The Tempest (Quotes) Flashcards
Miranda as a commodity.
“Your compensation makes amends, for I
Have given you here a third of mine own life,
Or that for which I live;”
“rich gift”
”. . . as my gift and thine own acquisition
Worthily purchased take my daughter:”
(Act 4, Scene 1)
Prospero’s affection towards Miranda
Use of epithets such as “cherubim” to describe her.
Act 1, Scene 2
Historical performance of play - link with Miranda and Claribel
Performed in 1613 in celebration of Princess Elizabeth’s wedding to Prince Frederic of Palatine.
Claribel married in obedience, against her desires.
”. . . the fair herself /
Weighed between loathness and obedience at /
Which end o’th’ beam should bow.” (Sebastian)
(Act 2, Scene 1)
Miranda has only learnt to behave as a ‘woman’ through Prospero because ______.
“I do not know / One of my sex;”
Act 3, Scene 1
Miranda proposes eagerly/hastily.
"Do you love me? [...] I am your wife, if you will marry me; If not, I'll die your maid:" (Act 3, Scene 1)
Proposes shortly after telling herself to _____.
Obey her “father’s precepts”.
Act 3, Scene 1
Cannot contain her love for Ferdinand - Pregnancy (or erection?) imagery.
“And all the more it seeks to hide itself, /
The bigger bulk it shows.”
(Act 3, Scene 1)
Ferdinand - sexual imagery
“[bearing a log]”
Start of Act 3, Scene 1
Miranda recognises the sexual exchange in marriage.
“Jewel in my dower.”
Act 3, Scene 1
Link with other Shakespeare plays: Miranda’s choice in marriage.
Juliet in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ refuses to marry the man of her father’s choice.
Prospero demands Miranda’s attention (controlling).
“Dost thou attend me?”, “dost thou hear?” (questioning)
“be collected” (imperatives)
(Act 1, Scene 2)
Prospero puts (forces) Miranda to sleep using magic.
“thou art inclined to sleep; . . . I know thou canst not choose.”
(Act 1, Scene 2)
Miranda’s empathy/compassion.
“I have suffered / With those that I saw suffer”
Act 1, Scene 2
Miranda shows independent-mindedness.
“Had I been any god of power, I would / Have sunk the sea within the earth” (First person pronouns)
(Act 1, Scene 2)
Miranda questions/commands her father (innate respect in use of language).
“If by your art, my dearest father, you have/ Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them.”
(Start of Act 1, Scene 2)
Prospero reveals to Miranda storm is an illusion.
“Be collected:
No more amazement: tell your piteous heart
There’s no harm done.”
(Start of Act 1, Scene 2)
Ariel - links to air.
Name “Ariel” (bares similarities to “air” and “aerial”)
“An airy spirit” (List of roles)
“Thou, which art but air,” (Act 5, Scene 1)
Ariel eager to please his master (also: link to all four elements).
“All hail, great master! grave sir, hail! I come
To answer thy best pleasure; be’t to fly,
To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride
On the curl’d clouds, to thy strong bidding task
Ariel and all his quality.”
(Act 1, Scene 2)
Ariel encourages/persuades Prospero to be compassionate.
"ARIEL. [...] Your charm so strongly works 'em That if you now beheld them, your affections Would become tender. PROSP. Dost thou think so, spirit? ARIEL. Mine would, sir, were I human."
Ariel as cold and heartless.
“Full fathom five thy father lies
Of his bones are coral made;”
Ariel asks Prospero to be freed. Angers Prospero.
Reminds Prospero "what thou hast promised, Which is not yet perform'd me PROSP. How now? moody? What is't thou canst demand? ARIEL. My liberty. [...] PROSP. Dost thou forget From what a torment I did free thee?
Ariel proud of his work.
“flamed amazement”
Caliban associated with earth element.
“filth”, “dirt”
Hint at Prospero’s failings as a duke.
“I thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated
To closeness and the bettering of my mind”
(Act 1, Scene 2)
Historical link with Prospero’s value of the inner world at the expense of his responsibilities?
James I
Prospero callous towards Ariel
“I will rend an oak,
And peg thee in his knotty entrails, till
Thou hast howl’d away twenty winters.”
