The Tempest Quotes

Caliban (colonialism) “This island’s mine, by Sycorax my mother.”
Caliban (language) “You taught me language, and my profit on’t is, I know how to curse.”
Caliban (human) “The isle is full of noises, sounds and sweet airs, that give delight, and hurt not.”
Ariel (loved) “My brave spirit!”
Ariel (power) “I charmed their ears that, calf-like, they my lowing followed”
Ariel (human) “if you now beheld them, your affections would become tender.”
Prospero (power) “Thou art inclined to sleep […] I know thou cannot choose.”
Prospero (reform) “a born devil, on whose nature, nurture can never stick”
Prospero (theatre) “The solemn temples, the great globe itself, yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve”
Miranda (compassion) “If by your art, my dearest father, you have put the wild waters in this roar, allay them.”
Miranda (rebellious) “Miranda – O my father, I have broke your hest to say so!”
Miranda (feminist) “I’ll bear your logs the while”
Ferdinand (love) “makes my labours pleasures”
Ferdinand (ironic) “For several virtues have I liked several women”
Ferdinand (virginity) “shall never melt mine honour into lust”
Gonzalo (colonialism) “Letters should not be known; riches, poverty, and use of service, none” (comes from Montaigne’s famous essay which challenged the idea that Europeans were better than natives)
Gonzalo (tragicomedy genre) “in one voyage did Claribel her husband find at Tunis, and Ferdinand, her brother found a wife where he himself was lost”
Gonzalo (egalitarian rule) “No sovereignty-” “And yet he would be king on’t”
Stephano (colonialism) “The poor monster’s my subject, and he shall not suffer indignity.”
Stephano (feminism) “Monster, I will kill this man; his daughter and I will be king and queen”
Stephano (drunk) “Open your mouth; this will shake your shaking”
Trinculo (colonialism) “there would this monster make a man”
Sebastian (unchanged) “Or stole it rather” (about Stephano’s garments)
Antonio (disloyal) “My strong imagination sees a crown dropping upon thy head”
Boatswain (disorder) “What cares these roarers for the name of king?”
Alonso (reformation) “Thy dukedom I resign and do entreat thou pardon me my wrongs”
Alonso (vulnerable) “You cram these words into mine ears, against the stomach of my sense”
Alonso (repentance) “That deep and dreadful organ pipe, pronounced the name of Prosper: it did bass my trespass”
July 26, 2019