The Tempest other Interpretations

Question 1

What did critic John Dover Wilson say about the tempest being Shakespeare’s autobiography and when?

Answer 1

•1932
• The Tempest is Shakespeare’s ‘farewell to the theatre’

Question 2

What does critic Dr Sean McEvoy say about how the tempest forces the audience to consider its political messages and when?

Answer 2

• 2014
•Prospero is ‘Shakespeare the Brechtian director’

Question 3

What does critic Dr Sean McEvoy say about the play’s anti colonialist message and when?

Answer 3

• 2014
•In The Tempest, ‘the coloniser is shown to have no innate moral superiority which justifies his imperialism’

Question 4

What does critic Dr Sean McEvoy say about the result of Prospero’s treatment of Caliban and when?

Answer 4

• 2014
• Caliban is the ‘product of violent enslavement by Prospero’

Question 5

What does Dr Sean McEvoy say about Caliban in an environmentalist reading and when?

Answer 5

• 2014
• Caliban’s call for nature in his curses reflect resistance to human ‘exploitation of the wilderness’

Question 6

What does critic Richard Jacobs say about women within the tempest and when?

Answer 6

• 2005
• Positioning Claribel and Miranda and Ms Prospero as virtuous ‘demonise Sycorax as the ‘dark’ or ‘other’ woman and mother’

Question 7

What does critic Richard Jacobs say about Claribel and when?

Answer 7

• 2005
• The play passes over Claribel’s story in a ‘perfunctionary way’

Question 8

What does Critic George Norton say about one of the key purposes of the Tempest and when?

Answer 8

•Argues the play is about identity and the ‘loss of impermanence of self’
• 2021

Question 9

What does critic George Norton say about mortality in the tempest and when?

Answer 9

• 2021
• the play is about ‘human life inexorably dissolving away’

Question 10

What does critic George Norton say about the pricing of Caliban in the play?

Answer 10

• 2021
• Acts as a commentary on the ‘practice of displaying for profit Native Americans brought back from expeditions to the New World’

Question 11

What does John Dryden say about Caliban and when?

Answer 11

• Caliban has ‘all the discontents and malice of a witch, and of a devil’
• 1679

Question 12

What does Neil Bowen say about the tempest and power?

Answer 12

•‘the Tempest can be seen as exposing fault lines in the seemingly impregnable social order’
•The Tempest presents ‘an ambiguous picture of colonialism’

Question 13

What does Neil Bowen say about women within the tempest?

Answer 13

Shakespeare shows how ‘the political system depends on the subjugation of women’

Question 14

17th century interpretations of the play

Answer 14

• the play was interpreted to be a religious allegory as it conveys the ideology that sin redeemed leads to virtue
• early audience may see the play as didatic, reinforcing Christian values of forgiveness and salvation, maybe viewing Prospero’s magic as sinful

Question 15

Ferdinand’s conditions about marrying miranda

Answer 15

‘If a virgin’ he will make her queen of Naples act 1 scene 2

Question 16

What does Caliban do in the gregory doran 2016 directed tempest when leaving

Answer 16

Straightens posture, prospero gives Caliban his staff, which he throws away, then runs off

Question 17

What does critic Malcolm Hebron say Prospero’s aim with his magic is and when

Answer 17

‘to bring his enemies to recognise their actions and repent, thus restoring them to divine grace’
2011

Question 18

What does critic Malcolm Hebron say about Prospero’s control of Caliban and when

Answer 18

Shows that Prospero ‘has the proper discipline over his lower human tendencies’
2011

Question 19

What does critic Malcolm Hebron say about Prospero’s inentions being negative and when

Answer 19

Suggests that he is ‘possessed by a desire for impossible purity in the world’ and is ‘incapable of seeing that evil is a normal part of human affairs’

Question 20

What does critic Malcolm Hebron say about Ferdinand and Miranda’s relationship:

Answer 20

‘From the pure chastity of this couple, a truly noble generation should emerge’
- Prospero protecting institution by ensure that Miranda ascends to power with a worthy leader

Question 21

What does Prospero’s decision reflect about theatre according to Malcolm Hebron

Answer 21

2011
‘He has to renounce it to return from a world of illusion and manipulation to the human community’

Question 22

What does critic Andrew Green say about Miranda’s departure from the island?

Answer 22

She is ‘liberated as she encounters whole worlds of new knowledge’ but is also ‘exposed to uncertainty and danger due to her lack of experience’
2022

Question 23

What does Harriet Parks display when writing in Miranda’s voice after leaving the island and when?

Answer 23

‘Naples is not a brave new world, father. I cannot live like this. This palazzo is a prison’
2024 - moves from one sphere of control to another

Question 24

What does Harriet Parks display when writing in Miranda’s voice after leaving the island and when?

Answer 24

‘Naples is not a brave new world, father. I cannot live like this. This palazzo is a prison’
2024 - moves from one sphere of control to another

Question 25

How does critic Barbara Bleiman reflect on Miranda and Prospero’s relationship

Answer 25

It’s an idealised father daughter relationship, where the father ends up brining about the marriage that his daughter desires
(Yet he is still controlling, exertion of patriarchal influence more visible without the lack of a mother as a medium)
2003

Question 26

How does the Gregory Doran directed 2016 tempest celebrate the institution of marriage in the masque?

Answer 26

• Ceres has a dress with flowers projected onto them symbolising fertility, miranda wears a white dress symbolising virginity, both Ferdinand and Miranda involved in the dancing whilst Prospero is left behind

Question 27

How does miranda act when first seeing Ferdinand

Answer 27

Act 1 scene 2
‘I might call him/ A thing divine, for nothing natural/ I ever saw so noble’

Question 28

What does critic Diane Crimp say about Stephano and Sebastian and when

Answer 28

• 2021
• Stephano illustrates how once Sebastian’s reservations are stripped away, his ambition is ‘just as stark and brutal’

Question 29

What does Diane crimp say about what Caliban unveils about the main characters of the play and when

Answer 29

• 2021
• Caliban displays the ‘treachery so rampant among main characters’

Question 30

What does critic Diane crimp suggest about Caliban and colonialism and when?

Answer 30

• 2021
• Caliban’s subservience to Prospero and Stephano reflect how indigenous people were ‘instinctively subservient to their invaders, seeing them as superior’