Prospero uses magic to shipwreck his enemies on a remote island. He hopes to kill his brother Antonio and unite his daughter Miranda with Ferdinand. The play establishes relationships between Prospero and his slaves - the monstrous Caliban and the spirit Ariel. It also introduces Miranda and hints at her developing relationship with Ferdinand. Prospero controls the other characters through his power as a sorcerer and as the only father figure, representing colonial and patriarchal power dynamics.

1. Notes complied by Dr Dalene Labuschagne
February 2020
ENGLISH 3A COURSE
REPRESENTATIONS OF ‘THE OTHER’ IN LITERATURE
Module 1:
William Shakespeare’s The Tempest
Week 3

2. Representations of ‘the other’ in
William Shakespeare’s
The Tempest (1611 [1623])
(continued)

3. Overview
 Five acts, nine scenes
 Set on a remote island [The Tempest, Or An Enchanted Island]
 Main characters:
 Prospero
 Miranda
 Caliban
 Plot:
 Prospero uses magic (derived from the spirits on the island) to create a
storm that would cause his enemies to shipwreck on the island.
 Prospero’s purpose is to direct events so that he can kill his brother
Antonio, who had usurped his throne as Duke of Milan.
 Part of Prospero’s plan is to cause Miranda and Ferdinand, son to the
King of Naples, to fall in love, presumably to establish for himself some
sort of power through Miranda.
 The play ends with Prospero forgiving his enemies, rather than killing
them, and freeing Caliban and Ariel.

4. Act I, scene 1
Prime function is to set the tone for the play
Storm
 “On a ship at sea; a tempestuous noise of thunder
and lightning heard”:
creates a sense of chaos, disorder, fear, imminent death;
conventional roles and power structures denied:
BOATSWAIN. […] Hence! What cares these roarers for the
name of king?
BOATSWAIN. [to GONZALO] […] You are counsellor: […]
Use your authority: if you cannot, give thanks you have
lived so long, and make yourself ready in your cabin for
the mischance of the hour;
“you are” – informal, indicates lack of respect;

5. Act I, scene 1
Setting
Ocean, ship
Liminal, uncertain spaces
Island offers appearance of stability, safety;
GONZALO. Now would I give a thousand furlongs of
sea for an acre of barren ground; [irony?]
Relationship between passengers and crew
 social hierarchy
SEBASTIAN. [speaking to BOATSWAIN] A pox o' your
throat, you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog!
‘natural’ attitude towards underlings

6. Act I, scene 1
Uncertainty about who the characters are
 Alonso: “king” (not clear who is “prince”)
 king, figure of ultimate authority, portrayed as
powerless;
 comment on male-dominated system, constructed by
society, not ‘natural’ despite being viewed as “the natural
order”?
 Sebastian and Antonio: not yet clear who they are;
 sense of their being arrogant and crude, though
ANTONIO. Hang, cur, hang! you whoreson, insolent noisemaker,
we are less afraid to be drowned than thou art.
 Gonzalo: “counsellor”, but unable to mediate peace:
“Nay, good, be patient” (I.1.21).
 Situation evokes sympathy for what Miranda describes as
“[the] fraughting souls” (I.2.97) on the ship.

7. Act I, scene 2
Reveals key character traits of main figures
 Miranda (aged 15)
“O, I have suffered/With those that I saw suffer:” (I.2.89-90);
tender, compassionate; Prospero: “your piteous heart” (99); “The
very virtue of compassion in thee” (117);
“some noble creature” (91)
 implies naivety, prefigures encounter with Ferdinand;
“had I been any god of power” (94)
 suggests powerlessness of women;
“More to know/Did never meddle with my thoughts” (109-110)
passive
PROSPERO. […]Thou attend'st not/MIRANDA. O, good sir, I do
(187-88)
obedient
All the requirements of a the “ideal” woman.

