adaptations and critics

"the island was a state of mind"

Sam Mendes' 1993 production - island

"[saw] Prospero as a director and his subjects as actors"

Sam Mendes' 1993 production - Prospero

Senegalese poet and activist. He coined the term "Negritude", an influential idea rejecting Western sterotypes of Africans and insisting on African self-identification

Aime Cesaire

'A Tempest'; written in the civil rights era and published in 1969; draws on contemporary Caribbean society as it is set in the Caribbean, depicts Ariel and Caliban as black slaves

Aime Cesaire adaption

Ariel lives by nonviolence, while Caliban seeks to start a revolution. Their mindsets contain clear allusions to the legacies of the civil rights activists and leaders Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X, respectively.

Aime Cesaire adaption - Caliban and Ariel

"Prospero is a producer and purveyor of a paternalistic ideology."

Thomas Cartel - “Prospero is…”

"[They] are the real dreamers, sunk in the hallucination of greed."

Northrop - Antonio and Sebastian - “They are…”

As "the catalyst of the story"

Nancy Mecklenburg - Miranda - “The (…) story.”

"Miranda, like Claribel, is at the mercy of her father's wishes and ambitions."

Ann Thompson - “Miranda, like Claribel…”

The play "has a sort of sacredness as the last work of a mighty workman."

Thomas Campbell - ‘…sort of sacredness…”

"Both Sycorax and Prospero are driven by the same passion - anger."

Margreta de Grazia - “both Sycorax…”

"Miranda's primary value is her virginity."

Metzger - “Miranda’s primary…”

Prospero becomes Prospera; is "more overtly wronged" than Prospero when the duke dies, Prospera's brother Antonio (played by Chris Cooper) accuses her of killing him with witchcraft. Antonio makes the accusation to be rid of Prospera and claim her royal title.

Julie Taymor 2010 film

"The monster is Prospero, who projects into Caliban the darkness within himself."

Bates - “The monster is…”

"She had her whole life taken away from her because she was a woman."

Taymor - Prospera - “She had…”

Post-colonial interpretation in South Africa, in which a focus was put on Caliban and Ariel; Caliban walked with staffs as crutches, which he breaks upon Prospero's departure, and Ariel only works with the assurance of his release, indifferent once released despite Prospero's emotion

2009 by Janice Honeyman - RSC & Baxter Theatre Centre?

Through huge puppets in the shape of body parts

BSC Production - Sycorax performance

Felix is the wronged artistic director of a Canadian theatre festival. He has been cast aside thanks to the interventions of a Machiavellian rival just at the moment when he was about to unleash his greatest creation upon the world - an ambitious production of The Tempest. It was to have been a play that would lay to rest all the failures of his life and career. It was also an act of grieving to mark the death of his daughter Miranda.

Atwood's 2016 novel 'Hag-Seed'

He made Prospero a far more paternal figure, who is more focused on marrying off Miranda than getting revenge

Jeremy Herrin - Globe in 2014 - Prospero

Prospero was portrayed as unstable, and not in control of the actions of the play; a focus is placed on the mental turmoil Prospero finds himself in

RSC Ron Daniels 1982 - Prospero

"like the atmosphere [Ariel] reflects human emotions without feeling them"

Evangeline Maria O'Connor - “like the atmosphere…”

Stephano and Trinculo are a distorted version of the central plot of the play - they parody it, and the absurdity and comedy of the attempts symbolises the absurdity of the main narrative

Jan Kott - Stephano and Trinculo

"Miranda's apparent freedom is entirely illusory"

Mike Brett - “Miranda’s apparent…”

"Caliban is 'the other' and Prospero has power over him through language"

Cicily Berry - “Caliban is…”

"Caliban is lost without the civilising influence exerted on him by Prospero"

Trevor R. Griffiths - “Caliban is…”

That they "see nothing of reality"

McFarland - Machiavellian villains - “They see…”

"as the increasingly Christian language indicates, he gives up his role of Magus and dedicates himself to more conscientious government"

Neil Bowen - Prospero - “as the increasingly…”

"[Sycorax] represents an unconventional woman who threatens the stability of a patriarchal society"

Mike Brett - Sycorax - “she represents…”

"He was not of an age, but for all time."

Ben Johnson (1608) - Shakespeare

Invented the 'anti masque' in which grotesque figues ('antics') danced around prior to the peace and harmony of the masque.

