The Tempest – Notes

October 2024

This is not being read as part of the Shakespeare course; there is a week’s break for midterms, and, as CT and I are discussing S’s plays as I read them for the course, we are adding in the Tempest for this playless week.

That said, here is a link to the Shakespeare course notes: general notes

Contents

Precis of The Tempest

Before the play: Duke Prospero deposed, with young Miranda cast adrift, but Gonzalo secreted food, water and books as gifts. Now magician-ruler of the isle, he’s bound Ariel, enslaved Caliban, and his magically-raised storm has brought his enemies to him. They are Sebastian, his usurping brother; King Alonso, who went along, and Antonio who has learnt sibling-treachery from Sebastian. Innocents too, are also present: Prince Ferdinand, Alonso’s son, and old Gonzales, faithful one.

The play itself: the travelers are cast separately, each group to take a journey. Ferdinand will Miranda woo; Caliban will revolt, but rue; Alonso’s overthrow is thwarted. Prospero has a change of heart, forgives those arrayed against him, All return, but Caliban, to rule Naples and Milan.

The Play Itself, and Its Characters

On the Island

Prospero. The deposed Duke of Milan, cast adrift with his three year old daughter, and marooned on the island. A friendly counselor, Gonzalo, secretly provided Prospero with food, water and his books of magic, which enabled them to survive the sea voyage, and for Prospero to become a powerful magician.
Miranda. Prospero’s daughter, marooned at the age of three, with no experience of other humans.
Ariel. A spirit that Prospero has bound to his service, whom he keeps promising to free thought the play, and does so at the end.
Caliban. A monster, offspring of the witch Scyorax, whom Prospero has enslaved and forces to do his bidding under threats of torture.

Events preceding the time of the play

The Usurpation. Prospero was more interested in studying magic than governing, and so gave over more and more power to his brother, Antonio, who usurped his position, with the support of Alonso, King of Milan.
Sycorax and Caliban. Sycorax was a witch who was banished to the island from Algiers for black magic. She was pregnant with Caliban, apparently from a liaison with a demon. On arriving on the island she established herself as its master, and enslaved Ariel, whom she eventually imprisioned in a a pine tree. She died before the arrival of Prospero, who freed Ariel and, after learning about the island from Caliban, enslaved him.
The Journey of Alonso, his brother Sebastian and Alonso’s retainers. They are all returning from Tunisia, where Alonso married his daughter to a prince, likely against her will.

On the Ship, and then Castways

Alonso, King of Naples.
Ferdinand, son of Alonso.
Claribel, daughter of Alonso, married to a Tunisian prince; not in the play.
Sebastian, Alonso’s brother, who will plot, to overthrow him.
Gonzalo, a old lord, counselor to Sebastian, but also friend to Prospero
Antonio, Prospero’s brother who is now Duke of Milan. Antonio and Sebastian will plot to murder Alonso, so the Sebastian can become King of Naples.
Adrian and Francisco, courtiers to Alonso
Trinculo and Stephano, respectively servant and jester, and butler, to Alonso

Act 1

The ship is caught in a magical storm raised by Prospero; Prospero makes sure that no one will be harmed.
Its passengers abandon ship and make it to the island, but are separated into three groups, each guided (or mis-guided) by Ariel:
Ferdinand;
Trinculo and Stephano who meet up with Caliban;
and the rest: Alonso, Gonzalo, Sebastian, Antonio, Adrian and Francisco.
Ariel guides Ferdinand with singing (including “Full fathom five thy father lies…“) into the presence of Prospero and Miranda,.Ferdinand and Miranda immediately fall in love. Prospero does not want it to be too easy (“But this swift business I must uneasy make, lest to light winning make the prize too light.“), so he accuses Ferdinand of being a usurper and uses charms to enslave him and requires him to perform labors…

Act 2: Alonso et al search for Ferdinand; Sebastian and Antonio plot; Caliban switches allegiance to Stephano

Alonso, Gonzalo, Sebastian, Antonio, Adrian and Francisco wander the island searching for Ferdinand. Alonso worries that he has drowned, though Gonzalo tries to encourage him.
Antonio persuades Sebastian that he should murder his father and become king of Naples.
In 2.2. Trinculo seeks shelter under a cloak and meets Caliban; then Stephano comes along and, drunk, joins them. He offers his bottle to Caliban, who gets drunk, and decides to become his servant.

Act 3: The three groups on their journeys

3.1. Ferdinand, in the midst of his labors, is visited by Miranda. They declare their love for one another and swear vows to one another (handfasting); Prospero secretly observes and approves.
3.2. Stephano, Trinuculo and Caliban quarrel (due to Ariel’s deception); Caliban urges Stephano to murder Prospero and become lord of the island with Miranda as his consort. Ariel continues to lead them astray.
3.3. Alonso and his party are visited by strange shapes, bringing in a banquet. But then it is snatched away by Ariel in the guise of a harpy, and they are condemned for their past actions and threatened with worse than death.

Act 4: All works out as Prospero wishes

Prospero releases Ferdinand and gives him Miranda as his bride-to-be, and has Ariel and other spirits conduct a celebratory masque. But in the middle of the masque, Prospero remembers Caliban and Stephano and the others, and stops the masque so as to deal with them.
Prospero has Ariel set out beautiful apparel, which distracts Stephano and Trinculo, much to Caliban’s dismay. Then Prospero and Ariel arrive with spirts in the form of hunting dogs, and drive Caliban and the others’ off.
The act ends with Propero saying: “At this hour / Lies at my mercy all mine enemies.“

Act 5: Prospero turns away from his vengeance and decides in favor of mercy. Everyone is freed, and all is forgiven

Ariel describes the suffering of Alonso’s group, and especially that of Gonzalo (“his tears run down his beard, like winter’s drops / from eaves of reeds“), who was kind to Prospero, and that he (Ariel) would be affected were he human: “…if you now beheld them your affections would become tender / Dost thou think so Spirit? / Mine would, Sir, were I human…” Prospero is touched and decides to be merciful.
The various parties are brought back, and together. Gonzalo is praised, Alonso is forgiven, and reunited with his son and now-daugher-in-law. The other’s are pardoned, and it appears that Caliban is freed, as is Ariel.
Prospero relinquishes his magical powers. “Now my charms are o’erthrown / And what strength I have’ i’s mine own / Which is most faint...” and “But release me from my bands / With the help of your good hands. / Gentle breath of yours, / My sails must fill, / or else my project fails “

Quotes I Like

Your tale, sir, would cure deafness.
— Miranda, 1.2.127

Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.
–Trinculo, 2.2.40-41

We are such stuff
As dreams are made on,
and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
– Prospero-4.1.173-175

Full fathom five thy father lies.
Of his bones are coral made.
Those are pearls that were his eyes.
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea nymphs hourly ring his knell.
Hark, now I hear them: ding dong bell.
—Ariel 1.2.474-482

Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air;
And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
–Prospero, 4.1.165-175

ARIEL: His tears run down his beard, like winter’s drops
from eaves of reeds
Your charm so strongly works ‘em
That if you now beheld them, your affections Would become tender.
PROSPERO: Dost thou think so, spirit?
ARIEL: Mine would, sir, were I human.
PROSPERO And mine shall.
Hast thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling
Of their afflictions, and shall not myself,
One of their kind, that relish all as sharply
Passion as they, be kindlier moved than thou art?
Though with their high wrongs I am struck to th’ quick,
Yet with my nobler reason ‘gainst my fury
Do I take part. The rarer action is
In virtue than in vengeance.
– Ariel & Prospero, 5/1/20-35

Now my charms are o’erthrown
What strength I have’s mine own
Which is most faint
—Prospero, Epilogue, 1-3

But release me from my bands
With the help of your good hands.
Gentle breath of yours,
My sails must fill,
or else my project fails
—Prospero, epilogue, 9-12