Question 3

‘my strong imagination sees a crown dropping on thy head’

Answer 3

AO1/2: Deceptive tone established through the ‘lucid’ imagination, which isn’t factual.

AO5: Good says that Antonio acts as the ‘typical machiavellian pretender’

Question 4

‘look how well my garments sit upon me’

Answer 4

AO1/2: metatheatrical ref. indicates that Antonio is merely playing a role, re-establishing his machiavellian nature.

Question 5

I with this obedient steel…can lay to bed forever

Answer 5

AO1/2: Death as a metaphorical sleep.
This merely reaffirms the complete manipulation and cunning of Antonio as he recognises that he cannot be held culpable for murder is he never verbalises the word murder.

Question 6

‘that would not bless our Europe with your daughter but rather loose her to an African’

Answer 6

AO1/2: a comment rooted in racial stereotypes and European supremacy.
- Contrasting heavenly purity of ‘bless’ and the degrading sexual pun ‘loose’ reaffirms the common renaissance observation of indigenous people as ‘primitive’ and hypersexual.
- Alonso is critiqued, not for his failings as a father, but his failings as a seller. - he has sold his daughter to the wrong buyer - this injustice is not seen as ruinous to Claribel but as a personal slight against the male!!!
AO3: Montaigne’s ‘Of the Canniballes’ - considers opposing binary of ‘savages’ of the New world and civilised society - criticising the hypocrisy of the truly evil ‘civilised’ society which demeans others but fails to recognise their own moral corruption.