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 |
The Tempest critics for mock
July 9, 2019