Title: Task
1The Tempest
Written 1610-1611
2Task
- View the slides that follow and in pairs, or
threes, create a plot summary for what you think
the story is about.
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13The Shakespeare Quiz
- http//www.shakespeare-online.com/quiz/
- http//shakespeare.palomar.edu/quiz/bioquiz.htm
14SHAKESPEARE Starter
- WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT SHAKESPEARE? COMPLETE A
QUICK BRAINSTORM IN YOUR BOOKS.
SHAKESPEARE
15Not just an actor and playwright. He also wrote
poetry and sonnets.
Born in 1564. He lived for 52 years.
He is buried at the Holy Trinity Church in
Stratford-upon-Avon.
He wrote on average 1.5 plays per year of his
life. Thats 37 plays!
SHAKESPEARE
His son Hamnet died at 11 years of age.
He was also an actor and performed in his own
plays. He played in front of both Elizabeth I and
James I.
Came from a wealthy background His father was a
wealthy merchant.
Married at Anne Hathaway, an older woman, when he
was 18 years old. She was 26.
When you google his name, 15 million pages come
up!
16SHAKESPEARES ENGLISH
- SHAKESPEARES ENGLISH
- Shakespeare took full advantage of the changing
- English language and created, throughout his
plays, - many new words which we still use today. In all
his - works the plays, the sonnets, and the narrative
- poems Shakespeare uses 17,677 words. Of those,
- 1,700 were first used by Shakespeare. He has been
the - most important influence on the development of
the - modern English that we speak today.
17SOME OF HIS WORDS
- - Accommodation - Amazement
- - Apostrophe - Assassination
- - Bloody - Bump
- - Control (noun) - Countless
- - Critical - Exposure
- - Generous - Gloomy
- - Hurry - Lonely
- - Monumental - Obscene
- - Premeditated - Reliance
- - Road - Suspicious
18THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
- Most of the play is written in a poetic rhythm.
This is called a meter. - Shakespeare uses IAMBIC PENTAMETER. This is a
meter most similar to the beating of the heart.
Baabom, baabom, baabom - There are five IAMS per line. An iam is a
stressed then unstressed syllable. - /u /u /u /u /u
19KEY FACTS
- full title The Tempest
- author William Shakespeare
- genre Romance
- language Elizabethan English
- time and place written 16101611 England
- date of first publication 1623
- tone Dreamy, mysterious, magical
- setting (time) The Renaissance
- setting (place) An island in the Mediterranean
sea, probably off the coast of Italy - protagonist Prospero
- major conflict Prospero, the duke of Milan and
a powerful magician, was banished from Italy and
cast to sea by his usurping brother, Antonio, and
Alonso, the king of Naples. As the play begins,
Antonio and Alonso come under Prosperos magic
power as they sail past his island. Prospero
seeks to use his magic to make these lords repent
and restore him to his rightful place. - rising action Prospero creates the tempest,
causing his enemies ship to wreck and its
passengers to be dispersed about the island. - climax Alonso and his party stop to rest, and
Prospero causes a banquet to be set out before
them. Just as they are about to eat, Ariel
appears in the shape of a harpy and accuses them
of their treachery against Prospero. Alonso is
overwhelmed with remorse. - falling action Prospero brings Alonso and the
others before him and forgives them. Prospero
invites Alonso and his company to stay the night
before everyone returns to Italy the next day,
where Prospero will reassume his dukedom. - themes The illusion of justice, the difficulty
of distinguishing men from monsters, the
allure of ruling a colony - motifs Masters and servants, water and
drowning, mysterious noises - symbols The tempest, the game of chess,
Prosperos books - foreshadowing Prospero frequently hints at his
plans to bring his enemies before him and to
confront them for their treachery. Prospero also
hints at his plans to relinquish his magic once
he has confronted and forgiven his enemies.
20THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
- Some devices are used regularly in Shakespearean
plays. One is the soliloquy. This is where a
character stands alone and speaks his or her
thoughts so that the audience knows what he or
she plans to do. The second is an aside, this is
where a character speaks quietly to the audience
while the rest of the characters on stage are
oblivious. - Lastly you need to be aware of the role of women
during Shakespeares era. Women are mens
property. Their lives are entirely governed by
men.
