6. King Alonso of Naples and his
entourage sail home for Italy.
They encounter a violent storm,
or “tempest.”
Everyone jumps overboard and
are washed ashore onto a
strange island inhabited by the
magician Prospero who has
deliberately conjured up the
storm.
Prospero has brought the
ship’s crew here in order to
extract revenge against his
brother and the king for his and
his daughter’s banishment.
7. Caliban deeply resents Prospero as he
believes that he is the rightful ruler of the
island. He plots with some of King Alonso's
company to murder Prospero, and take
Miranda for his wife.
But Miranda and the King’s son, Ferdinand
fall deeply in love. Seeing this, Prospero
delays his revenge, and decides to test
their love to see if it’s real and lasting.
Plots to kill Prospero and King Alonso are
developed by Caliban, Sebastian, and
Antonio, and but they fail thanks to
Prospero’s magic.
The play ends with all offenders repenting,
even Caliban. Prospero regains his
dukedom, Ariel is freed from her service,
and everyone, except Caliban, leaves the
island.
9. 2.2.45-160
How does Trinculo and Stephano's discovery of Caliban
resemble aspects of Prospero and Miranda's first
encounters with him? What do these scenes of discovery
reveal about the political, religious, or social attitudes of
each character?
4:38
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jH6nUuu5A4s
10. Responses?
How does Trinculo and Stephano's
discovery of Caliban resemble aspects of
Prospero and Miranda's first encounters with
him? What do these scenes of discovery
reveal about the political, religious, or social
attitudes of each character?
2.2.45-160
4:38
11. Read with special care the scenes with Caliban, Trinculo, and Stephano
(2.2 and 3.2). What does Caliban think Trinculo is? What does Trinculo
think Caliban is? What does Stephano think Trinculo and Caliban
together are? What is their plan, and what happens to it? To what extent
would you call this plan revolutionary?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXRX6va-sLk 3.2 3:32
Directed by Julie Taymor, 2010
Scene 3.2
12. Read with special care the scenes with Caliban, Trinculo, and
Stephano (2.2 and 3.2). What does Caliban think Trinculo is? What
does Trinculo think Caliban is? What does Stephano think Trinculo
and Caliban together are? What is their plan, and what happens to it?
To what extent would you call this plan revolutionary?
3.2 3:32
What do you think?
13. Questions
What are the goals of the conspiracy
staged by Trinculo, Stephano, and
Caliban (2.2 and 3.2)? What does
each party want to get out of it? Do
you ever feel that they are likely to
succeed? How (if at all) does the
playwright let us know whose side
he's on?
15. The Masque: 4.1.63-155
Wolfbane Productions
The Tempest, Sept 2011.
• What is the overall impact of the Masque? How is it
supposed to affect the two young lovers? What is its
message about the sanctity of the marriage bond?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAnsb3sBVHw
Begin 2:58-7:50
16. What do you think?
• What is the overall impact of the
Masque? How is it supposed to affect
the two young lovers? What is its
message about the sanctity of the
marriage bond?
17. Christopher Plummer as
Prospero
Act 5 Scene 1 Lines 1-40
• Why does Prospero decide to show mercy to his enemies?
Why is Ariel the first to speak of mercy? Do you think
Prospero had planned to forgive them from the
beginning?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38N1QcUarTE
18. Do you know?
• Why does Prospero decide to show mercy to his enemies?
Why is Ariel the first to speak of mercy? Do you think
Prospero had planned to forgive them from the
beginning?
19. The Tempest - Prospero's incantation
Helen Mirren
You elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and
groves,
And you that on the sands with printless foot
Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and do fly him
When he comes back; you demi-puppets that
By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make,
Whereof the ewe not bites; and you whose
pastime
Is to make midnight mushrumps, that rejoice
To hear the solemn curfew; by whose aid,
Weak masters though you be, I have bedimmed
The noontide sun, called forth the mutinous
winds,
And ’twixt the green sea and the azured vault
Set roaring war; to the dread rattling thunder
Have I given fire, and rifted Jove’s stout oak
With his own bolt; the strong-based
promontory
Have I made shake, and by the spurs plucked
up
The pine and cedar; graves at my command
Have waked their sleepers, oped, and let ’em
forth
By my so potent art. But this rough magic
I here abjure, and when I have required
Some heavenly music, which even now I do,
Prospero gestures with his staff.
