EN251: British Literature I

Fall 2005

 

Response Paper 5

 

There will be no class meeting on Thursday, October 13.

For Monday, October 17, finish reading The Tempest and write a response paper on one of the following topics:

  1. In Act 4 (lines 60-138), Prospero, who has throughout the play been staging “plays” for the various castaways, stages a masque to celebrate the union of Miranda and Ferdinand. A masque was a form of extravagant musical drama, usually using allegory (complex symbolism) and mythological references. They were very expensive to produce and therefore only for aristocrats, and they were very popular in the court of King James I, who was the English monarch at the time of The Tempest. