Critics and Productions Flashcards
Prospero and dolls
Ian McKellen in a 20th century production played Prospero as clutching dolls representing his enemies during the storm
Caliban bisected
Denis Quilley’s production 1974 had caliban ‘bisected’ one half the “monster whom prospero sees” and the other “an image of the noble savage”
Miranda is the catalyst of the story…
Nancy Meckler: “Miranda is the catalyst of the story. had it been possible for her to have remained forever a child in a childs body the tempest would have been unnecessary”.
“a noble being”
Coleridge and the romantics called caliban “a noble being” saying “the poet has raised him far above contempt”
cicily berry
“caliban is ‘the other’ and Prospero has power over him though language”
Frank K prospero
Frank Kermode writes that Prospero’s magic arts are “not only a beneficent magic in contrast to an evil one; it is the ordination of civility, the control of appetite…it is even, in this sense, the means of Grace.
does it ‘control’ appetite? or just impose an appetite for power? E.G “these, mine enemies… they are now in my power; and in these fits I leave them”
Frank Kermode: “prospero, like adam, fell from his kingdom by an inordinate thirst for knowledge; but learning is a great aid to virtue…and by its means he is enabled to return”
Production with Prospera
Julie Taymore director: Prospera (helen Mirren) deliver lines “thou shalt be pinch’d…” in an embittered and threatening tone. the effect gave Prospera tyrannical attributes.
A.H about prospero’s salvation from magic
Antony Harris 1980 writes that Prospero’s “only hope for salvation” is a return to “a life of prayer and faith in the forgiveness and mercy of god”
suggests Prospero’s magical power was blasphemous?
CRITIC: “the moments of greatest dramamtic
“The moments of greatest dramatic intensity are precisely those moments when our awareness of Prospero as a manipulator coincides with our recognition of him as an unresolved, struggling human being” - Robert Wilson (1988)
The security of society…
Philip Allen 2003 “the security of society and peace of mind was dependent upon women’s virginity before marriage, making them a bargaining tool for advantageous marriages to benefit their fathers social status.
Caliban ‘the other’
Caliban is the other and proposeo has power over him though language
Cicily berry RSC director.
