Act 3 Sc. 3 Flashcards
Summary of this act
This is the harpy scene in which Prospero begins to properly enact his revenge through Ariel. This is the point at which we can begin to question whether this is a play concerned with revenge or repentance.
Stage directions: ‘enter several strange shapes, bringing in a banquet’
AO1/2:
A banquet = bountiful, fulfilling, gluttony
perhaps reflects the overindulgence and prioritisation of self gain of the upper-class.
- banquet = spoils of the isle so represents their desire to exploit the isle for its natural materials
INTERTEXTUAL LINK - mimics the last supper, a reference to their betrayal of P. = Major PSYCHOLOGICAL TORTURE/TORMENT of the courtly party as this banquet vanishes, punctuating the notion that this group will be unable to grasp at power on the isle & a punishment for their attempts to subvert normative power structures.
AO3: banquets were often used by nobility to mark their status and wealth
Coupled with an antimasque scene i.e. the harpy
‘you are three men of sin…the…sea hath caused to belch up you’
AO1/2: lang. of justice - Ariel as P’s mouthpiece voices the idea that P is not a twisted avenger hellbent on the courtly party’s downfall but merely a man who wishes to reinstate a moral code.
‘belch’ - violent, physical, visceral reaction = natural world’s rejection of this sinful behaviour establishes their behaviour as unpalatable & unnatural/immoral.
AO5: ecocritical persp.= these 3 men are so vile that not even the sea could stomach them. rejection by natural world potentially mimics or symbolises God’s own rejection of these men for failing to adhere to a moral path.
‘their great guilt like poison ..now ‘gins to bite the spirits’
AO1/2: ‘poison’ - infectious, all-consuming guilt. Perhaps indicative of the corrosive nature of immorality upon the spirit. Alternatively this ‘poison’ has been doled out by Prospero, perhaps reflecting how he wishes to ultimately inflict harm upon the three conspirators