8. Act I, scene 2
Miranda, through Prospero’s eyes:
“my dear one” (104); “a cherubim” (264); “foolish
wench!” (668);
Ambivalent; loving towards her, provided she obeys;
Miranda, through Caliban’s eyes:
he sought “to violate/The honour of [Miranda]” in order
to people the “isle with Calibans” (499-503);
sees her as a means to an end, fit only for breeding;
Miranda, through Ferdinand’s eyes:
“O you wonder!/If you be maid or no?” (594-5); “if a
virgin/[…]I'll make you/The queen of Naples (623-5);
are his designs any nobler than Caliban’s?
Typical view/role of women

9. Act I, scene 2
Reveals certain key character traits of main figures
 Prospero
 “I have done nothing but in care of thee,/Of thee, my dear one, thee, my
daughter” (103-4);
 Noble; loving father, but repetition of “thee” suggests an attempt to justify his
actions, perhaps hide his own self-serving motives;
 [Lays down his mantle]/Lie there, my art (114-15); [Resumes his mantle] (284);
 suggests power is not inherent, can be removed;
 public/private persona
 “Obey and be attentive” (130); “I pray thee, mark me” (166); “Dost thou
attend me?” (177); “Thou attend'st not” (187); I pray thee, mark me” (189);
“Dost thou hear?” (207);
 Excessive repetition, authoritarian and demanding (patriarchy); perhaps also
another attempt to justify his side of the story;
 “I, thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated/To closeness and the bettering
of my mind” (190); “Me, poor man, my library/Was dukedom large enough:”
(211-212); “Knowing I loved my books, [Gonzalo] furnish'd me/From mine own
library with volumes that/I prize above my dukedom” (278-80).
 Depicts himself as victim, apparently trying to hide his own culpability; neglect of his
dukedom is his tragic flaw, his downfall;

10. Act I, scene 2
Prospero, through Miranda’s eyes:
“my dearest father” (85); “My father's of a
better nature” (695);
Prospero, through Ariel’s eyes:
“All hail, great master! grave sir, hail!” (306);
“my master” (339); “thou dost give me pains”
(370);
Prospero, through Caliban’s eyes:
“This island's mine, […],/Which thou takest from
me (482-3); “When thou camest first, […] I loved
thee” (483-87); “The red plague rid you” (518); “I
must obey: his art is of such power” (529);
Typical view/role of men

11. Act I, scene 2
Reveals certain key character traits of main figures
 Caliban (“a savage and deformed slave”)
“As wicked dew as e'er my mother brush'd/With raven's feather
from unwholesome fen/Drop on you both! a south-west blow
on ye/And blister you all o'er!” (471-74);
Hateful, malicious, cruel;
Powerless, nevertheless;
“You taught me language; and my profit on't/Is, I know
how to curse. The red plague rid you/For learning me
your language!” (517-19)
“When thou camest first, […] I loved thee” (483-87);
Innocent at first, trusting nature perverted by encounter with
Prospero
 Metaphor for colonization by another (an other), and its effects.

12. Act I, scene 2
Reveals certain key character traits of main figures
 Caliban
 Through Prospero’s eyes:
“poisonous slave, got by the devil himself” (467); “most lying
slave” (496); “Hag-seed” (520);
“We cannot miss him: he does make our fire,/Fetch in our wood
and serves in offices/That profit us (456-59);
typical of colonizer, despises the other, but cannot do without him;
Biblical allusion, Joshua 9:23 – “Now therefore ye are cursed, and
there shall none of you be freed from being bondmen, and hewers of
wood and drawers of water for the house of my God.”
 Suggests Caliban’s position as slave is divinely sanctioned.
 Through Miranda’s eyes:
 “Abhorred slave, […] I pitied thee” (504-506); “savage”, “A thing
most brutish” “thy vile race” (508-511);
 seems merely to echo Prospero’s views; suggests domineering
influence of patriarchal system;

13. Act I, scene 2
Pivotal in depicting certain key relationships
 Miranda and Prospero
 Father/daughter; male/female
 Female subject to male authority
 General view of women: PROSPERO: Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and/She said thou wast
my daughter (152-53); MIRANDA: I should sin/To think but nobly of my grandmother:/Good
wombs have borne bad sons.
 Prospero and Caliban
 Master/slave; (initially like father/son?)
 Caliban enslaved through deceit: Thou strokedst me and madest much of me, wouldst give
me/Water with berries in't, […] and then I loved thee/And show'd thee all the qualities o' the
isle […] Cursed be I that did so!
 Prospero and Ariel
 Master/slave
 Prospero seems not to deliver on all of his promises, while Ariel does – implications?
 Miranda and Caliban
 Mistress (teacher)/slave? Ambiguous?
 Strange parallel between Miranda and Caliban, both taught by Prospero;
 Miranda and Ferdinand
 Man/woman; lovers (implying equality?)
 Based on outward appearance, ignorance; idealistic, perhaps even superficial.