To work mine end upon their senses that
This airy charm is for, I’ll break my staff,
Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,
And deeper than did ever plummet sound
I’ll drown my book.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKrX3MzdFUI (5.1.41-66)
20. (5.1.41-66)
• Why does Prospero decide to give up magic? What does
his choice show about what he thinks happened in the
past? How does he plan to live in the future? What has
Prospero learned? Has he changed in any fundamental
way or had the change already occurred before the
beginning of the action?
21. Source of The Tempest
In addition to the speech derived
from Montaigne's essay Of the
Canibales, much of Prospero's
incantation (5.1.41-66) is taken from
Ovid's poem Metamorphoses.
22. Golding's Ovid - Medea's incantation:
Ye Ayres and windes: ye Elves of Hilles, of Brookes, of Woods alone,
Of standing Lakes, and of the Night approche ye everychone.
Through helpe of whom (the crooked bankes much wondring at the thing)
I have compelled streames to run clean e backward to their spring.
By charmes I make the calme Seas rough, and make y rough Seas plaine
And cover all the Skie with Cloudes, and chase them thence againe.
By charmes I rayse and lay the windes, and burst the Vipers jaw,
And from the bowels of the Earth both stones and trees doe drawe.
Whole woods and Forestes I remove : I make the Mountaines shake,
And even the Earth it selfe to grone and fearfully to quake.
I call up dead men from their graves : and thee O lightsome Moone
I darken oft, though beaten brasse abate thy perill soone.
Our Sorcerie dimmes the Morning faire, and darkes y Sun at Noone.
See (5.1.41-66)
23. The Epilogue: The Tempest with
Michael Hordern as Prospero
1980: BBC Film
• This is the final scene of Shakespeare’s final play. Some
people suggest this is Shakespeare’s goodbye to his
audience. What do you say?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7FGNagKR50&t=2s
24. The Epilogue
• This is the final scene of Shakespeare’s final play. Some
people suggest this is Shakespeare’s goodbye to his
audience. What do you say?
25. Read: Of Cannibals by Montaigne (both under links and “Course Readings” on the website.
Post #18
1. Gonzalo, as Act 5 shows, has never approved of what was done to Prospero. In his speech in 2.1
(on the ideal commonwealth, echoing Montaigne’s essay Of Cannibals), he expresses distaste for
the more cynical and divisive features of government and society—exploitation of labor,
expropriation of land and extremes of luxury, poverty, drunkenness, gluttony. Discuss Gonzalo’s
speech in the context of Montaigne’s essay.
1. The play can be read as Shakespeare’s commentary on European exploration of new lands.
Prospero lands on an island with a native inhabitant, Caliban, a being he considers savage and
uncivilized. He teaches this “native” his language and customs, but this nurturing does not affect
the creature’s nature, at least from Prospero’s point of view. But Prospero does not drive Caliban
away, rather he enslaves him, forcing him to do work he considers beneath himself and his noble
daughter. As modern readers, sensitive to the legacy of colonialism, we need to ask if Shakespeare
sees this as the right order; what are his views of imperialism and colonialism? What are our
twentieth century reactions to the depiction of the relationship between the master and slave, shown
in this play? How does Montaigne’s essay complicate our view of colonialism?
1. The theme of Utopianism is linked to the explorations of new lands. Europeans were intrigued with
the possibilities presented for new beginnings in these “new” lands. Was it possible to create an
ideal state when given a chance to begin anew? Could humans hope to recreate a “golden age,” in
places not yet subject to the ills of European social order? Could there be different forms of
government? Consider both Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Montaigne’s Of Cannibals in your
response.