Ben Johnson - anti-…

"In this play Shakespeare did not appeal to any sensuous impression of time and place but to the imagination"

Samuel Taylor Coleridge - “Shakespeare did not…”

The Enlightenment period held that really human progress was achieved through the study of reason, therefore audience's during this period would have admired Prospero's attempt to 'civilise'. However, Romantic thinkers saws Caliban's status as a 'natural man' as something far more positive - he is at one with the natural world, his meaner qualities are a product of his colonisation.

Enlightenment and Romanticism applied to Prospero and Caliban

"The character of Caliban is wonderfully conceived: he is a sort of creature of the Earth"

Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Caliban - “he is a…”

This expressed some people's views towards the natives of a colonised country. That it is the Europeans' duty to civilise the 'uncivilised' inhabitants of an invaded land. A Victorian production of the play would have shown a noble and upright Prospero next to a stubborn and belligerent Caliban.

Kipling's poem "The White Man's Burden" 1899

Northrup Frye; Shakespeare plays show either a utopian vision of society or a harsh reality - nature is ideal and utopian, and the Island exists in a short of theoretical vacuum, in which the functions of a human civilisation are tested in nature

The 'Green World'

“In The Tempest, beauty and ugliness, good and evil, and cruelty and gentleness are matched with the external environment, and everything works toward a positive reconciliation of the best in both humans and nature."

M. Ingram - “everything works towards…”

"The Boatswain's cry challenges the authority of the King and suggests that monarchy (and by implication 'The Great Chain of Being') is not natural, or God-given. Instead it is an unnatural construct. And one which, crucially, is vulnerable to outside forces."

N. Bowen - Boatswain sociopolitical

"It shows how power can be generated, used and abused. In troubled times especially, such as during a tempest, it challenges us to consider what constitutes good, responsible, wise leadership."

N. Bowen say about The Tempest through a sociopolitical lens

"In Renaissance culture a Magus is someone who understands the cosmos and man's place within it. This knowledge is gained principally through study ... But a Magus is not merely a contemplative figure. His wisdom gives him the power to act, and it is this power that makes him controversial. The virtuous Magus acts only in accordance with divine Providence: he assists in God's work, and is thus a force for good."

M. Hebron - Prospero as Magus

"Ariel represents Prospero's art in its most spiritual form, free from the constraints of the body. Caliban symbolises his earthly side, and the fact that Prospero clearly has control over Caliban shows he has the proper discipline over his lower human tendencies."

M. Hebron - Prospero to Ariel, and to Caliban

"In The Tempest Prospero undergoes a liberating transformation through journeying and suffering. This is the human drama at the heart of the play ... Prospero becomes a weaker but more aware, admirable, and so sympathetic, figure. No longer interested in power..."

A. Riches - Prospero psychoanalytical - “Prospero becomes…”

Her name derives from the Latin 'mirari' (to wonder at or admire).

Miranda's name

"Her innocence recalls pre- lapsarian equality and, protected within the confines of the island and the play, her quest for knowledge leads to an image of harmony and reconciliation, although that depends on her subjection."

A. Findlay - Miranda - “Her innocence…”

"[Miranda] may likewise make spectators wonder about the sexism of an inheritance system where she must lose all to Ferdinand when she protests 'You play me false' in the chess game."

A. Findlay - Miranda - “Miranda may likewise…”

The dichotomy (division) between man and woman creates "the proliferation of representations" meaning that Prospero sees Sycorax as a representation of women.

Helene Cixous Sycorax and Prospero - “proliferation of…”

"These lines had elicited the first recorded anti-imperialist response to the play."

Ania Loomba - Caliban - “These lines…”

"Prospero's takeover is both racial plunder and a transfer to patriarchy"

A. Loomba - Prospero's - “Prospero’s takeover…”

"[Prospero] draws upon the language of misogyny as well as racism to construct her as a 'foul witch'"

A. Loomba - Prospero and Sycorax - “he draws upon…”

"Miranda thus conforms to the dual requirements of femininity within the master-culture; by taking on aspects of the white man's burden the white woman only confirmed her own subordination" (396).

A. Loomba - Miranda - “Miranda thus conforms…”

“Miranda is both the oppressor and the oppressed."

A. Loomba - Miranda - “Miranda is…”

"This implies that sexual violence is part of the black man's inferior nature, a view that amalgamates racist common-sense notions about black sexuality and animalism, and sexist assumptions about rape as an inevitable expression of frustrated male desire"

A. Loomba - Miranda and Caliban - “This implies…”