The Tempest AO3

Question 1

When was the Tempest written?

Answer 1

Early 17th century

Question 2

Royal context

Answer 2

Time period where the legitimacy of power was questioned - regicide (gunpowder plot) - religious disputes as a result of the rise in Protestantism - Divine Right of Kings

Question 3

Performance context - Colonialism

Answer 3

Aime Cesaire(1969) - Performed from a post colonial perspective - emphasises importance of characters who inhabited the island before Prospero

Question 4

Performance Context - Nature and Power

Answer 4

Boyd(2002)- Prospero’s staff is a branch of a tree

Question 5

Prospero and Magic

Answer 5

Prospero draw similarities to a renaissance magus -> a perpetrator of white magic, and having ‘the wisdom to perceive the mind of God’

Question 6

Comparisons to other revenge tragedies

Answer 6

Macbeth - overleaping ambition and power
A WInter’s Tale - combines tragic and comic styles - however harmony is not restores in the way which is usual for a comedy

Question 7

Montaigne’s ‘Of the Cannibals’

Answer 7

-> Caliban embodying the idea of the noble savage