21The Feminist Critique
22The Feminist Critique
- The Tempest has only one female character,
Miranda. Other women, such as Caliban's mother
Sycorax, Miranda's mother and Alonso's daughter
Claribel, are only mentioned. Because of the
small role women play in the story in comparison
to other Shakespeare plays, The Tempest has not
attracted much feminist criticism. Miranda is
typically viewed as being completely deprived of
freedom by her father. Her only duty in his eyes
is to remain chaste. It has been argued that she
is typical of women in a colonial atmosphere, has
completely accepted the patriarchal order of
things, thinking of herself as subordinate to her
father. - The less-prominent women mentioned in the play
are subordinated as well, as they are only
described through the men of the play. Most of
what is said about Sycorax, for example, is said
by Prospero. Prospero has never met Sycorax all
he learned about her he learned from Ariel. It
can be argued that Prospero's suspicion of women
makes him an unreliable source of information.
23Post-Colonial Theory The Tempest
- During the 15th Century until the 19th Century
(1400s-1800s) Europe began its first colonial
wave. - This was a common occurrence in Shakespeares
time. - The earth was being discovered and stories were
coming back from distant lands. There were myths
about the cannibals of the Carribean, of true
Edens and distant utopias (an ideally perfect
place)
24Post-Colonial Theory The Tempest
- With the character Caliban (whose name is roughly
anagrammatic to Cannibal), Shakespeare may be
offering an in-depth discussion into the morality
of colonialism. - Different views of this are found in the play,
with examples including Gonzalos Utopia,
Prosperos enslavement of Caliban, and Caliban's
subsequent resentment. - Caliban is also shown as one of the most natural
characters in the play, being very much in touch
with the natural world and modern audiences have
come to view him as far nobler than his two
friends, Stephano and Trinculo, although the
original intent of the author may have been
different.
25Post-Colonial Theory The Tempest
- From the mid 1950s more and more academics have
studied The Tempest through a post-colonial lens.
This new way of looking at the text explored the
effect of the coloniser (Prospero) on the
colonised (Ariel and Caliban). Though Ariel is
often overlooked in these debates in favour of
the more intriguing Caliban, he is nonetheless an
essential character. Ariel is generally viewed by
scholars as the good servant, in comparison with
the conniving Calibana view which Shakespeare's
audience may well have shared. Ariel is used by
some postcolonial writers as a symbol of their
efforts to overcome the effects of colonisation
on their culture
26Post-colonial theory in The Tempest
- The Tempest explores many different aspects of
colonialism - Europeans appropriation of and exploitation of
foreign territories - Europeans subordination of indigenous
populations (such as the different treatment of
Caliban and Ariel) - Europeans claims that they are colonizing to
bring Christianity and civilization (Prosperos
taking credit for the fact that he has taught
Caliban how to speak and the fact that he has
liberated Ariel) - Europeans use of colonialism as a way to let off
pressure from their own social conflicts (for
instance Prosperos exile on Calibans island
after he has been deposed by Sebastian Gonzalos
vision of an island society that would correct
all of the bad things about Europe lower-class
men like Stephano and Trinculo seeking to exploit
Caliban and set themselves up as rulers of the
colonized space)
27Post-colonial theory in The Tempest
- Caliban has been ensalved, as was the case of
native people being "colonized" by conquering
nations. He suffers as a result, receiving
alcohol and misunderstanding the "gift" and the
giver because he is not accustomed to this
culture. He reacts by devising a plot, wanting
Stephano to be leader of the island. He
struggles against his enslavement, but like so
many colonies, he does not realize that his own
choice of leader could be just as destructive.
Post-colonial Africa is dealing with this still,
having ousted nations of Europe only to find
themselves in civil war, and hugely unstable.
Similarly, other "natives" are easily distracted
by the wealth of Prospero, and are drawn to it,
leaving behind their need for rebellion. Comfort
exceeds freedom.
