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The Tempest
Gonzalo is making a speech about what kind of world we'd have if he were in charge. It's a utopian vision; there'd be no war, riches or poverty, or any kind of laws. Humankind would be innocent and...
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The Tempest
Produced at a time when the masque was in style and extremely popular, Shakespeare's Tempest has many of the elements of a masque, and in 1611 it was performed as such. However, whereas a masque...
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The Tempest
One of the ways that Shakespeare's The Tempest is different from his other major works is that it seems to deal most directly with the concept of colonialism. Many scholars, for instance, have seen...
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The Tempest
In Aristotle’s On the Art of Poetry, he referred to the “three unities” in drama: unity of place, unity of action, and unity of time. He said the plot should occur in a single place, the...
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The Tempest
Prospero used magic to bring the mariners to the island. To explain that in a bit more detail, Shakespeare's play begins with a ship facing a storm, the "tempest" that gives the play its title. The...
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The Tempest
Act 1, Scene 2 of The Tempest opens with Miranda commenting on the storm and the shipwreck she has just witnessed. She is greatly distressed by having seen the ship sink. Her compassion is fully...
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The Tempest
In Shakespeare's The Tempest, Miranda is the daughter of Prospero, the former Duke of Milan living in exile on a remote island. Since Miranda has grown up in relative isolation (her chief...
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The Tempest
Beginning in the late 1800s, critics saw elements of Shakespeare in the character of Prospero, the sorcerer in the Tempest. Even Coleridge, in his essay on the play, mentioned this connection....
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The Tempest
Caliban and Prospero see their rancorous relationship differently. Their first conversation reveals how they both view themselves as victims of one another. Prospero claims Caliban’s father was...
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The Tempest
Miranda is a very open and loving person. She seems to be caring and empathetic toward everyone immediately. She also has not met many people, and as soon as she meets people she is very excited....
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The Tempest
Prospero tells Miranda that when he was expelled from his kingdom, Gonzalo made sure that he was provided with clothes and food, and also gave him his books. Knowing I loved my books, he furnish'd...
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The Tempest
The tension in the opening scenes is created by the shipwreck, Prospero’s story, and the conflict with Caliban. Starting a play with a shipwreck is always a good way to get the audience’s...
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The Tempest
In Shakespeare’s tragicomedy The Tempest, Prospero is the patriarch on a primitive yet magical island. Once the Duke of Milan, Prospero was wrongfully betrayed and exiled. It seems that Prospero...
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The Tempest
Prospero and his daughter Miranda have been trapped on an island together for almost her entire life. He is the only man, or even person, she can remember. Only the spirit Ariel and the creature...
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The Tempest
The Tempest is driven by Prospero’s desire to avenge his betrayal. He says that he loved his brother Antonio more than anyone in the world other than himself. Prospero, “being transported / And...
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The Tempest
In a sense, the theme of discovery is at the heart of Shakespeare's The Tempest. On the one hand, you have the shipwrecked crew stranded by the storm at the beginning of the play. Much of the rest...
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The Tempest
Prospero’s brother Antonio conspired with Alonso to steal his position from him. Prospero is a wizard or magic-user who is stranded on a deserted island with his daughter, Miranda. He used to...
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The Tempest
When answering this question, consider Ferdinand’s predicament. He just endured a shipwreck, and he thinks he is alone on the island. Describe his feelings about the shipwreck and losing his...
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The Tempest
To write this diary entry, you should put yourself in the mindset of Caliban and try to think like he does. The scene you are being asked to write about actually occurs before the action of the...
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The Tempest
Freedom and forgiveness are both important themes in the play. The theme of freedom is best exemplified through the characters of Ariel and Caliban. Both characters are essentially enslaved by...
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The Tempest
Prospero teaches Caliban basic skills and then continually threatens him. Caliban believes the island is his by right, not Propsero’s. Prospero has magic, though, and can make the inhabitants of...
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The Tempest
Ferdinand appears in several scenes and is a big part of the story. He is also definitely not a dynamic or a round character in the way that, say, Prospero is. A dynamic character is a character...
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A Tempest
The key strategic revision the play makes is in telling the story of The Tempest from the point of view of Ariel and Caliban, recast as a mulatto slave and a black slave. If Shakespeare's play...
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The Tempest
Prospero listens to Miranda and Ferdinand so he can tell if they are falling in love. Prospero was betrayed by his brother, Antonio, and Ferdinand’s father, Alonso. They took his kingdom from...
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The Tempest
The full quote is: "Go charge my goblins that they grind their jointsWith dry convulsions, shorten up their sinewsWith agèd cramps, and more pinch-spotted make themThan pard or cat o' mountain"...
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The Tempest
The masque highlights one of the themes of the play, that it is important to keep oaths. The Tempest is a play about honor and loyalty. Prospero tries to lead Ferdinand to fall in love with his...
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The Tempest
One of the most critically studied components of Shakespeare's The Tempest is the relationship between Caliban and Prospero. In general, Caliban's manner toward Prospero is hostile, and his actions...
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The Tempest
Caliban is portrayed sympathetically when complaining to Prospero. When Prospero landed on the island, he enslaved Caliban through magic. Although Prospero treats Caliban with nothing but...
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The Tempest
According to Caliban himself in Act I, Scene 2, he is the only inhabitant of the island that Prospero and Miranda land on: This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother, Which thou takest from me. When...
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The Tempest
In The Tempest by William Shakespeare, we encounter Prospero living on an island with his daughter Miranda and two quasi-supernatural creatures, Caliban and Ariel. Prospero explains that he is...
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The Tempest
Prospero begins his magical vengeance by making his servant Ariel create a storm which shipwrecks select passengers. Ariel splits up the passengers, making King Alonso believe his son Ferdinand is...
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The Tempest
Caliban believes that Prospero treats him badly and stole his island from him. When Prospero came to the island, Caliban was already there. Prospero made him into his servant, or slave, and took...
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The Tempest
It is difficult to determine with certainty whether Ferdinand and Miranda will be weak leaders, but they will likely be kind and just rulers. Prospero partially controls Miranda, a teenage girl and...
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The Tempest
Ariel’s message as the harpy reminds the men of their part in taking Prospero’s kingdom from him. Ariel keeps the men in place during his speech through magic, so the literal answer is that...
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The Tempest
Well, the short answer is that Elizabethans never saw “The Tempest”. Elizabeth had died long before the play was written, and James I was the king at the time, so the English of the day are now...
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The Tempest
At first it seems that Prospero treats Ariel and Caliban very differently; he's devoted to Ariel and seems to respect him and partners with him to concoct his various schemes and plans throughout...
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The Tempest
The Tempest is one of Shakespeare's most well-loved but also most unusual plays. Although classified in the First Folio as a comedy, it does not have the light hearted tone or the humorous...
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The Tempest
The Tempest, along with the three other plays written towards the end of Shakespeare's career (including The Winter's Tale, Cymbeline and Pericles), is difficult to categorize as either a tragedy...
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The Tempest
In Shakespeare's play, The Tempest, magic is performed by Prospero and by his fairy servant Ariel throughout the play. Sometimes it is unclear who actually performs the magic, but since the magic...
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The Tempest
I can think of two ways in which discovery gives characters greater knowledge of society and themselves in Shakespeare's The Tempest. Miranda's discoveries of the existence of other humans leads...
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The Tempest
“All lost!” cry the sailors in the shipwreck that opens “The Tempest” and indeed loss pervades the play. Prospero has lost everything but his books and his daughter Miranda: his title, his...
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The Tempest
Yes, loss is an important theme in The Tempest. The mariners believe their ship is going to be destroyed in the storm and cry “all lost!” Prospero loses his dukedom, Ferdinand believes that his...
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The Tempest
The Tempest by William Shakespeare is a dramatic work of imaginative literature. It is not based on actual historical events. Thus nothing in the play is "real". When English actors stood in front...
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The Tempest
The Tempest examines a number of subjects, including forgiveness, betrayal, and greed. Prospero uses magic to seek vengeance on those who have wronged him, but he eventually realizes that “the...
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The Tempest
There are several ways in which the character of Prospero in The Tempest by William Shakespeare functions in a manner analogous to the playwright himself. First, Prospero at some points functions...
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The Tempest
Shakespeare had to simulate the effect of a ship in a storm with very little in the way of props. The Mariners would be wearing seafaring-type costumes and, of course, the King and his entourage...
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The Tempest
Ariel, in Shakespeare's The Tempest, is a magical spirit who, having been freed from the imprisonment imposed upon him by his earlier master, Sycorax, a mean-spirited witch, by Prospero is now...
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The Tempest
Although Prospero has traditionally been seen as a European who tried to help the "monster" Caliban become more civilized, in recent decades their relationship has been understood as that of the...
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The Tempest
A Renaissance masque was a spectacle performed at court or at the manor of a member of the aristocracy with the purpose of glorifying a particular member of court or a particular aristocrat. In...
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The Tempest
The Tempest opens aboard a ship in the midst of a terrible storm. Shakespeare must have enjoyed simulating a storm at sea on his stage. It makes a great attention-grabber. The stage directions...
