Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
General
- Published in 1610
- Concerned with the human experience
- People being able to transform their human mechanisms
- Interest in new worlds and incorporates ways of thinking
o Trying to infiltrate their way of thinking into the new
worlds
- Renaissance as the idea of rebirth and human potential being
explored
- Tragic comedy
- Based on the idea of a magical island
o Island as a microcosm; allowing for concentration (of
tension) of transformation through introspection
o Crystallises all of the main issues and values within that
world
o Island allows a crystallised perspective of Prosperos
past
o A place of transformation, challenges and a place of
magic
o Individuals can be transformed if they wish
- Masque costumes, clever staging, discovery of the eternal
laws of the universe beyond the physical
- Commedia dellarte
- Displacement
o Characters become exiled and displaced
o Removal from the ordinary world
- Illumination
o The idea of renewed vision into the future
o Through dreaming, Prospero is able to reignite a sense
of illumination for most characters
o Enemies in a state of dreaming that come to a sense of
illumination in their ways
- Play starts with a confession from Prospero
- Storm is a dramatic device used to show an unsettled state
within Prospero
- Discoveries of new worlds can lead to a sense of power
structures being confirmed
Prospero
- The tutor
- Ignite memories in Miranda through questioning
- Clarifies his own memories
- Starts to recognise his own weaknesses
- Comes to a sense of illumination
- Realises that virtue and reconciliation make take place
- Goes through transformation
- Appropriate and exploit Calibans resources
Caliban
- Discovery by Prospero leads to his exploitation
- Caliban lists the qualities of the island and shows regret due to
this
o Shows a sense of intimacy
- Uses the word cursed which shows his discovery by Prospero
lead to him being entrapped
- A thing most brutish animalist image
- The idea of him being the other
o Being the animal sometimes like apes, that mow and
chatter at me
- Discovery of alcohol leads to his disempowerment
- Hands over the island to a new master
Ferdinand
- Comes to a discovery of love
- Miranda refers to Ferdinand as being a magical and divine
creature
- At first sight they have changed eyes
o Seeing things with new sight and vision, they are
transformed
o Sharing qualities
- Metaphor of a temple
o A place of worship, a deity
o Classical allusion
- Ferdinand is being revitalised by the relationship
Gonzalo
- Idea of perception
- The idea of optimism and Christian values
- Shows the idea of hope
- Interested in the idea of utopia
- His word is more than the miraculous harp
o He is an optimist
- Our garments that were drenched in the sea hold
notwithstanding their freshness and glosses, being rather
new-dyed
o A sense of optimism and hope
- Describes the golden age, the island as a new type of society
o Harmonious, peaceful and equal, virtuous
o No overwork or exploitation of resources
- Discoveries can be based on values that show a sense of
communal worth
- Image of compassion that provokes Prosperos change
- Acknowledges Caliban as being his responsibility
Antonio
- Contrast to Gonzalo
- Always interested in opportunities to do with power
- Tries to make Sebastian take over as leader
- Sees discovery of opportunity as a chance to reinforce power
structures
- Take a chance to enforce your own power
Audience Discovery
- Caliban has been a despised character yet is poetic and
inspirational in his language
- Tempest and colonialism
o Status and power
o Based on colonial elements people having freedom
taken away from them
Act 1
Scene 1
- Unrest and turmoil
- Created as a result of revenge from Prospero (On Alonso and
Antonio)
o Example of his inner turmoil
- Exclamatory language, short utterances
o Cathartic experience
Scene 2
- Example of a deliberate and carefully planned discovery
o The impact it has on perceptions
- Prospero leading Miranda through memory
The
ear
o
o
o
o
hours now come, the very minute bids thee ope thine
Act 3
Scene 3
- Another storm created by Ariel
o Accuses the men of guilt and corruption
o Uses the power of speech to confront them with their
sins