28Usurpation
- The NZ Australian Experience
29ACT II
- Using the READING STRATEGY from term one, write
three paragraphs on ActII using supporting
evidence. - NOTE YOU MUST REFER TO THE WORDS IN THE STRATEGY
30ACT III
- WRITE THE FOLLOWING NAMES IN YOUR BOOKS
- prospero caliban ariel sycorax
- Beneath each name write all the associations you
make.
31ACT III
- WRITE THE FOLLOWING NAMES IN YOUR BOOKS
- prospero caliban ariel sycorax
- One is a savage, one is a duke, one a witch and
the other a spirit. Which one is which do you
think?
32ACT III
- Read all of ActIII
- Close reading
- BOX QUOTE
- Quotation Quest
33Tempest Quiz
34The Use of Magic
35PUNS
- In The Tempest, two sets of characters use puns.
Antonio and Sebastian use them to mock other
people. Stephano and Trinculo use puns to amuse
themselves and each other. Students should also
watch out for metaphors, or plays on words in
which one object or idea is expressed as if it
were something else.
36Gonzalos Idea of Governance
- Gonzalos fantasy about the plantation he would
like to build on the island is a remarkable
poetic evocation of a utopian society, in which
no one would work, all people would be equal and
live off the land, and all women would be
innocent and pure. This vision indicates
something of Gonzalos own innocence and purity.
Shakespeare treats the old mans idea of the
island as a kind of lovely dream, in which the
frustrations and obstructions of life
(magistrates, wealth, power) would be removed and
all could live naturally and authentically.
Though Gonzalos idea is not presented as a
practical possibility (hence the mockery he
receives from Sebastian and Antonio), Gonzalos
dream contrasts to his credit with the
power-obsessed ideas of most of the other
characters, including Prospero. Gonzalo would do
away with the very master-servant motif that lies
at the heart of The Tempest.
37Colonising Caliban
- More important than the emphasis on the way in
which Caliban seems to others more monster than
man, is the way in which this scene dramatizes
the initial encounter between an almost
completely isolated, primitive culture and a
foreign, civilized one. The reader discovers
during Caliban and Prosperos confrontation in
Act I, scene ii that Prospero initially made
much of Caliban (II.ii.336) that he gave
Caliban Water with berries int (II.ii.337)
that Caliban showed him around the island and
that Prospero later imprisoned Caliban, after he
had taken all he could take from him. The reader
can see these events in Act II, scene ii, with
Trinculo and Stephano in the place of Prospero.
Stephano calls Caliban a brave monster, as they
set off singing around the island. In addition,
Stephano and Trinculo give Caliban wine, which
Caliban finds to be a celestial liquor
(II.ii.109). Moreover, Caliban initially mistakes
Stephano and Trinculo for Prosperos spirits, but
alcohol convinces him that Stephano is a brave
god and decides unconditionally to kneel to
him (II.ii.109110). This scene shows the
foreign, civilized culture as decadent and
manipulative Stephano immediately plans to
inherit the island (II.ii.167), using Caliban
to show him all its virtues. Stephano and
Trinculo are a grotesque, parodic version of
Prospero upon his arrival twelve years ago.
Godlike in the eyes of the native, they slash and
burn their way to power.
38Usurpation
- As we have seen, one of the ways in which The
Tempest builds its rich aura of magical and
mysterious implication is through the use of
doubles scenes, characters, and speeches that
mirror each other by either resemblance or
contrast. This scene is an example of doubling
almost everything in it echoes Act II, scene i.
In this scene, Caliban, Trinculo, and Stephano
wander aimlessly about the island, and Stephano
muses about the kind of island it would be if he
ruled itI will kill this man Prospero. His
daughter and I will be King and Queen . . . and
Trinculo and thyself Caliban shall be viceroys
(III.ii.101103)just as Gonzalo had done while
wandering with Antonio and Sebastian in Act II,
scene i. At the end of Act III, scene ii, Ariel
enters, invisible, and causes strife among the
group, first with his voice and then with music,
leading the men astray in order to thwart Antonio
and Sebastians plot against Alonso. The
power-hungry servants Stephano and Trinculo thus
become rough parodies of the power-hungry
courtiers Antonio and Sebastian. All four men are
now essentially equated with Caliban, who is, as
Alonso and Antonio once were, simply another
usurper.