(Act 1, Scene 2)
Ariel apologetic after brief questioning of authority.
“Pardon, master:
I will be correspondent to command,
And do my spiriting gently.”
(Act 1, Scene 2)
Caliban raped Miranda
“till thou didst seek to violate
The honour of my child.”
(Act 1, Scene 2)
Prospero’s affection towards ariel
“Delicate ariel,”
“dainty ariel!”
Prospero seemingly has control (unaware of Caliban/Trinc/Steph)
“My high charms work,
And these mine enemies are all knit up
In their distractions: they are now in my power.”
(Act 2, Scene 1)
Prospero on the impossibility of changing Caliban.
“A devil, a born devil, on whose nature
Nurture can never stick.”
Prospero loses control in middle of masque.
“I had forgot that foul conspiracy
Of the beast Caliban and his confederates
Against my life.”
(Act 4, Scene ?)
Prospero’s theatre imagery (illusions).
"actors" "baseless fabric of this vision" "the great globe itself" "...shall dissolve," "We are such stuff As dreams are made on;"
Alonso gives up on search for Ferdinand.
“he is drown’d”
“Well, let him go.”
Stephano’s sining.
“scurvy tune”
Act 2, Scene 2
Antonio and Sebastian discuss selling Caliban.
"SEB. . . . Will money buy 'em?" ANT. . . . no doubt, marketable." (Act 5, Scene 1)
Prospero relinquishes magic.
“I’ll break my staff”
“I’ll drown my book.”
Miranda’s amazement, Prospero’s cynicism.
"MIRAN. [...] How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, That has such people in't! PROSP. 'Tis new to thee." (Act 5, Scene 1)
Prospero (Shakespeare?) apologise for the illusions, acknowledges their importance.
“As you from crimes would pardon’d be,
Let your indulgence set me free.”
(Epiglogue)
Prospero conscious of his age.
“Every third thought shall be my grave.”
Act 5, Scene 1
Ambigous forgiveness of Antonio/Sebastian.
“I do forgive thee,
Unnatural though thou art.”
(Act 5, Scene 1)
Relatively civil with Caliban at end.
“sirrah”
Act 5, Scene 1
Final scene, everyone entirely under Prospero’s control.
“[…they all enter the circle which Prospero had made, and there stand charmed…]”
(Act 5, Scene 1)
Final scene is an artificial resolution, devised by Prospero.
“Now does my project gather to a head:”
Act 5, Scene 1
Ariel’s description of Antonio’s wrongdoing(s).
“tresspass”
Caliban’s response to being taught their language.
“You taught me language; and my profit on’t /
Is, I know how to curse.”
Prospero’s description of Caliban’s native language
“gabble like /
A thing most brutish”
Theatrical interpretation: Caliban as slave, Prospero as master, Ariel as mulatto
‘Une Tempéte’ - Aimé Césaire, 1969
‘Une Tempéte’ - Aimé Césaire, 1969
Ariel: Mulatto (favours non-violence)
Caliban Black slave (rebellious, revolutionary)
Prospero: White master (remains leader of island at end)
Critic: Ariel’s airiness (on his songs).
“There is this effect produced by Ariel’s songs, which (as we are told) seem to sound like air, and as if the person playing them were invisible.” - William Hazlitt
Romantic criticism (anti-historical)
“purely romantic drama, in which the interest is not historical . . . -but is a birth of the imagination,” - Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Critic: Anti-romantic, morally real even during illusions.
“the daydream has never been allowed to falsify human and moral realities.” - F. R. Leavis
Antonio as machiavel (classic of tragic villain).
Plants plot into Sebastian's head: Claims to "see it in thy face" "My strong imagination sees a crown Dropping upon thy head." Claims it is only "sleepy language" Stephano says there is "meaning in thy snores"
Ariel awakes/alerts Gonzalo
“My master through his art foresees the danger /
That you, his friend, are in, and sends me forth– /
For else his project dies– to keep them living.”
Critic: tragicomedy.
The tragicomic form enabled him to merge “the whole story of apparent disaster, penitence, and forgiveness into one happy misfortune controlled by divine Art.” - Frank Kermode
