Written 1610-1611

Task

View the slides that follow and in pairs, or threes, create a plot summary for what you think the story is about.

The Shakespeare Quiz…

• http://www.shakespeare-online.com/quiz/

http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/quiz/bioquiz.htm

WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT SHAKESPEARE? COMPLETE A QUICK BRAINSTORM IN YOUR BOOKS.

SHAKESPEARE: Starter

SHAKESPEARE

SHAKESPEARE

Came from a wealthy background: His father was a wealthy merchant.Married at Anne

Hathaway, an older woman, when he was 18 years old. She was 26.

His son Hamnet died at 11 years of age.

Not just an actor and playwright.He also wrote poetry and sonnets.

Born in 1564. He lived for 52 years.

When you google his name, 15 million pages come up!

He was also an actor and performed in his own plays. He played in front of both Elizabeth I and James I.

He is buried at the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon.

He wrote on average 1.5 plays per year of his life. That’s 37 plays!

SHAKESPEARE’S ENGLISH

SHAKESPEARE’S ENGLISH

Shakespeare took full advantage of the changing

English language and created, throughout his plays,

many new words which we still use today. In all his

works – the plays, the sonnets, and the narrative

poems – Shakespeare uses 17,677 words. Of those,

1,700 were first used by Shakespeare. He has been the

most important influence on the development of the

modern English that we speak today.

SOME OF HIS WORDS…

• - Accommodation - Amazement• - Apostrophe - Assassination• - Bloody - Bump• - Control (noun) - Countless• - Critical - Exposure• - Generous - Gloomy• - Hurry - Lonely• - Monumental - Obscene• - Premeditated - Reliance• - Road - Suspicious

THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW…

• Most of the play is written in a poetic rhythm. This is called a meter.

• Shakespeare uses IAMBIC PENTAMETER. This is a meter most similar to the beating of the heart. Baabom, baabom, baabom…

• There are five IAMS per line. An iam is a stressed then unstressed syllable.

• /u /u /u /u /u

KEY FACTS• full title  ·  The Tempest • author · William Shakespeare• genre · Romance• language · Elizabethan English• time and place written ·  1610–1611; England• date of first publication ·  1623 • tone · Dreamy, mysterious, magical• setting (time) · The Renaissance• setting (place) · An island in the Mediterranean sea, probably off the coast of Italy• protagonist · Prospero• major conflict · Prospero, the duke of Milan and a powerful magician, was banished from Italy and cast to sea by his usurping

brother, Antonio, and Alonso, the king of Naples. As the play begins, Antonio and Alonso come under Prospero’s magic power as they sail past his island. Prospero seeks to use his magic to make these lords repent and restore him to his rightful place.

• rising action · Prospero creates the tempest, causing his enemies’ ship to wreck and its passengers to be dispersed about the island.

• climax · Alonso and his party stop to rest, and Prospero causes a banquet to be set out before them. Just as they are about to eat, Ariel appears in the shape of a harpy and accuses them of their treachery against Prospero. Alonso is overwhelmed with remorse.

• falling action · Prospero brings Alonso and the others before him and forgives them. Prospero invites Alonso and his company to stay the night before everyone returns to Italy the next day, where Prospero will reassume his dukedom.

• themes · The illusion of justice, the difficulty of distinguishing “men” from “monsters,” the allure of ruling a colony• motifs · Masters and servants, water and drowning, mysterious noises• symbols · The tempest, the game of chess, Prospero’s books• foreshadowing · Prospero frequently hints at his plans to bring his enemies before him and to confront them for their treachery.

Prospero also hints at his plans to relinquish his magic once he has confronted and forgiven his enemies.

THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW…

• Some devices are used regularly in Shakespearean plays. One is the soliloquy. This is where a character stands alone and speaks his or her thoughts so that the audience knows what he or she plans to do. The second is an aside, this is where a character speaks quietly to the audience while the rest of the characters on stage are oblivious.

• Lastly you need to be aware of the role of women during Shakespeare’s era. Women are men’s property. Their lives are entirely governed by men.

