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The Tempest AO3

Power/Control (Prospero)
1. ‘Even Prospero, whose magic invests him with control over life and death, has his power hedged around with a sense of its dangers and risks.’ – Martin Butler
2. ‘Prospero bases his right to power on moral rather than territorial legitimacy. Caliban cannot rule the island because he is not really human, and cannot rule himself.’ – Martin Butler
3. ‘For his part, Caliban recognizes that Prospero’s political power lies in this presumption of cultural superiority’ – Martin Butler
4. ‘Prospero is a political pessimist, who assumes that men need to be ruled and that a state without a strong principle of kingly government will fall into a condition of anarchy.’ – Martin Butler
5. ‘By the end of the play, almost all the characters have moved into postures of obedience or alliance to Prospero.’ – Martin Butler
Forgiveness
1. ‘Prospero forgives Antonio, though in terms which suggest he does it through gritted teeth – he cannot acknowledge him as his brother, for example.’ – Martin Butler
2. ‘The stings of conscience, then, make Alonso subject himself to Prospero: the inner trajectory which he follows gives meaning to Prospero’s offer of forgiveness.’ - Martin Butler
3. ‘However much Prospero is publically committed to forgiveness, as a duke he must work by a more Machiavellian rule-book.’ - Martin Butler
4. ‘For all Prosperos, the price of forgiveness is the requirement to forgo his magic.’ - Martin Butler
Colonisation (Prospero and Caliban)
1. ‘the presentation of Caliban as a slave resonates even more strongly with the Americas.’ – Martin Butler
2. ‘Nurture having failed, Prospero resorts to force, for the chastity of Miranda has to be protected.’ – Martin Butler
3. ‘Caliban has been exploited, but in some respects he has willingly become a slave and brought his subjection upon himself.’ (when he says to Stephano he will ‘swear myself thy subject.’) – Martin Butler
4. Victorians saw themselves as having a duty to civilise ‘the natives’’ – Joanna Williams
5. ‘He is every bit the oppressed native.’ - – Joanna Williams
6. ‘The triumph at the end of the play is to see Caliban gratefully going back to his previous servitude.’ – Joanna Williams
Women and Marriage (Miranda and Ferdinand)
1. ‘These circumstances put special pressure on his relationship with Miranda, since she is effectively the channel through which his [Prospero’s] authority will be transmitted into the future. Prospero spends much of the play making arrangements of Miranda’s marriage’ – Martin Butler
2. ‘Europe’s domestic and political arrangements depend on the compliance of its women.’ – Martin Butler
3. ‘Authority cannot be safely passed from father to son-in-law unless care is taken to ensure the woman’s obedience.’ – Martin Butler
4. ‘A deflowered daughter would have tainted the family.’ – Martin Butler
5. (Prospero talks about Miranda as ‘my rich gift’) ‘Such language reinforces our perception of Miranda as something to be bartered over and traded between men, rather than a self-determining human being in her own right.’ – Mike Brett
6. ‘Her [Miranda’s] finest qualities are both a testament to her character, and a sad acknowledgement that she is a pawn in a patriarchal society.’ – Mike Brett
7. ‘Her [Miranda’s] femininity becomes an extremely valuable commodity.’ – Mike Brett
8. ‘She does not genuinely challenge Prospero’s authority, and submits to Ferdinand almost from the first moment that she meets him.’ – Mike Brett
The Supernatural (Prospero)
1. Ariel and Caliban ‘force us to reconsider what we suppose are the limits of the human.’ – Martin Butler
2. Prospero’s ‘magic allows him to impose his will in situations that he could not otherwise control.’ – Martin Butler
Love (Miranda, Prospero, Ferdinand)
1. ‘If anything Prospero is unusual for the tenderness he shows Miranda, the sensitivity with which he handles her predicament. Nevertheless, the play makes it apparent that her marriage is designed, since he engineers it.’ – Martin Butler
2. The ‘pointless task’ of moving logs is reminiscent of ‘chivalric’ knights, and ‘proves that he [Ferdinand] understands that Miranda is a prize to be earned, not stolen or seized as if of right.’ – Martin Butler
3. ‘She [Miranda] shows herself to be motivated by the positive force of love, rather than the threat of violence.’ – Mike Brett
4. ‘Coveted prize’ – Mike Brett describing Miranda
5. ‘For women, goodness equates to sexual fidelity.’ – Mike Brett
Freedom (Ariel and Caliban)
1. ‘Some critics see Caliban as representing freedom, whilst others see him as merely savage and uncouth.’ – Joanna Williams
2. ‘It could be argued that Miranda’s apparent freedom is entirely illusory.’ – Mike Brett
3. He no longer needs the imaginary representations. He has taken all the necessary archetypes and integrated them within himself’ – Barry Beck
Social Status (Prospero, Alonso, Antonio, Gonzalo, Caliban)
1. ‘Caliban serves to illustrate ideas about the social hierarchy of the Renaissance world, which formulated a socially rigid — and very political — hierarchy of God, king, man, woman, beast.’ – Sheri Metzger
Man vs the Natural World (Prospero, Caliban, Trinculo and Stephano)
1. ‘Caliban represents the primitive and unrestrained appetite, untouched by civilised notions of self control.’ – Joanna Williams
2. ‘Prospero is frowned upon for his attempts to restrain Caliban’s natural impulses’ – Joanna Williams (In the Romantic era, Caliban’s sexual appetite was seen as a sign of his freedom and was privileged above the ‘constraints of a stifling society’.)
Nature (Prospero, Ariel, Caliban)
1. ‘Caliban is associated with the elements of earth and water, in complete contrast to the flighty Ariel.’ – Joanna Williams

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The Tempest AO3

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