3.1.1.3The play at a glance
Prospero, the deposed Duke of Milan, has lived for twelve years on an island with his daughter Miranda, the spirit Ariel and Caliban, the son of the witch Sycorax. Using magic he raises a storm that wrecks a ship carrying his usurping brother Antonio and King Alonso. Miranda and Alonso's son Ferdinand fall in love; two conspiracies against Prospero come to nothing; and Prospero finally forgives his enemies, frees Ariel and gives up his magic.
The play dates from around 1611. England was establishing colonies in the New World, and accounts of a 1609 shipwreck in Bermuda were circulating. Montaigne's essay Of the Cannibals, which Shakespeare drew on directly for Gonzalo's speech, questioned whether Europeans were more civilised than the peoples they encountered.
- the masque
- a courtly entertainment with music and spectacle, staged within the play in Act 4
- usurpation
- seizing a position that belongs to someone else, which happens three times over in the play
- tragicomedy
- a play that moves through serious danger to a reconciliation rather than a death
3.1.1.3Characters
Prospero is the play's problem. He is the wronged duke and also a master who threatens Ariel with imprisonment and Caliban with cramps. Whether his renunciation of magic is generous or merely timely is the question most essays turn on.
Caliban claims the island by inheritance from his mother, and the play never refutes the claim. He is given the most lyrical verse in the play, which resists any reading of him as simply brutish, yet he also attempted to assault Miranda.
Ariel serves willingly but wants freedom, and asks for it directly. Miranda has very few lines relative to her importance, and Prospero deflates her most famous speech in three words.
3.1.1.3Themes
Power and its renunciation frame the play. Prospero controls the weather, the plot and the other characters' movements, and the drama is really about whether he will put that control down.
Colonisation is unavoidable in a modern reading: an arriving European takes an island from its inhabitant, teaches him language and enslaves him.
Forgiveness is chosen rather than felt. Prospero says his nobler reason takes part against his fury, and Antonio is given no line of repentance, so the reconciliation is left deliberately incomplete.
Common mistake
Writing that Prospero is straightforwardly the hero. The play gives Caliban a case and lets it stand, and an essay that notices this will always outscore one that does not.
3.1.1.3Shakespeare's methods
Verse and prose divide the cast: the court speaks in blank verse, the drunkards in prose, and Caliban in verse, which places him with the nobles rather than the clowns.
The play observes the classical unities, taking place in a single day in a single place, which concentrates the pressure.
The masque and the epilogue both draw attention to theatre itself; 'the great globe itself' puns on the playhouse in which the audience is sitting.
Worked example
Answer:
- Prospero is both victim and oppressor, and the play holds both
- Caliban's claim to the island is never refuted
- Forgiveness is reasoned into, not felt
- The epilogue puts Prospero in the position he imposed on others
AO1-AO4How this text is examined
This text is examined in Paper 1, Section A. The question is worth 34 marks and an extract from the play is printed, and the question asks you to start with that extract and then write about the play as a whole. Allow about 55 minutes.
The marks are divided as AO1 12 marks, AO2 12 marks, AO3 6 marks, AO4 4 marks. AO1 rewards a clear argument supported by well-chosen references. AO2 rewards analysis of how the writer achieves an effect, which means writing about choices rather than about events. AO3 rewards context used to deepen a reading of the text.
Common mistake
Retelling the plot. Narrative summary earns nothing under any assessment objective, however accurate it is. Every paragraph should be making a point about how or why, not about what happens.
Four of the marks are for AO4: vocabulary and sentence structures used to control meaning, and accurate spelling and punctuation. These are the cheapest marks on the paper and the easiest to lose by rushing the final paragraph.