Shakespeare hoorcolleges en werkcolleges
Week 1: The Tempest, The Norton Shakespeare 3205 (3266).
12-09-2023 hoorcollege
- The SwanTheatre in London: Elizabethorian theatre for 3000 men, only drawing of
the interior of such a theatre. Johannes de Witt made the drawing and van Buchell
collected it.
- Reformation: the split of the Catholic and Protestantism from the Christian Church,
happened just before Shakespeare’s day. Catholicism was accommodated by the pope
and Christian church.
- Shakespeare: officially protestant, but the plays don’t always endorse just
Protestantism. Sexual orientation, he had a wife. Shakespeare was truly Shakespeare,
although he didn’t go to university he had a great education. Shakespeare is a result
of his time (with historians, Lutherans and so on- he inspired his plays on it).
- Historical context: using the plays to watch the historical context of Shakespeare’s
time. How the plays contribute to the discussion of the topics from that time.
Debates such as:
1. Monarchy
2. Christianity
3. Gender
- Plays are always ambiguous, SS didn’t truly take a stand
- Other texts that contribute to a perspective on the historical context: pamphlets,
developing newspapers, propaganda, letters, travel documents, poetry, images,
political statements.
- How to read the plays: it’s modern English. Making the plots isn’t always necessary
because SS doesn’t always finish his stories, it isn’t a novel to him. Ask yourself:
1. What are the characters saying?
- No narrator, only direct speech
- Multiple points of view (you cannot quote Shakespeare, only his characters or
speakers)
2. How are the characters saying it?
- Stage directions (implicit and explicit, in texts and in directions noted)
- Disguises used
- Prose (no consistent pattern in meter and such, like ordinary speech- ‘’this is some
monster of the isle with four legs, who hath got, as I take it, an ague.’’ (Stephano 2.2)-
to show hierarchy), blank verse (without rhymes, 5 times tu dum tu dum tu dum tu
dum tu dum- ‘’Be not afeard: the sile is full of noises, Sounds and sweet airs, that give
delight and hurt not.’’(Caliban 3.2)) or rhymed verse (which metrum).
3. When are the characters saying it?
- Exit and exeunt (leaving the stage, exit is for a small amount of characters leaving the
stage) if a character is alone on stage it means something (like a soliloquy- ‘’to be or
not to be’’ as the most famous one. Prospero has one as well in the Temperest) .
, - Difference monologues and soliloquy: a soliloquy is always a monologue but not vice
versa, it is about the characters thoughts.
- Feminine ending: when the end of a sentence is not stressed.
The tempest
- Seen as an comedie, in the first Folio. Later it is seen as a romance. Romance referrers
to generically mixed nature (tragic and comic themes), also the supernatural is part of
romance
- Issue of power: colonization with the Virginian Company. There are travel documents
about a ship brake. The collection appears after the play was written but there is a
clear echo between the letters and the play. There are parallels in the story but also
parallels in the texts itself (like the mention of a tortoise and the question of being a
fish).
- Montaignes essays have a parallel to the Tempest as Gonzalo’s dreams about a
civilization without traffic, letters, poverty and servants. Power relations are seen as
something bad in his dream although he himself sees it as ‘’his’’ common wealth,
which means he is contradicting himself (as Sebastian and Antonio react to):
Shakespeare doesn’t copy Montaignes text but contributes to the discussion around
kingship and power relations. Power relations are difficult to get rid off he shows with
these lines.
- Maskerspel, masque: a performance with an emphasis on spectacle. Entertainment
of order brought about the monarchs. Visually spectacular, in the play it was little in
terms of props though. Prospero’s masque ends suddenly.
- Kings watching a play: he must be shown seeing the play (in the middle of the
audience) with the best view of the play.
- ‘’set me free with your hands’’”: applaud me, and make this story end.
13-09-2023 Werkcollege
1. Is Prospero the play’s hero? Does he also have weak character traits? Is there an
entity that has control over him?
- There doesn’t seem to be an entity that has control over him other than his own
consciousness. His weak character traits could be the fact that he held a grudge and
wanted to get his vengeance, but he overcomes this at the end by forgiving his
brother. Prospero seems to be the hero because in the end he helps everyone to get
of the island to make the story one with an happy ending.
2. What is the nature of Prospero’s magic? What are the limitations of his power?
- Prospero’s magic originates from a star, he takes ‘’fortune’’ from that and create
illusions, charms and curses. The limitations of his power is that he can not affect the
minds and hearts of the people.
3. Towards the end of the play, Prospero states:
, The rarer action is
In virtue than in vengeance. (5.1.21-28)
Is this a conclusion he has reached just now, or was this his plan all along? Is there
any evidence for either point of view?
- Evidence: Prospero’s forgiving nature is shown in the fact that he blesses the
marriage of his daughter to Ferdinand. He also doesn’t harm the his brother and the
other people, unlike how he said he would.
- No evidence: until the end it isn’t clear what Prospero’s plan is, in the final act he
speaks with forgiving words. Before that he doesn’t.
4. One recurring theme in the play is the issue of usurpation. Where does this theme
occur? And how do these various cases of (attempted) usurpation throw light on
each other?
- Prospero is unrightfully betrayed by his brother Antonio and the King of Naples in a
conspiracy for Antonio to take the title of Duke of Milan.
- Sebastian and Antonio are plotting the death of the king
- Caliban is plotting the death of his master so Sebastian can rule the island.
- It is shown that loyalty isn’t the case for almost all the characters, for mankind.
5. What is the setting of the play (i.e., where would you locate Prospero’s island)? Are
all indications consistent?
- The island is located in the Mediterranean. Here is where they tried to discover new
land that was unknown to the English before.
6. When Gonzalo speaks of Widow Dido, he is invoking a classical intertext. Which?
And what might be the relevance of that story?
- His utopian vision echoes that of philosopher Montaigne. The relevance of the story
is that it makes an contribution to the discussion around power relations.
7. When Gonzalo speaks of creating an ideal commonwealth on the island, what does
this ideal consist in? Are we meant to take Gonzalo seriously?
- We are meant to take the significance of his words seriously, the fact that it is
contradicting is the whole point. But this marks his words as weak and therefore not
serious. His ideal consists of freedom, but this freedom should be his. Which means
he still talks about a hierarchy and ownership.
8. Prospero has two servants. How do they differ from each other?
- Ariel is not humanlike and very loyal to Prospero, Prospero saved him and therefore
he is in debt to him.
- Caliban is Prospero’s slave, Caliban doesn’t own Prospero anything and fights against
his role as a servant which makes him not loyal and untrustworthy.
9. How does Prospero manipulate his daughter, Miranda? What is the purpose of his
matchmaking? How does that relate to sixteenth- and seventeenth-century political
realities?
