magic and illusion and prospero as playwright theme Flashcards
beginning and end
The play begins with Prospero’s magic (the tempest), and ends with Prospero’s magic (his command that Ariel send the ship safely back to Italy).
prosperos uses of magic
the audience watches as Prospero uses visual and aural illusions to manipulate his enemies and expose their true selves.
Prosperos power using magic
Prospero’s magic gives him total control—he always seems to know what will happen next.
Prospero even suggests that all of life is actually an illusion that vanishes with death: “We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep”
magical metaphor
Many critics see Prospero’s magical powers as a metaphor for a playwright’s literary techniques.
Prospero uses magic to create illusions, control situations, and resolve conflicts, as a playwright does using words
Prospero as director
Throughout the play, Prospero often lurks in the shadows behind a scene, like a director monitoring the action as it unfolds. Prospero refers to his magic as “art.”
instructs Ariel how to perform his illusions
prospero as Shakespeare
many critics argue that Prospero could actually be a stand-in for Shakespeare himself. The Tempest was one of the last plays Shakespeare wrote before he retired from the theatre, and many critics interpret the play’s epilogue, in which Prospero asks the audience for applause that will set him free, as Shakespeare’s farewell to theatre.
island illusion
“the isle is full of noises,
Sounds, and sweet airs”
sympathy for Caliban
“I cried to dream again”
“pinched as think as honeycomb” - “side-stitches”
ariel
“were I human.”
“not a hair perished”
“wild waters”
“the banquet vanishes” - “thunder”
magic
“this rough magic
I here abjure”
costumes
Katherine Duncan-Jones - with the islands costumes, twangling instruments and props it is “an image of the playhouse and its backstage equipment”
Sycorax is a “witch”
and represents unconventional women, who were seen as a threat to the stability of a patriarchal society
“got my the devil himself”
this sexual union with the devil was not an uncommon accusation in Jacobean times
music and prospero
the varying music and sounds in the play “reflects the changeable and often contradictory nature of Prospero” - Andrew Green
contrasting sounds
“hiss me into madness” - “sweet airs”
“manifestations of the personality of Prospero” - Andrew Green
