The Tempest: General

Question 1

When was the Tempest written?

Answer 1

• 1610/11

- potentially just before or alongside ‘The Winter’s Tale’

Question 2

What genre would the Tempest be?

Answer 2

• a revenge drama

Question 3

How does the play begin in disorder and the reassert order?

Answer 3

• begins in medias res, the storm is non-hierarchical
• the storm is a kind of anti-masque which was a demonstration of the disorderly scene which was then swept away to be replaced by the masque proper of the performance

Question 4

What are the impressions of Ariel?

Answer 4

• acts kind of like a God figure
• Ariel is non-human, only available to the sight of Prospero and the audience
• the long tradition until the end of the 19th century was to have Ariel played by a woman

Question 5

Where does the play get its overall structure?

Answer 5

• Italian commedia dell’arte
• this was an early form of professional theatre, characterised by masked types both scripted and improvised
• there are several established characters

Question 6

The Tempest is conventionally seen as the last play Shakespeare wrote and was performed - is this correct?

Answer 6

• no, this is a cultural fantasy
• it was not Shakespeare’s ‘farewell to the stage’
• there was at least one more single-authored play by him ie. Henry VIII

Question 7

How would you say that The Tempest is compact?

Answer 7

• in characters, time and location

Question 8

How would we characterise Sycorax?

Answer 8

• her ugliness is actually reported information it is important to remember
• referred to via demonising language, the language of the coloniser
• as a witch/ magician she exists outside the boundaries of society
• she is the dispossessed owner of the island

Question 9

How does an audience interact with the storm?

Answer 9

• the audience is part of that spectral moment

- the shipwreck is actually not a real thing, it is a work of magic

Question 10

What does the name ‘Miranda’ mean?

Answer 10

• the wonderer, or ‘to be wondered at’

Question 11

Due to her femininity, is Miranda negated of her action/ power?

Answer 11

• no, she is able to rebel against her father

- she fits in with characters such as Innogen and Juliet in her ability for subterfuge

Question 12

Why does Catherine MS Alexander suggest it is quite easy to fall into the temptation of making biological readings of The Tempest?

Answer 12

• his later plays seem to have a focus on parenting, maturity, succession, inheritance and loss
• these themes are difficult not to associate with a maturing playwright
• plays like these embody a very different feel to that of the youthful Shakespeare

Question 13

What does Catherine MS Alexander’s explanation of the ease with which Shakespeare’s later plays can be grouped rest on?

Answer 13

• the desire to taxonomise