Forgiveness vs revenge

“But are they safe, Ariel?”

• Planned orchestration & constant oversight - director checking the success of his own performance

• Power through indirect watching rather than direct action - Ariel as Prospero’s tool & constant eyes over the island

• Could lead into forgiveness theme - focused on their welfare & empathy

• However cynical reading as his intention of bringing them to tabula rasa is for vengeance & to inflict physiological & physical harm as we later see

• Complex psyche who can be interpretated in many ways

“Not a hair perished…not a blemish, but fresher than before. In troops I have dispersed them ‘bout the isle”

• Water imagery - symbolic of purity & cleansing. Restorative spectacle, not destructive force

• “dispersed” - military language, strategic separation & deliberate placement - island becomes a controlled experimental space

• Magic as spectacle

“Exactly is performed, but there’s more work. What is the time o’th’ day?”

• Precise completion, meticulous, performance is moving smoothly. Metatheatrical

• “work” reduces magic/revenge to: labour, construction & planning. Prospero stage director constantly managing production. Foreshadows what is yet to come - this is only the beginning of his vengeance

• AO3 Aristolean’s unity of time - play should occur within a single, continuous timeframe. Prospero ensures events fit into strict temporal structure through repeated reference of time. Narrative control

“For yet ere suppertime must I perform much business appertaining”

• Prospero Act 3 Scene 1

• Temporal marker highlights his controlled, strict timeline that has been carefully planned out. “stage director” AO5

• AO3 Aristotlean unity of time

• “perform” - metatheatrical, dual meaning of carrying out tasks or acting. Prospero as both ruler & director orchestrating unfolding drama

• Revenge & vengeance which he “must” carry out

(aside) “I am right glad that he’s out of hope” “The next advantage will we take thoroughly”

• Antonio & Sebastian Act 3 Scene 2

• Aside creates dramatic irony as audience are made aware of hidden intentions beneath outward loyalty

• Taking satisfaction in Alonso’s hopelessness as he believes that Ferdinand is dead. Vulnerability creates an opportunity for them to usurp him. Opportunistic ambition that thrives on other’s suffering

• “advantage” tactical gain, cold premediated intent

• Xp presents power as deeply unstable

(aside) “for some of you there present are worse than devils”

• Prospero Act 3 Scene 3

"But remember (for that’s my business to you) that you three from Milan did supplant good Prospero, exposed unto the sea…him and his innocent child”

• Ariel Act 3 Scene 3

• Ariel becomes mouthpiece of moral judgement, forces confrontation with past crimes. Moves play towards repentance & resolution

• “business” - formal language - official role/obligation that he must carry out, reinforcing his subservience. Acting as an agent carrying out justice

• “supplant,” combined with the moral adjective “good,” constructs a clear opposition between virtuous victim and corrupt usurpers, while the vulnerable image of being “exposed unto the sea” alongside an “innocent child” heightens the perceived cruelty of their actions. Justification of his vengeance

“the powers delaying, not forgetting”

• Ariel Act 3 Scene 3

• Prospero’s grudge, vengeance

“My high charms work, and these, mine enemies, are all knit up in their distractions”

• Prospero Act 3 Scene 3

• “high charms” - suggests elevated, powerful magic. Superior & almost divine. Playing with topical discussions of “good magic”

• “mine enemies” - possessive pronoun suggests ownership & control. Revenge is personal & deliberate

• Knitting metaphor - entanglement, restriction, difficult to escape. Minds are bounded up like wool, structuring their psychological downfall & forcing repentance

• Orchestrating reality like a stage drama, celebrating its successful running & taking pleasure from watching. Form of entertainment

• Leans into plays tragedy genre (revenge rather than forgiveness)