Act 5 Sc. 1 Flashcards
‘how i have given fire’
‘how i have made shake’
‘graves at my command have waked their sleepers’
AO1/2: Triadic list of Prospero’s ‘rough magic’ depicts the ‘Godlike’ power he possesses as P seems to have wildly wielded his magic to create chaos & destruction i.e. ‘fire’ and ‘shake’, undermining some arguments that P is this divine, genteel figure as he seemingly utilises his magic w/ reckless abandon. Catalogues his supreme achievements, perhaps XP utilises this as a means to reflect on his own theatrical achievements as a final goodbye to playwrighting.
P’s magic verges into quite immoral, dark territory here as he speaks of practicing reanimation of corpses. => questionable purpose of his acts? Potentially blasphemous actions as he disrupts graves and meddles with the deceased, is this a comment on the corruptive potential of magic as P’s lust for absolute power causes him to pursue morally questionable acts.
‘I’ll break my staff…I’ll drown my book’
AO1/2: P’s anagnorisis/enlightenment - lang. of destruction = his rejection of otherworldly power and choice to live a more grounded human existence. - return to humanity!!!
Acceptance that pursuing vengeance through mystical powers is inherently fruitless and self-serving.
- Marks a pivotal moment in the play concerning P’s transition from an arguably corrupt reign as a divine figure to a flawed human and father.
Miranda: ‘How many goodly creatures are there here! / How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world / That has such people in’t!’
AO1/2: curates this sense of awe and utter reverence for these figures. - reflective of her childlike innocence, she adheres to her diminutive status as a woman who is supposed to respect masc. authority.
‘goodly creatures’, ‘beauteous mankind’ - ability to see the good in all people, acts as a voice for redemption & forgiveness.
‘o brave new world’ - rhetoric of the coloniser
AO5:
Nuttal ironic as ‘looking at the worst of the world’ = from a fem. perspective this puts M on the same lvl as C as both are highly subjugated and naïve, conditioned into respecting their oppressors.
‘thing of darkness I acknowledge mine’
AO1/2: Possessive acknowledgement of Caliban as “mine,” = Prospero highlights the uncomfortable truth that the consequences of colonial exploitation also reside within him.
- ‘I acknowledge mine’ = P’s recognition & acceptance that his corrupt rule as a coloniser is deeply intertwined with Caliban’s moral failings. = recognition that he has shaped this ‘born devil’ through his power lust
- “thing of darkness” implies primal, savage aspects of humanity. By claiming it as his own, Prospero acknowledges the duality within himself and humanity at large.
Arg. an admittance of P’s own failings and moral ambiguity which enables him to progress in line with the general theme of forgiveness and redemption.
‘I do forgive thee, unnatural as thou art’
AO1/2: Though P. asserts forgiveness, this act of proffering redemption is marred by his disparaging remark that Antonio is ‘unnatural’, adding a tone of performativity to his forgiveness. Labelling Antonio as ‘unnatural’ allows P. to reassert his believed moral superiority over Antonio as the malformed connotations of ‘unnatural’ not only suggest that this level of immoral behaviour is a defect, but that Antonio himself possesses some biological quality that has left him ‘underdeveloped’.
Significant A05 by Coleridge
Coleridge - Epilogue = words of XP - final goodbye to theatre as he soon retired
‘my charms are all o’erthrown’
- refers to P. abandonment of his art & the actor themselves reaching the end of the play
- ‘charms’ - links back to this mystical quality of the isle, charm = potentially charisma, suggests illusion
- ‘overthrown’ - suggests weakness, perhaps P was not as great of a magus figure as previously believed
SF of bondage: ‘I must be here confined by you’, ‘unless I be relieved…frees all faults’, ‘release me from my bands with the help of your good hands’
AO1/2:
‘confined….bands’ - imagery of being captive & bound, constraints = perhaps plays into the idea that the island is some sort of prison or punishment. - - pleading to the audience for reprieve & theological lang. = P. recognition of himself as a sinner
- P. pleads for forgiveness from God himself
Contrasts with the Freedom & liberty of ‘relieved….frees…release’ = the metaphor of vocal praise & applause as a freeing idea = Prospero needs constant reassurance of his power, he is just as performative as his brother as his ‘art’ is done just to glean respect and entertainment. - Prospero as unhinged?
‘Their understanding
Begins to swell, and the approaching tide
Will shortly fill the reasonable shore
That now lies foul and muddy. ‘
AO1/2: A continuation of the extended baptismal metaphor through cleansing water. This approaching tide perhaps functions as a symbol for the moral guidance that Prospero provides these men with as it is through his machinations & domination of teh natural world & elements that these men will be able to achieve spiritual & moral enlightenment, therefore this calming, gentle tidal metaphor seems to symbolise the switch in P’s attitude from one of intense hatred desire for revenge to a practising of teh Christian idea of forgiveness.
YET, Prospero CONTINUES to morally condemn teh courtly party via depicting them as ‘foul’ and ‘muddy’, the unsanitary and murky depiction of these men would suggest that their moral compasses are still tainted and corrupt & in dire need of ‘cleansing’. => revels that P has not acc abandoned his loathing of these men as they are portrayed as trapped in a state of disarray and filth, requiring the supreme guidance of the moral beacon P. to change their ways. => WASTES NO OPPORTUNITIES TO CONSTANTLY REMIND ALL OF THEIR MORAL TRANSGRESSIONS.
‘cure thy brains, now useless, boil’d in thy skulls’
AO1/2: Spiteful & demeaning attitude of Prospero as he verbally assaults the courtly party whilst simultaneously reasserting his supposed moral superiority.
‘Cure thy brains’: Disease, medical metaphor depicts the courtly party’s immorality as a degenerative disease that melts the brain, prohibiting clarity of thought. This exclamation denounces the men as highly stupid, and their immorality is equated to a sort of deadly disease that requires continued treatment, revealing Prospero’s complete disgust for the prisoners as he continues to suggest that these men are degenerative and his moral inferiors as he suggests that they have a complete inherent physical ‘disability’ preventing their morality.
