TEMPEST CHARACTER QUOTES BY THEME
Prospero – showing power
1.2
“Prospero, master of a full poor cell, / And thy no greater father”
“Lie there my art”
“dark and backward abysm of time”
“Thy father was the Duke of Milan and / A prince of power”
“Prospero the prime duke, being so reputed / in dignity, and for the liberal arts / Without a
parallel”
Values his magic “volumes that / I prize above my dukedom”
“by accident most strange, bountiful Fortune/... hath mine enemies / brought to this shore”
“my zenith doth depend upon / A most auspicious star”
3.1
“Poor worm thou art infected” – watching in on the scene of their contrived meeting
“Heavens rain grace on that which breeds between em”
3.3
Watching characters taken in by magical banquet, G commenting on the noble people of the
island that surpass those in real world – P remarks in an aside “some of you there present
are worse than devils”
“bravely the figure of this harpy hast thou performed”
“a grace it had devouring”
“my high charms work, and these, mine enemies, are all knit up in their distractions”
“in these fits I leave them”
4.1
To F “All thy vexations were but my trials of thy love”
“I must bestow upon the eyes of this young couple / some vanity of mine art”
“All eyes! Be silent!” – magic, show starting, nod to audience
“spirits which by mine art I have from their confines called to enact my present fancies”
Suddenly stops the masque “I had forgot that foul conspiracy” “the minute of their plot is
almost come”
“Our revels now our ended; these our actors, as I foretold you, were all spirits, and are
melted into air, into thin air; And like the baseless fabric of this vision, the cloud-capped
towers, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples, the great globe itself, yea all which it
inherit shall dissolve, and like this insubstantial pageant faded leave not a rack behind. We
are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep.”
Insecurities “my old brain is troubled”
, Sends chasing dogs after the trio “Go charge my goblins that they grind their joints with dry
convulsions...”
5.1
“my project” “my charms crack not” “my spirits obey” “I raised the tempest”
Takes ownership again “Go, release them Ariel. My charms I’ll break, their senses I’ll
restore”
“with my nobler reason, ‘gainst my fury Do I take part.”
Invokes all his magic, use of past tense, referencing previous plays, link between art in
theatre and magic.
“I have bedimmed the noontide sun, called forth the mutinous winds, and twixt the green
sea and the azured vault set roaring war” Petruchio taming of shrew
“rifted Jove’s stout oak with his own bolt”
Macbeth “by the spurs plucked up the pine and cedar”
Anthony and Cleopatra / Romeo and Juliet “graves at my command have waked their
sleepers” or Ovid’s Medea. Blasphemous element of magic
“my so potent art”
“this rough magic I here abjure”
“I’ll break my staff, bury it certain fathoms in the earth, and deeper than did ever plummet
sound / I’ll drown my book” Faustian
Traces a circle on stage – revenge tragedy, arena ringmaster, eternity, equality, stagecraft,
enclosing those within his power, play within a play, resolution
“The charm dissolves apace, and as the morning steals upon the night, melting the
darkness” restoring rationality and “chasing” “ignorant fumes”
Will retire to Milan “where every third thought shall be my grave” – acknowledgement of
humanity and humility
Epilogue – shorter lines, 8 feet, less commanding
Figure is Prospero as a character, and the actor performing the part.
“now my charms are all o’erthrown, and what strength I have’es mine own, which is most
faint” caesura following – denotes lethargy and resignation
Invokes audience “release me from my bands with the help of your good hands”- clapping.
Naples like heaven, a metaphor for life.
Rhyming of despair with prayer
“pardoned by the deceiver”
Religious imagery “prayer which pierces so, that it assaults mercy itself” “as you from crimes
would pardoned be, let your indulgence set me free”. Rhyming couplets