The Feminist Critique

The Feminist Critique

• The Tempest has only one female character, Miranda. Other women, such as Caliban's mother Sycorax, Miranda's mother and Alonso's daughter Claribel, are only mentioned. Because of the small role women play in the story in comparison to other Shakespeare plays, The Tempest has not attracted much feminist criticism. Miranda is typically viewed as being completely deprived of freedom by her father. Her only duty in his eyes is to remain chaste. It has been argued that she is typical of women in a colonial atmosphere, has completely accepted the patriarchal order of things, thinking of herself as subordinate to her father.

• The less-prominent women mentioned in the play are subordinated as well, as they are only described through the men of the play. Most of what is said about Sycorax, for example, is said by Prospero. Prospero has never met Sycorax — all he learned about her he learned from Ariel. It can be argued that Prospero's suspicion of women makes him an unreliable source of information.

Post-Colonial Theory & The Tempest

• During the 15th Century until the 19th Century (1400s-1800s) Europe began its first colonial wave.

• This was a common occurrence in Shakespeare’s time.

• The earth was being “discovered” and stories were coming back from distant lands. There were myths about the “cannibals” of the Carribean, of true Edens and distant utopias (an ideally perfect place)

Post-Colonial Theory & The Tempest

• With the character Caliban (whose name is roughly anagrammatic to Cannibal), Shakespeare may be offering an in-depth discussion into the morality of colonialism.

• Different views of this are found in the play, with examples including Gonzalo’s Utopia, Prospero’s enslavement of Caliban, and Caliban's subsequent resentment.

• Caliban is also shown as one of the most natural characters in the play, being very much in touch with the natural world; and modern audiences have come to view him as far nobler than his two friends, Stephano and Trinculo, although the original intent of the author may have been different.

Post-Colonial Theory & The Tempest

• From the mid 1950s more and more academics have studied The Tempest through a post-colonial lens. This new way of looking at the text explored the effect of the coloniser (Prospero) on the colonised (Ariel and Caliban). Though Ariel is often overlooked in these debates in favour of the more intriguing Caliban, he is nonetheless an essential character. Ariel is generally viewed by scholars as the good servant, in comparison with the conniving Caliban—a view which Shakespeare's audience may well have shared. Ariel is used by some postcolonial writers as a symbol of their efforts to overcome the effects of colonisation on their culture

Post-colonial theory in The Tempest

– The Tempest explores many different aspects of colonialism:

– Europeans’ appropriation of and exploitation of foreign territories– Europeans’ subordination of indigenous populations (such as the

different treatment of Caliban and Ariel)– Europeans’ claims that they are colonizing to bring Christianity

and civilization (Prospero’s taking credit for the fact that he has taught Caliban how to speak and the fact that he has liberated Ariel)

– Europeans’ use of colonialism as a way to let off pressure from their own social conflicts (for instance Prospero’s exile on Caliban’s island after he has been deposed by Sebastian; Gonzalo’s vision of an island society that would correct all of the bad things about Europe; lower-class men like Stephano and Trinculo seeking to exploit Caliban and set themselves up as rulers of the colonized space)

Post-colonial theory in The Tempest

• Caliban has been ensalved, as was the case of native people being "colonized" by conquering nations.  He suffers as a result, receiving alcohol and misunderstanding the "gift" and the giver because he is not accustomed to this culture.  He reacts by devising a plot, wanting Stephano to be leader of the island.  He struggles against his enslavement, but like so many colonies, he does not realize that his own choice of leader could be just as destructive.  Post-colonial Africa is dealing with this still, having ousted nations of Europe only to find themselves in civil war, and hugely unstable.  Similarly, other "natives" are easily distracted by the wealth of Prospero, and are drawn to it, leaving behind their need for rebellion.  Comfort exceeds freedom.

Usurpation

• The NZ & Australian Experience

ACT I:I

• Using the READING STRATEGY from term one, write three paragraphs on ActI:I using supporting evidence.

