• Tempest--1611

• Where's it start and where's it going; diagram of plot?

× cf. Frye's idea: education, redemption, change--growth and release

slavery and liberation

× an ordeal, a search, a rite of passage, a release; rescue

× project gathering to a head; Prospero's grand plan; control of all plots; interweaving and interconnection of plots--wonderful moment of revelation, reversal and recognition

× The four plots

× The Lords

× background

× meeting and conspiracy

× feast ordeal vision

× awakening

× Low Life

× Caliban background

× meeting; test

× conspiracy

× attack and reversal-ordeal

× judgement and redemption

× The lovers

× first meeting

× ordeal and test

× the pageant--vision

× judgment and reward--playing chess

× Prospero and Ariel

× background: neglect and exile ; the duke, magician and schoolmaster

× my slave, my foot --anxiety

× wistful

× in my power

× my promise--the pageant ; broken off; amiable to Ariel

× conversion and release; forgiveness

× abjuring magic;release Ariel

× undoing clothing

× forgiving and confession

× loss

× forgive Caliban

× story of life and death; draw near

× further stripping; actor and human; in epilogue

• What's it about? --mystery and magic; magic for the renaissance; Dr. Faustus and Pico della Mirandola; Giordano Bruno; liberal arts; the book and the staff; library as dukedom

× authority and rebellion; authority and legitimacy; order to disorder to restoration of order.

× Who is Prospero; how do we respond to him--multiple interpretations--positive or negative?

× re: Ariel

× the artist as magician--power; the imagination

× illusion and reality--magic power; spiritual power of imagination, pageantry, morality. Harnessed; resided in the island originally--air and spirit vs. fish and water of Caliban

× failures of humanism--vita-activa and contemplativa

× the teaching feast and sermon in act III, the pageant in act IV, the play of forgiveness and return in V

× re: Caliban--colonizer

× politics and psychology: the state and soul hierarchy

× nature and nurture--the Sepulveda view of Caliban

× Montaignian critique of European imperialism--quote in Signet

× use of religion in colonization: Be my god--to the bottle; man in moon; I'll kiss thy foot

× slavery and freedom--willing and unwilling

× the colonial enterprise: humanism and its limitations; departure from the new world and leaving the natives alone; a fantasy of decolonization and leaving them alone; mastery of Caliban abandoned in favor of self-mastery; the real intractability is in Antonio and Sebastian

× re: the Italians

× politics (IHIV, etc)--rightful king and restoration of usurped order; "realism"--Antonio's world of perception: there is no conscience; man =dirt (II,i); death =sleep

× re: Miranda

× family and gender--fathers and daughters and husbands

• Scene/Act Outline

• I,i--confusion, tempest--in nature; in society--royals and sailors have confused hierarchical relation; "what cares these roarers for the name of king"--"Use your authority" "All lost"--Lear on the heath

× transition: the tempest is illusory; to the level of producer and spectator

• I,ii --Prospero gains control over all offspring and minions in revolt

× Miranda's pity and revolt against father; desire for power

P. lays down robe; her response is time for revelation; things begin to converge in his plan; no perdition; loss redeemed; time is now; ripeness of moment of revelation of who she is

× Prospero tells story, trying to keep her attentive; she falls asleep

× Ariel reports in; complains about more work; Prospero reminds him of his past and reestablishes his control with legitimating narrative and threats; issue is imprisonment and liberty; Ariel imprisoned in tree; Ariel concedes

× M. wakes; P. forces her to visit Caliban. A necessary slave for fetching wood and profits. C's recalcitrance; P's torture; C's claim of being trapped and enslaved; Prospero's story of good will and teaching and C's betrayal with attempt on M.'s honor; M. repulsed. Confined in rock, C. accedes to P's command and hauls more wood.

