| Focus on Death critic quote | The Tempest is “driven by death, but also by love” – Ruth Nevo |
| Focus on Death textual quote | ‘every third thought shall be my grave’ – Prospero |
| Colonialism critic quote | “By choosing colonialism as a frame […] they do indeed marginalise [..] The Tempest” – Scheider |
| Colonialism textual quote | ‘This island’s mine by Sycorax my mother which thou tak’st from me’ – Caliban |
| Feminism critic quote | The Tempest “addresses the problematic expectations of women in a patriarchal society” – Rhiannon Johnson |
| Feminism textual quote | ‘my foot my tutor’ – Prospero |
| Magic critic quote | Prospero’s magic “is so ennobled and idealized that […] we see nothing mean or unworthy in it” – William J Rolfe |
| Magic textual quote | ‘graves at my command have waked their sleepers’ – Prospero |
| Christian Allegory critic quote | “The Tempest works – when it works – as an allegory of some sort” – Diana Henderson |
| Christian Allegory textual quotes x2 | ‘For you, most wicked sir, whom to call brother/ Would infect my mouth, I do forgive/ Thy ranked fault’ – Prospero’I here could pluck his highness’ frown upon you and justify you traitors, at this time I will tell no tales’ – Prospero |
| Romantic love critic quote | “through their love there is hope for healing of the past and the creation of a new future” – Margaret Roper (of F and M) |
| Romantic love textual quote | ‘The mistress that I serve quickens what is dead’ – Ferdinand |
| Familial love critic quote | “Miranda’s growth to womanhood is the pivotal point of the play […] this means that he has to open the island to the forces and people that betrayed him” – Nancy Meckler |
| Familial love textual quote | ‘I have given you here a third of mine own life’ – Prospero |
| Self-conscious theatricality critic quote | ‘The Tempest is an intensely self-conscious play – it is, in many ways, theatre about the theatre” – Jan Frans van Dijkhuizen |
| Self-conscious theatricality textual quote | ‘fetch me the hat and rapier in my cell’ – Prospero |
| Appearance vs Reality critic quote | The Tempest is “an illusion of an illusion” – Arthur Kirsch |
| Appearance vs Reality textual quote | ‘the baseless fabric of this vision’ – Prospero |
| Prospero is Shakespeare critic quote | “We identify Prospero in some measure with Shakespeare himself” – Dowden |
| Prospero is Shakespeare textual quote | ‘they all enter the circle which Prospero had made, and there stand charmed’ – Stage Directions |
The Tempest Quotes
July 27, 2019