The Tempest critics for mock

Beerbohm on Propsero ‘Prospero holds all…’ Prospero holds all the cards, dramatic conflict is virtually non-existent.
Mabillard on Prospero ‘Prospero feels free to…’ ‘Prospero feels free to forgive those who sinned against him only after he has emerged triumphant’
Miller on Prospero ‘It is difficult for…’ “It is difficult for the modern audience to feel sympathy for Prospero”.
Holland on Ariel/Prospero ‘Prospero’s treatment of Ariel is…’ Prospero’s treatment of [Ariel] is … as brutal and humiliating a servitude as Sycorax’s
Hulme on Caliban and Prospero ‘Caliban is indpensible…’ Caliban is indispensable, the usurper depends upon the usurped
Loomba on Miranda ‘property…’ “property to be exchanged between father and husband”
Tanner on Miranda ‘…must be innate…’ Miranda’s pity must be innate since their is no-one to teach it to her
Wilson Knight on Ariel ‘…of Prospero’s purpose…’ the agent of Prospero’s purpose; Prospero’s stage manager
Lindley on Caliban and Ariel ‘…stripped off from…’ “Shakespeare has stripped off from Caliban what is ethereal and refined and compounded them into Ariel”
Todd on Caliban ‘Only Caliban’s… “Only Caliban’s body is enslaved”
Hudson on Caliban ‘the savages of…’ the savage of the woods seems nobility itself beside the savages of the city
Hazlitt on caliban ‘…deformity whether…’ “Caliban’s deformity whether of body or mind is redeemed by the power and truth of the imagination displayed in it”
Dr Helen Young on Caliban ‘represents the…’ (Caliban) represents the indigenous people of the new world, is even on the edges of humanity, never wholly human or wholly animal
Keller on caliban vs trinculo and stephano ‘indicates how much…’ indicates how much baser the corruption of the civilised can be than the bestiality of the natural
Todd on Alonso ‘…emerges…’ “Alonso emerges from the experience as purified and repentant”
Tanner on Sebastian and Antonio ‘the real…’ The real monsters of the island are Sebastian and Antonio
Lie on Antonio ‘…a man without….’ Antonio is ‘a man without conscience.’
Greenblatt on Gonzalo’s utopia ‘the “natural” social…’ “the “natural” social order borrowed from Montaigne for Gonzalo’s speech is grossly at odds with anything actually represented on Shakespeare’s ocean island”
Morley on colonialism ‘…critique of…’ Shakespeare’s critique of the Elizabethan and Jacobean empire building
Coleridge on class ‘the highest and…’ Coleridge – “The highest and the lowest characters are brought together, and with what excellence!”
Lovell on illusion/magic ‘…a succession of…’ “The whole play, indeed is a succession of illusions…”
Smith on the epilogue ‘…intended to…’ “The epilogue is intended to dissolve the illusions, and the change from iambic pentameter evokes an incantatory tone”.
Orgel on the epilogue ‘…declares himself…’ Prospero ‘declares himself not an actor in a play but a character in fiction; and, instead of stepping out of character, he expands the fiction beyond the limits of drama’
Gooder on Shakespeare ‘…more radical…’ “We find him asking radical questions even if in his conclusions he is more conventional.”
Orgel on repentance ‘…a largely…’ ‘repentance remains, at the play’s end, a largely unachieved goal, forgiveness is ambiguous at best
Vaughan on power/control ‘…most highly…’ The Tempest is Shakespeare’s most highly structured play which is appropriate as the protagonist is concerned with controlling and disciplining those around him
July 9, 2019