The Tempest 3: Textual Gaps in

1
The Tempest (3) Textual Gaps in

• the Colonial Discourses -- Act III and its
  Adaptations

2
Plot Summary

• Act I
• 1. the sea change Alonso and the other
  courtiers positions threatened
• 2. Prospero re-telling history to Miranda, Ariel
  and Caliban
• Act II
• 1. Sebastian and Antonio, planning the murder
• 2. Trinculo and Stefano, meeting Caliban
• Act III
• 1. Ferdinand and Miranda on servitude, end with
  Prospero
• 2. Caliban, Stefano and Trinculos plotting
• 3. Ariel gives indictment to the sinful three.

3
Plot Summary (2)

• Act IV
• Prospero speaks to Ferdinand and asks him not to
  break Mirandas virgin-knot
• Masque and Prosperos famous speech on life as a
  dream
• Trinculo and Stephano, coming from the wet pond,
  get crazy about stealing and wearing the fine
  garments in front of Ps cave, forgetting about
  the plan of killing him.
• Act V
• Prospero puts on the garment he wore as Duke of
  Milan promises to set Ariel free, and speaks to
  the other characters in their trance. Forgives
  Antonio without getting his response. Shows
  Alonso M and Ferdinand, and announces that
  reconciliation is complete.
• Ps epilogue

4
Outline

• Starting Questions
• order, and gaps in Act III
• Scene I Miranda
• Scene II Caliban/S/T vs. Ariel
• Scene III Prosperos order
• Filmic Adaptations and Jarmans version

5
Starting Questions

• How do you characterize Miranda? Is she a naïve
  girl in Act I, and grows to become stronger, more
  mature individual in Act III?
• How is the order set among Caliban, Stepheno and
  Trinculo, and then disrupted by Ariel?
• What do you think about Calibans plan of killing
  Prospero?
• What roles does Ariel play in Scenes 2 and 3 of
  Act III? Does he serve merely as echoes and
  agent of Prospero?

6
Miranda and Ferdinand the order of love

• The use of Renaissance sonnet tradition in The
  Tempest
• Act I Prosperos speech (p. 108 I. 2 ll
  120-) the sympathy of natural elements a
  transition to the miraculous?
• Act III Ferdinands
• - use of paradoxes to show the power of love,
• -- praising Mirandas singularity
• -- emphasizing his nobility (but a slave to love)

7
Mirandas responses

• Disobeys her father
• Apparent submissiveness to F (ll. 83 - )
• Can tell that Ferdinand is not willing to do the
  work
• Actively asking for love and marriage.
• Sexual implication What I desire to give and
  much less takeWhat I shall die to want. But this
  is triflingAnd all the more it seeks to hide
  itself,The bigger bulk it shows.

8
Miranda

• O wonder! she exclaims upon seeing the company
  Prospero has assembled. How many goodly
  creatures are there here! / How beauteous mankind
  is! O brave new world / That has such people
  int! (V.i.184187).

9
Scene 2 Caliban and ST

• The order of conspiracy
• S- Caliban servant monster ? lieutenant ?
  Monsieur monster
• T --Your lieutenant, if you list he's no
  standard.
• Caliban makes a distinction between the two
  subservient to S only, asking his lord to
  protect him.
• His plan shows his awareness of the human order
  (1) the importance of language and
  knowledge/discourse 2) the importance of
  possessing the enemys woman).
• His rejection of S/Ts tune (p. 162)

10
Scene 2 Caliban and ST

• The disruption of conspiracy
• Ariels role Thou liest.
• --in defense of P, he repeats Trinculos words,
  which are also Prosperos (Thou most lying
  slave)both in an attempt to put Caliban in his
  old position.
• The third repetition thou S.
• Ariels music interpreted two ways by the two
  parties (pp 162)

11
Scene 3 an implicit hierarchy
Prospero, as he does in Act I, plays the role of
God to assert justice ? an artificial assertion
of order.

• Prospero

• Alonso

Ariel
Gonzalo
islanders
S T// Sebastian Antonio
12
Order and Gaps in the following Acts

• Act IV
• 1. virginity ensured
• the masquea trio performs a masque celebrating
  the lovers engagement. (Iris-- Junos messenger
  and the goddess of the rainbow , Juno--queen of
  the gods , and Ceres --goddess of agriculture).
• Prospero startles suddenly and then sends the
  spirits away.

13
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,As I
foretold you, were all spirits, andAre melted
into air, into thin airAnd, like the baseless
fabric of this vision,The cloud-capped towers,
the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the
great globe itself,Yea, all which it inherit,
shall dissolveAnd, like this insubstantial
pageant faded,Leave not a rack behind. We are
such stuffAs dreams are made on, and our little
lifeIs rounded with a sleep. (IV.i.148158)
Sir, I am vex'dBear with my weakness my old
brain is troubled.Be not disturb'd with my
infirmity.If you be pleas'd, retire into my
cellAnd there repose a turn or two I'll
walk,To still my beating mind. (158-63)
14
Order and Gaps in the following Acts

• Prosperos Last Judgment and reconciliation --
• Gonzalo is an honourable man (V.i.62)
• Alonso did, and knows he did, treat Prospero
  most cruelly (V.i.71)
• Antonio is an unnatural brother (V.i.79).
• But Antonio does not respond.

15
The Tempest

• William Woodmans (1985)
• What do you think about its costumes and acting?

16
Derek Jarman

• The concept of forgiveness in The Tempest
  attracted me it's a rare enough quality and
  almost absent in our world. To know who your
  enemies are, but to accept them for what they
  are, befriend them, and plan for a happier future
  is something we sorely need." Dancing Ledge

17
Jarmans The Tempest

• scenes of contrast
• Prosperos treatment of Caliban (sec. 1)
• Ferdinands emergence from the sea (as Venus?)
• Miranda and Caliban (sec 3)
• Prospero and Ariel (sec. 8)
• The masque and the ending (sec 12)

18
Jarmans The Tempest

• intervening the production of its past
• Catherine Belsey's "history as costume drama,
  the reconstruction of the past as the present in
  fancy dress."
• While it is impossible for an actor to resurrect
  the seventeenth-century body in performance, it
  should be possible at least to trouble an
  unproblematized reception of the body as
  completely familiar or knowable. (Ellis)

19
The issue of Race

• Caliban as an appetitive, physically excessive,
  working-class Northerner.
• Why does the film presents a white Caliban? For
  some critics, it is a glaring mistake of
  Jarmans.

20
The issue of Race

• Ellis in the 16th century, there is no
  distinction between the Irish, the masterless,
  the Renaissance moor, the Indian and Turks all
  are 'erring barbarians.
• Caliban, has links with Africa, the Caribbean,
  North America, and Ireland.
• A black Caliban is thus an invitation to
  unwitting anachronisms (Ellis 268).

21
The issue of Race the masque

• As such the masque was crucially involved in the
  establishment of cultural difference, so that it
  is not surprising that many masques featured
  cultural others who were positioned as threats to
  order or as disorder itself, such as Africans,
  Gypsies, or masterless men.

22
The issue of Race the masque

• Jarman's version of The Tempest takes up these
  crucial aspects of the masque in order to comment
  on both The Tempest's cultural history and the
  current state of England. His aim, as with the
  early modern masque, is to create through
  spectacle the grounds for a new community.

23
References

• Jim Ellis "Conjuring The Tempest Derek Jarman
  and the Spectacle of Redemption" GLQ A Journal
  of Lesbian and Gay Studies 7.2 (2001) 265-284.