× Prospero taught him language: I endowed thy purposes with words that made them known C: You taught me language, and my profit on't/ is I know how to curse

× P. getting control of Ferdinand, who assumes that he is king

× Ariel's music; F's wonder; M's wonder--thinking each other divine

× [Prospero delighted with A's work]; P. sees them fall in love; "This swift business I must uneasy make, lest too light winning/Make the prize light. ; falsely accuses and threatens F. , immobilizes him with magic

× Miranda tries to defend F. , who finds liberty in this prison

• II,i: The Lords--aborted conspiracy and rebellion

× Alonso: searching for son griefstricken

× Gonzalo and Adrian: the virtuous optimist and loyal counsellor (he was in on plot)--wonder at landing in pastoral paradise, utopia; innocence and wonder; makes impossible easy ( l. 92); seeks to assuage the king's grief

× his utopian scheme--golden age; innocence, idleness, liberty, no sovereignty NB; nature vs. art and civilization--pastoral

× Sebastian and Antonio: opposite--cynical commentary; wits; staleness of language and perception; interrupt, sidetrack, and mock discourse; rubs pain and guilt into the king; sees Utopians as whores and knaves

× what is the issue about Carthage and Tunis and widow Dido?

× This world of "nothing" evoked by island--Outopia-- described by G. to distract the king, who wont be consoled

× Gonzalo, then Alonso fall asleep to Ariel's music; Ant. Seb. stay awake and plot--their imagination sees crown as opposed to Gonzalo's; an alternate Utopia or "nothing"; for them--in witrty exchange--dreaming is plotting .

× terms of persuasion: there is no conscience; sleeping man is like dead man is like earth (false analogy; lacking imagination; weak perception); whole series of rhetorical fallacies persuading Sebastian to usurp and kill: ; cynical about possible survival of Prince

× Ariel rescues G. and A. by awakening G. just in time

• II, ii--The Clowns-- plan conspiracy and rebellion

× Caliban suffering; Trinculo seeking shelter from storm; both, like Miranda and Ferd. mistake each other--Cal for fishman; trinc. for spirit--strong social satire; his suffering and his humiliation--do not torment me, prithee; Ill bring my wood home faster

× Stephano with bottle, drunk, singing dirty sailor song; both he and Trinculo want to make profit on the monster; their recognition and feeding C. liquor "kiss the book"; getting drunk by the moon; men and monsters; base behavior

× Caliban asks Steph and Trinc. to be his gods; will kiss their foot [the Cortes story] and show them the delights of the land--Steph and Trinc. want to be king and inherit--Cal. sings of freedom

× concepts of power: sovereignty and divinity--everybody wants to be king--freedom; sovereignty

• III,i: the lovers

× Low characters seeking to move upward and find freedom in rebellion; High characters seeking to move downward and find freedom in servitude. Both, however, are drunk, and both are prostrating themselves to "gods"; and both are carrying out Prospero's design

× Love scene: Ferd and Mir. Prospero secretly looking on and delighting; he engineers their obstacle; love is their own; mutual servitude and humility vowed to one another; courtly service, servant, serviteur; she wants to carry for him and vice versa. cf. Lear and Cordelia kneeling to each other. Miranda proposes; both find freedom in this bondage; royalty in this baseness l.

• III,ii: Caliban's conspiracy

× acting drunk; earthy fun; Caliban is mocked as a savage, but plays the clever Antonio. First he says nothing but sets up Stephano as lord and gets him and Trinculo jealous, using courtly flattery--no savage; and then plans conspiracy against Prospero. Ariel also tricking Caliban; rebellion within rebellion--cf. HIV

× Books are C's source of power--get them

× get him in sleep--nail in head

× C's desire for revenge--when Prospero is destroyed; his utopia

× singing and dancing: "thought is free"

× free music and dreams --they follow Ariel's tabor, enjoying the sound

× just as Ferdinand follows the sound of Ariel in I,ii

× All characters hear music of their dreams; all have fantasies of fulfillment: "Isle is full of noises that hurt not and give delight"

• III, iii:

× Gonzalo fatigued; Alonso without hope

× Ant. and Seb. have hope for conspiracy tonight

× Banquet set out by strange creatures; Lords bewondered and bewildered; all will now believe all superstitions; start to eat; and then harpy-Ariel spoils feast and preaches, invoking "the powers, delaying, not forgetting."

× this is Prospero's speech; attempt to make them recognize sin-- after being made to wonder, desire and be frustrated--and to repent--"You men of sin." P. has them "in his power" now; pleased with Ariel's work; leaves them now, frozen [play within play as play]; Prospero using spectacle and power to get revenge and repentance; perhpas repentance through revenge/punishment

× Gonzalo interprets all this as the working of conscience and great guilt