The Tempest Critics

Barton

the storm contains no hint of the marvelous or extraordinary

Barton

the normal social responses have been dislocated

Coleridge

a lively commencement of the story

Coleridge

never puts habitual scorn into the mouths of other than bad men

Todd

Trinculo's role is combining with Stephano in providing comic releif

Todd

Prospero takes pleasure in Ariel's successes

Todd

Prospero controls the destiny of the other characters

Todd

Only Caliban's body is enslaved

Todd

Miranda's outward beauty is a reflection of her inner merit

Todd

Alonso emerges from the experience as purified and repentant

Todd

Stephano's murder plot is based on folly rather than evil

Riga

Prospero can be viewed as a beneficent kindly figure

Kozinsky

Prospero is a selfish and venegful tyrant

Westlund

Prospero is a deeply subjective character

O'Toole

Caliban's language is that of a slave who binds himself to his master

Mason

Shakespeare is indicating alternatives to traditional power models

Beck

Prospero is an all knowing character with the perfect plan in place

Jaimeson

Areil and Caliban represent two sides of Prospero's perosnality

Tanner

all the venom on Prospero's island is secreted by men

Tanner

Miranda's pitty must be innate since their is no-one to teach it to her

Tanner

The real monsters of the island are Sebastian and Antonio

Adams

Stephano and Trinculo are comic and incompetent

Garbar

A place where reality is transformed

Chaudhury

Caliban appeals to Stephano to achieve his desired end

Delvin

Caliban is master of the situation

Haddon

Stephano is the real monster

Moseley

[reference to the anti-masque] 'despite this harmony, there is still discord on the island

Moseley

The purity of the masque juxtaposed with the impure conspiracy to seize power

Moseley

Stephano and Trinculo are far more repulsive than Caliban

Moseley

A masque is 'a means of saying the unsayable'

Moseley

Prospero presents the idea of a Good Marriage'

Moseley

It is an elaborate way for Prospero to pronounce his blessing on the couple

Moseley

An example of how the play concerns itself with education

Andrew green power

Prospero is the major source of power within the tempest

Andrew green composer

He can be seen as the composer of the events of the play

Andrew green magical

they find themsleves helpless in the face of his magical arts

Andrew green orchestra

the mighty storm is thus a thunderously orchestrated work of art

Andrew green sadistic

at times the music and sounds prospero invokes take on a sadistic quality

Andrew green power struggle

ugly nature of power-struggle within politics

Andrew green confusion

the strange power of music to control adds to the sense of mystery and confusion

Andrew green melancholy

remains a figure of strange melancholy (prospero)

Bradshaw transformation

the tempest is his story , his psychic journey of self-transformation

Mcdonald

to listen to the tempest's language is to become deeply sceptical about the operation of all kinds of power - poetic. political and critical too

Sir Peter hall

the most blasphemous play that shakespeare ever wrote...is about a man on an island who is allowed to play God and who doesn't just dabble in witchcraft, but actually performs it

De Grazia

not only are their histories similar and their powers interchangeable but both sorceress and magician are driven by the same passion - anger