William Shakespeare’s

1. The Tempest William Shakespeare’s Scene Analyses

2. act 1 scene 1 • Most dramatic opening of any of Shakespeare’s plays. • May serve as a metaphor for the turmoil of the past…’after the storm comes the calm’. • Shakespeare often uses a storm as an indication of a transition of one phase of someone’s life to another. Storms appear in King Lear, Macbeth, Othello and Twelfth Night. • Scene ends with Gonzalo acknowledging that the ultimate control of our lives is not in the hands of human beings: ‘The wills above be done’ (66) reminiscent of ‘Thy will be done’ The Lord’s Prayer. • Question posed early in play concerning the nature and limits of human authority. • Note characters in this scene are not named outright but referred to by their social position: Master, Boatswain, King, Prince. • The tempest we learn in the next scene is not the work of nature at all. • Think of the challenges of staging this scene in 1610. • To what extent do the characters in this scene reveal their different personalities?

3. act 1 scene 2 4 parts to this long but essential scene: • 1. Prospero’s story (1-186) - Storm caused by Prospero’s ‘art’ - Story of being overthrown as Duke of Milan ‘The hour’s now come’ • 2. Ariel’s story (187-305) - Obeyed orders to shipwreck the vessel - Prospero reminds Ariel of ‘his’ freeing from Sycorax • 3. Caliban’s story (306-74) - Caliban enslaved after he welcomes Prospero to the island. • 4. Ferdinand and Miranda (375-500) - Ferdinand grieves for his father, King Alonso - Ferdinand and Miranda fall in love, Ferdinand treated harshly by Prospero.

4. act 1 scene 2 • Islands as places used by writers to allow characters to develop: Robinson Crusoe (1719), Lord of the Flies (1954) • Shakespeare regularly employs device of one brother usurping another – As You Like It. • Biblical Allusions: (30) link with Luke 12:7 Jesus tells his followers that God loves them so much that ‘the very hairs of your head are numbered’ • Introduces Miranda’s sensitivity to the plight of others • Introduction to Prospero’s magical powers: ‘lie there my art’ ‘rapt in secret studies’ • (l61) ‘or bless’d we did?’. Common theme in Shakespeare of a deposed ruler who finds happiness in exile. • Prospero’s neglect of responsibilities of state? • 1. Importance of astrology; ‘most auspicious star’ (182) lives are influenced by celestial movements. • 2. Importance of new discoveries: ‘the still-vexed Bermoothes’ Bermudas mapped early in C16th by Juan de Bermudez • 3. Language in connection with Caliban. ‘The foul witch Sycorax’ (258). Jacobean obsession/fear of witches, women suspected would be hanged or burned – unless pregnant ‘blue-ey’d’. B) note animal imagery for Caliban ‘litter’ in (131) Prospero suggests Caliban was ‘got by the devil’ (To have intercourse with a demon or incubus was believed to be an unforgivable sin)…see girls Shakespeare is relevant, just so you know no good will come of dating a demon. Not husband material.

5. Act 1 Summary 1. Contrasts: • violence of shipwreck (1,1) v calm of storytelling (1,2) • Emotionally charged episodes in 1,2. - Prospero struggles to control his anger as he tells of his overthrow, - Ariel delights in the panic caused on the ship but seems resentful of his continued service and longs freedom - Caliban’s anger at enslavement v mood of Ferdinand and Miranda’s wonder of love 2. Questions of Rightful Authority: • Boatswain’s command over the King and his court • Prospero’s dukedom being usurped by his brother • Prospero’s control over Ariel • Caliban protests that the island was his before Prospero stole it from him. • Ferdinand, accused of wanting to steal the island is threatened by Prospero 3. Imprisonment or confinement: • Ariel is painfully confined within a cloven pine & threatened with similar from Prospero, Caliban is kept like a pig in a sty and Ferdinand is physically confined by Prospero • What do you think about Prospero and the way he uses his art?

6. Act I: questions for discussion • I, i: How, in the play's opening scene, does Shakespeare effectively engage the audience's attention? Comment on the balance between what we find out, and what we wish to know. How would performing this scene stretch the resources of the contemporary (16th century) actors? • I, ii: How does I, ii cast light on the previous scene? In what different ways does Shakespeare use this scene to give us information about Prospero's and Miranda's past, how they came to the island and how they have lived on it since? What is the advantage of Prospero's narrating (to Miranda) the story of Antonio's usurpation of this throne, rather than the playwright's directly presenting it? (In The Winter's Tale there is also a long interval of time [sixteen years], but in this play it comes between the third and fourth acts). In The Tempest we start with Prospero's problems, but most of the play shows their resolution. • How, according to Prospero, has Miranda benefited from her unusual education (lines 172-4)? We can judge for ourselves, in the rest of the play, if he is right. What do we learn in this scene of the characters of Ariel and Caliban? In theatrical terms, why are these two so interesting? How do they challenge our ideas about rational beings, spirits and human nature? What is your view of Prospero's manipulation of Ferdinand in the final part of the scene?

7. act 2 critical review • Shakespeare’s creative skill sets the menacing tones of scene 1 against the comedy of 2,2. • Issue of authority continues: Antonio & Sebastian’s assassination plot, and Caliban’s rejection of one master for another. • Gonzalo’s commonwealth speech: no government is desirable or necessary, no savages either. • European assumption of superiority seen in Stephano and Trinculo’s attitude towards Caliban.