Romantic love, the masque, and Prospero's patriarchal control Flashcards
Prospero’s attempt to control their passion
‘Do not give dalliance / Too much the reign. The strongest oaths are straw / To th’ fire i’th’blood’
- Blood was regarded the seat of strong passion (often sexual)
- Is Prospero’s obsession with keeping them chaste reflective of his own incestuous feelings for Miranda? Or merely a feeling of paternal protectiveness? Or just because he want’s them to have legitimate children to ensure dynastic purity?
Iris outlining the aim of the masque
‘A contract of true love to celebrate’ - how compatible is ‘contract’ and ‘true love’? Is Ferdinand and Miranda’s marriage a symptom of their love for each other or of Prospero’s own political agenda?
Iris warning against promiscuity
Venus and Cupid are thought to have done ‘Some wanton charm upon this man and maid, / Whose vows are that no bed-right shall be paid / Till Hymen’s torch be lighted’
- Globe 2013 production, Prospero comedically mouths these lines with Iris from behind, suggesting that the masque has a practical, political purpose
- Iris warns against Miranda and Ferdinand having sex until the wedding rites are complete and hymen’s torch is lighted - echoes Prospero’s language before
Ceres’ song serving as an ‘allegorical core’ to the play
‘Spring come to you at the farthest, / In the very end of harvest’
- meaning that there is no winter, only fair weather and abundance - getting rid of the extreme seasons symbolises getting rid of extreme passion - idealised portrayal of love, hidden in allegorical, pastoral language
Ferdinand continuing courtly language till the end
‘Sir, she’s mortal / But by immortal providence she’s mine’
- antithesis
- but also undertones of a patriarchal possessiveness
Miranda’s early courtly language
‘I might call him / A thing divine, for nothing natural / I ever saw so noble’
Prospero’s intervention
‘I must uneasy make, lest too light winning / Make the prize light’
- Is it about genuinely proving the sincerity of Ferdinand’s love? Or is this just Prospero creating yet another master-slave dynamic to boost his own ego?
- note how Miranda is objectified and idealised
‘Foolish wench, / To th’ most of men, this is a Caliban, / And they to him are angels’
- Prospero controlling the play’s narrative tightly by initiating Miranda’s sexual awakening through orchestrating her encounter with Ferdinand, and then taking it away from her and subjecting Ferdinand to temporary servitude
Ferdinand’s courtly love trial - showing continued devotion for Miranda
‘The mistress which I serve quickens what’s dead, / And makes my labours pleasures’
Miranda showing a masculine authority/assertiveness
‘Pray give me that; / I’ll carry it to the pile’
- imperatives
Prospero’s analysis of Miranda’s feelings towards Ferdinand
‘Poor worm, thou art infected!’
- infected feels deliberate, unwholesome, like a burden
- Prospero not meaning well for Miranda? but using her for create a political union which confirms his power
Prospero meaning well and finding happiness in their love
‘but my rejoicing / At nothing can be more’
