The Tempest (1)

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The Tempest (1)

• General Introduction and Act I

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Outline
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The Tempest

• The last of Shakespeares play
• First presented at a court (1611)
• First published in 1623 Folio as the first play
  in that folio.
• Genre comedy, romance (love and wedding), with
  both tragic elements (e.g. authority and power,
  vengeance vs. forgiveness), and comic elements
  (farce, wedding, mask).

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Renaissance

• Tillyard Renaissance World Picture
• The desire for order was there (1943 99 qtd
  Taylor 170-71)
• ? Shakespeares history plays events evolve
  under a law of Justice and the rule of Gods
  Providence.(169)

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Renaissance

• 1590s and early 1600s experienced
• among other uncertainties an intensified
  Recusant(??????) problem, the Gunpower plot,
  peasant disorders and riots against enclosures of
  common land. (Taylor 171)

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The Tempest as a Colonial Text

• The age of Exploration and Scientific Discovery
  
• Written after Shakespeare read the accounts of
  the wreck of Sir George Somers on the Bermudas,
  and probably spoken to some of the survivors.
  The story moved him strangely, for storms and
  wrecks were much in his mind at this time
  (Halliday 104)
• Colonial? -- Shakespeare makes the island
  populated by Caliban and Ariel.

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Shakespear Criticism a general overview

1. Intensive study of Ss characters and
   Shakespeares life (e.g. A.C. Bradley)
2. Formalist approach (to the sonnet and to the
   plays interrelations between acts, and/or
   between plays)
3. Shakespearean theatre
4. Shakespeare in historyhis or our own
5. Voices from the margins (e.g. post-colonial and
   feminist)

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The Tempest various interpretations

1. Art vs. Nature (Prospero vs. Caliban)
2. Usurpation and vengeance
3. Colonization
4. Initiation of Miranda (the question of sex
   marriage).
5. Act I Authority gained, lost and re-constructed

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The Tempest Act 1-1

• How is authority gained, lost or constructed?
• How is Nature opposed to Culture in this scene?
• How are the major characters here, Boatswain,
  Gonzalo, Sebastian and Antonio characterized?
  Why does Boatswain not have a name?

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The Tempest Act 1-1

• Boatswain listens only to his master, and
  speaks to the storm (What cares theseroarers
  for the name of king? )
• Sebastian impatient and cursing (A pox o' your
  throat, you bawling, blasphemous,incharitable
  dog! )
• Gonzalo appeals to law and order (the joke
  about drowning and hanging)

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The Tempest Act 1-2Miranda and Prospero

• How is authority gained, lost and re-constructed?
• Is Miranda as innocent, meek and passive as she
  appears to be? Whats her views of knowledge
  and the past?
• --She is sweet, kind, but with a desire to know,
  a memory repressed and some hints of an interest
  in sex and marriage (11. 21, 35 42050 55 119).
  

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The Tempest Act 1-2Miranda and Prospero

• How is authority gained or constructed? How is
  Prospero related to Miranda?
• Telling story about the past to justify himself
  (repeatedly asking for her attention ll. 55 78
  95)
• 2. How does he lose his power? Could the story
  be told otherwise? (ll. 65 -

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The Tempest Act 1-2Prospero and Ariel

• How is authority gained or constructed?
• Is Ariel all obedient? (ll. 189 220 242)
• Why and how does Prospero tells Ariels story to
  him?
• By describing once a month in great details
  Ariels past history of tortures, scolding him
  and naming him (my slave). (ll 250 -

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The Tempest Act 1-2Prospero and Caliban

• How is authority gained or constructed?
• Caliban, for sure, is disobedient. How does
  Prospero control him? How gets to tell the story
  here?
• How is Calibans version of Prosperos arrival
  different from the previous two he tells Miranda
  and Ariel respectively? (ll. 30)
• In what sense is Caliban close to nature? (ll.
  323 338-)
• How does Prospero defend himself? (ll. 345 -)
  

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The Tempest Act 1-2Prospero, Miranda and
Ferdinand

• How is authority gained or constructed?
• What does Prospero do to achieve what he wants
  (marrying Miranda to Ferdinand)? In his
  intervention, how does he manipulate different
  parties involved?
• Arent Ariels songs enchanting? Analyze the
  sound patterns.

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