Tempest Critics Flashcards
(22 cards)
Bowling
‘Caliban represents the order of being below man and coarser elements of human nature. He is disobedient to the natural order’
Gibson (Caliban is evil)
‘Caliban is evil and brutish by nature’
Miller (caliban’s conduct)
‘Caliban’s conduct is a result of cultural encounter in which he is disadvantaged’
O’Toole
‘Shakespeare’s portrayal of Caliban is a direct attack against the form of wistful idealising of Nature that Montaigne is so fond of’
Brockback
‘the epitome of the primitive and uncivilised condition of the Native American’
O’Connell
‘Storm and shipwreck are the trigger of romance, but here they are simply illusion, a vanity of Prospero’s art’
Jacobs
‘he’s the victim of one crucial circumstance above all: the fact that his daughter has grown up and he has to lose/loose her to another man. And he can’t do anything about it’
Simpson
‘Both have virtuous children who will redeem them and dissolve enmity between them with marriage. Shakespeare, in his last plays, seems to inscribe hope for the world in the younger generation’
Harris
as damnable as the blackest witchcraft’
Kozinsky
‘Prospero is a selfish and vengeful tyrant’
Mason
‘Shakespeare is indicating alternatives to traditional power models’
Tanner
‘All the venom on Prospero’s island is secreted by men’
Moseley
‘The purity of the masque juxtaposed with the impure conspiracy to seize power’
Bowen
it challenges us to consider what constitutes good, responsible, wise leadership.’
Hebron
‘Prospero is a Magus using his powers for the greater good, not for personal gain’
Riches
‘the events following the storm/the expression of Prospero’s anguish and mental torment.’
Ledingham
‘regarding Prospero simply as a warning against imperial aggression or as an apology for tyranny falls wide of the mark; Prospero is a fundamentally enigmatic creation whose ‘true’ self is largely concealed, meaning that any attempt to pin down the character, politically or otherwise, will have inevitable limitations.’
Sanchez (Service and Seduction in The Tempest: Enlightenment Vs Desire)
‘Early twentieth-century readers saw The Tempest as a struggle over the angelic—but passive—soul (Miranda), between the forces of divine enlightenment (Prospero), on the one hand, and bestial desire (Caliban), on the other.’
Bleiman
‘undiluted patriarchal power’
Atandwa Kani in the RSC and Baxter Theatre collaboration.
Black actor to symbolise inferior position and slave like qualities from contemporary readings, yet possesses a darker, and more villanous presence as Prospero’s tool of vengeance.
Brett
Miranda is a symbol of both female perfection and male oppression
Simon Beale as Ariel in 1993
Contrasts modern productions use of black actor as Ariel ‘white, pure, Colonial’ inherent flaws of humanity are natural