• NOTE: YOU MUST REFER TO THE WORDS IN THE STRATEGY

ACT I:II

WRITE THE FOLLOWING NAMES IN YOUR BOOKS:

prospero caliban ariel sycorax

Beneath each name write all the associations you make.

ACT I:II

WRITE THE FOLLOWING NAMES IN YOUR BOOKS:

prospero caliban ariel sycorax

One is a savage, one is a duke, one a witch and the other a spirit. Which one is which do you think?

ACT I:II

• Read all of ActI:II

• Close reading

• BOX QUOTE

• Quotation Quest

Tempest Quiz

• The Quiz

The Use of Magic

When Magic is Used

PUNS

• In The Tempest, two sets of characters use puns. Antonio and Sebastian use them to mock other people. Stephano and Trinculo use puns to amuse themselves and each other.

Students should also watch out for metaphors, or plays on words in which one object or idea is expressed as if it were something else.

Gonzalo’s Idea of Governance• Gonzalo’s fantasy about the plantation he would like to build

on the island is a remarkable poetic evocation of a utopian society, in which no one would work, all people would be equal and live off the land, and all women would be “innocent and pure.” This vision indicates something of Gonzalo’s own innocence and purity. Shakespeare treats the old man’s idea of the island as a kind of lovely dream, in which the frustrations and obstructions of life (magistrates, wealth, power) would be removed and all could live naturally and authentically. Though Gonzalo’s idea is not presented as a practical possibility (hence the mockery he receives from Sebastian and Antonio), Gonzalo’s dream contrasts to his credit with the power-obsessed ideas of most of the other characters, including Prospero. Gonzalo would do away with the very master-servant motif that lies at the heart of The Tempest.

Colonising Caliban• More important than the emphasis on the way in which Caliban seems to others

more monster than man, is the way in which this scene dramatizes the initial encounter between an almost completely isolated, “primitive” culture and a foreign, “civilized” one. The reader discovers during Caliban and Prospero’s confrontation in Act I, scene ii that Prospero initially “made much of” Caliban (II.ii.336); that he gave Caliban “Water with berries in’t” (II.ii.337); that Caliban showed him around the island; and that Prospero later imprisoned Caliban, after he had taken all he could take from him. The reader can see these events in Act II, scene ii, with Trinculo and Stephano in the place of Prospero. Stephano calls Caliban a “brave monster,” as they set off singing around the island. In addition, Stephano and Trinculo give Caliban wine, which Caliban finds to be a “celestial liquor” (II.ii.109). Moreover, Caliban initially mistakes Stephano and Trinculo for Prospero’s spirits, but alcohol convinces him that Stephano is a “brave god” and decides unconditionally to “kneel to him” (II.ii.109–110). This scene shows the foreign, civilized culture as decadent and manipulative: Stephano immediately plans to “inherit” the island (II.ii.167), using Caliban to show him all its virtues. Stephano and Trinculo are a grotesque, parodic version of Prospero upon his arrival twelve years ago. Godlike in the eyes of the native, they slash and burn their way to power.

Usurpation• As we have seen, one of the ways in which The Tempest builds its rich

aura of magical and mysterious implication is through the use of doubles: scenes, characters, and speeches that mirror each other by either resemblance or contrast. This scene is an example of doubling: almost everything in it echoes Act II, scene i. In this scene, Caliban, Trinculo, and Stephano wander aimlessly about the island, and Stephano muses about the kind of island it would be if he ruled it—“I will kill this man [Prospero]. His daughter and I will be King and Queen . . . and Trinculo and thyself [Caliban] shall be viceroys” (III.ii.101–103)—just as Gonzalo had done while wandering with Antonio and Sebastian in Act II, scene i. At the end of Act III, scene ii, Ariel enters, invisible, and causes strife among the group, first with his voice and then with music, leading the men astray in order to thwart Antonio and Sebastian’s plot against Alonso. The power-hungry servants Stephano and Trinculo thus become rough parodies of the power-hungry courtiers Antonio and Sebastian. All four men are now essentially equated with Caliban, who is, as Alonso and Antonio once were, simply another usurper.