The Tempest, critical opinion (AO3)

Question 1

Tragedy depicts alienation and destruction, Romance, reconciliation and restoration.

Answer 1

Deborah B Shwartz on the difference between the Romantic and the Tragic

Question 2

In tragedies, characters are destroyed as a result of their own actions and choices; in Romance, characters respond to situations and events rather than provoking them.

Answer 2

Deborah B Shwartz on circumstance in the Romantic

Question 3

Tragedy tends to be concerned with revenge, Romance with forgiveness.

Answer 3

Deborah B Shwartz on forgivness in Romance

Question 4

Romance has a muted tone of happiness – joy mixed with sorrow.

Answer 4

Deborah B Shwartz on happiness in the Romance

Question 5

Romance is unrealistic. Supernatural elements abound, and characters often seem “larger than life” (e.g. Prospero) or one-dimensional (e.g. Miranda and Ferdinand)

Answer 5

Deborah B Shwartz on unrealistic Romance

Question 6

“the unlikely, the improbable, the mysterious, the miraculous; distant, exotic locations, with connotations of the Hellenistic pastor and Arcadian style golden age countryside, long journeys, often by sea, often attended by storm of shipwreck, themes of loss and recovery, exile and return…”

Answer 6

Long quote by Sandra Clark (1986)

Question 7

In this paradigm Prospero is portrayed as a benevolent father figure, protective of his only child

Answer 7

Margaret Roper on Prospero’s Romantic role

Question 8

In this paradigm Prospero is portrayed as a benevolent father figure, protective of his only child -

Answer 8

Margaret Roper on Prospero’s Romantic role

Question 9

“Miranda has acted as Prospero’s preserver” -

Answer 9

Sandra Clark on Miranda’s impact on Prospero

Question 10

“Both [Prospero and Alonso] have virtuous children who will redeem them and dissolve enmity between them with marriage” -

Answer 10

Matt Simpson on children in the play

Question 11

“From the play’s first moments - and twice in one speech - we can hear a father trying to tell his daughter that she must now at last know him properly, now before it’s too late”

Answer 11

Richard Jacobs on fathers and daughters

Question 12

“Claribel is forced into a marriage with the King of Tuniz for reasons of geo-politics and/or trade”

Answer 12

Richard Jacobs on Claribel’s marriage

Question 13

“we’re being invited, if only part consciously, to see Claribel as a version of Miranda”

Answer 13

Richard Jacobs on Claribel and Miranda

Question 14

Caliban is the other and Prospero has power over him with language

Answer 14

Cicily Berry on colonialism and language

Question 15

The Tempest is about colonialism

Answer 15

Cicily Berry on colonialism

Question 16

His person is as monstrous as he is the product of unnatural lust, and his language is as hobgoblin as his person

Answer 16

Dryden on Caliban

Question 17

the slave needs the master just as much as the master needs the slave

Answer 17

Griffith’s on the dramatisation of Caliban in the 19th Century

Question 18

“Modern convention dictates that Caliban must be a sympathetic emblem of imperialistic exploitation”

Answer 18

Irving Wardle on modern convention and Caliban

Question 19

Caliban’s action ‘legitimises Prospero’s takeover of power’ (Brown, 1985: 62).

Answer 19

Paul Brown on the rape

Question 20

his scopic regime entirely rests on the agency of Ariel

Answer 20

Étienne Poulard on Ariel

Question 21

Ariel it is who performs the action of the play, the motor that powers the plot, the animating force which accomplishes Prospero’s design.

Answer 21

Peter Hick, Ariel’s impact on the play

Question 22

genuine affection between the two which adds resonance to a crucial moment in the play, when Ariel seems to convince Prospero of the need for forgiveness and reconciliation.

Answer 22

Peter Hick on Prospero and Ariel

Question 23

in the Epilogue, Prospero ‘seems to be Ariel, longing to be freed.’ (p.285).

Answer 23

Nora Johnson on Prospero and Ariel