Key quotes 1.1-3.3 with literary techniques

1.1 ‘What cares these roarers for the name of king?’ - Boatswain

Technique:

• rhetorical question (challenges assumptions of hierarchy),

• personification (the storm ‘roarers’ is given will and power that is indifferent to human authority)

• colloquial diction (‘cares’, ‘roarers’ suggests working-class voice)

Effect:

• Undermines divine right of kings; nature (chaotic, amoral) is indifferent to social hierarchy

• Foreshadows Prospero’s magical storm and his desire to strip men of power to teach them humility

• Suggests that natural forces are more powerful and democratic than political titles

• Highlights play’s central conflict between natural and constructed orders

1.1 ‘incharitable dog’ - Sebastian

Sebastian to Boatswain showing the class divide

1.2 ‘I have done nothing but in care of thee, / Of thee, my dear one, thee my daughter’ Prospero

Technique:

• Anaphora (repetition of ‘thee’ emphasises emotional intensity)

• emotive language (‘my dear one’ reveals affection)

• justificatory tone (defensive structure)

Effect:

• Shows Prospero’s need to assert his role as a protector and father, possibly to excuse his authoritarian control

• Reveals duality: affectionate yet self centred. His control over Miranda may be loving by also self-serving

• Emphasises patriarchal power masked as benevolence

• Sets up Prospero’s narrative manipulation - his version of events is filtered through emotional appeals

1.2 ‘Thou art inclined to sleep. ‘Tis a good dullness’ - Prospero

Technique:

• Euphemism (‘good dullness’ masks coercion)

• irony (the audience knows Miranda is being enchanted)

• Syntax (short, calm statements reflect control)

Effect:

• Highlights Prospero’s manipulation of Miranda’s body and mind

• Demonstrates the theme of illusion and power - he orchestrates events while appearing passive

• Raises questions about autonomy and free will

• Builds dramatic irony: Miranda is unaware of how tightly she is controlled, but the audience is not

1.2 ‘This island’s mine by Sycorax my mother, / Which thou tak’st from me.’ - Caliban

Technique:

• Possessive pronouns (‘mine’, ‘my mother’ asserts ownership)

• Enjambment (creates emotional urgency and overflow)

• Confrontational tone (accusational)

Effects:

• strong anti-colonial resonance: Caliban articulates his own narrative of dispossession

• Presents Sycorax (a black, female figure) as the origin of land ownership - a challenge to patriarchal/colonial claims

• Evokes sympathy for Caliban, who is often dismissed a monster

• Challenges Prospero’s moral authority and introduces complexities around justice and entitlement

Caliban names

‘abhorred slave’ ‘monster’ ‘moon-calf’ (implying deformity and unnaturalness)

Effects:

• Dehumanisation - creates sympathy for the exploited character

• Colonial Allegory - Language reflects the attitudes of European colonisers to Indigenous people

• Sympathy vs Comedy - the comedic insults sometimes invoke comedy but also sympathy for the constantly degraded character

1.2 ‘Full fathom five thy father lies…’ - Ariel (sings to Ferdinand, leading him to believe his Father is drowned)

Techniques:

• Alliteration (f’s create a musical, hypnotic quality)

• Assonance and euphony (smooth vowel sounds enhance lyricism)

• Metaphor (death is transformed into a sea-change of pearls and coral)

• Trochaic metre (unsettling rhythm contrasts blank verse)

Effects:

• Beautifully unsettling; transforms death into art

• Reflects Ariel’s magical otherworldly presence and command of language

• Highlights the play’s liminal space - between life and death, real and illusory

• Foreshadows the themes of transformation, loss and redemption and emotional rebirth

2.1 ‘How lush and lusty the grass looks! how green!’ Gonzalo

Techniques:

• Alliteration and sibilance (soft consonants evoke lushness)

• Exclamatory tone (joyful, naive reaction)

• Pastoral imagery (idealised vision of nature)

Effect:

• Gonzalo represents the voice or utopian humanism - he sees the island as a paradise

• His optimism contrasts sharply with the pessimism and cynicism of the other nobles

• Signals the tension between idealism and political realism

• His romantic view may seem foolish, but also offers moral clarity

2.1 ‘The later end of his commonwealth forgets the beginning’ - Antonio (sarcastically mocks Gonzalo’s idea of a utopian society.)

Techniques:

• Irony (mocks Gonzalo’s inconsistency)

• Antithesis (juxtaposition of ‘end ‘ and ‘beginning’)

• Prose (shift from verse reflect cynical, pragmatic mindset)

Effect:

• Ridicules utopian ideals as unrealistic or internally contradictory

• Suggests that even moral visions are corrupted by self interest

• Shows Antonio’s manipulative intelligence and political scepticism

• Prepares the audience for his later betrayal plot

2.2 ‘Ban, Ban, Ca-Caliban / Has a new master’ - Caliban (C meets Trinculo and Stephano; C pledges allegiance to S believing him God)

Technique:

• Rhymed couplet, repetition, irregular rhythm (singsong tone)

• Childlike structure (evokes nursery rhyme)

• Diction (‘new master’ suggests resignation to slavery to Prospero)

Effect:

• Caliban becomes a tragicomic figure - both amusing and pitiful

• His song mocks the idea of freedom; he escapes one master only to accept another

• Reinforces the play’s commentary on colonisation: the colonised may internalise their role

• The broken rhythm reflects his intoxication and loss of dignity

• Childlike structure suggests his limited intelligence as well as his dependence on Prospero

3.1 ‘The very instant that I saw you, did / My heart fly to your service.’ - Ferdinand (F declares his love while performing forced labour)

Technique:

• Metaphor (love as servitude)

• Chivalric diction (‘service’, ‘heart’ aligns with courtly love)

• Immediate temporal marker (‘the very instant’ exaggerates impact)

Effect:

• Reinforces the romantic idealism of Ferdinand

• Suggests love is noble, sincere - but perhaps naive

• Also introduces irony - Ferdinand is enslaved by Prospero even as he pledges himself to Miranda

• Mirrors Prospero’s themes of power and submission on a personal level

3.1 ‘I am your wife, if you will marry me. / If not, I’ll die your maid’ - Miranda (M proposes to F, overwhelmed by love)

Technique:

• Declarative sentence (strong, active speech)

• Conditional clause (respectful of consent, yet assertive)

• Subversion of expectations (woman proposes)

Effects:

• Miranda challenges traditional gender roles

• Reinforces the play’s interest in renewal and hope through the younger generation

• Presents Miranda as emotionally honest and morally mature - unlike many adult characters

• Signals a sincere human connection amid magical manipulation

• Ideas of servitude also presented after, juxtaposing the challenge of traditional gender roles

3.2 ‘Remember / First to possess his books; for without them / He’s but a sot’ - Caliban (

Techniques:

• Symbolism (books = power, knowledge, colonial dominance)

• Irony (the “savage” recognises the tools of domination)

• Parataxis (short, factual clauses increase urgency)

Effect:

• Caliban shows intellectual insight into how power operates

• Reverses the civilised/savage binary - Caliban thinks strategically

• Shakespeare critiques how knowledge (via books) is weaponised in colonisation and the time

• The idea of Prospero as a ‘sot’ without his book implies that power is artificial and fragile

3.3 ‘You are three men of sin’ - Ariel (as Harpy -

Technique:

• Biblical diction (‘men of sin’ invokes ideas of judgement)

• Triadic structure (three men, three crimes, threefold guilt)

• Supernatural embodiment (Ariel as harpy represents vengeance)

Effect:

• This scene functions as a moral reckoning

• The supernatural takes on a didactic role, demanding reflection and change

• Ties into Jacobean beliefs about divine justice and repentance

• Begins the arc of redemption for Alonso; others resist accountability

3.3 ‘The powers, delaying, not forgetting, have / Incensed the seas and shores’ - Ariel (

Technique:

• Personification (nature becomes an instrument of justice)

• Alliteration (‘seas and shores’ emphasises rhythm and scale)

• Religious tone (suggests punishment for sin)

Effect:

• Implies that the universe has a moral order, delayed but not inevitable.

• Reinforces the fusion of a natural and spiritual authority on the island

• Suggests that suffering is a necessary prelude to forgiveness

• Nature becomes Prospero’s co-agent in his plan for justice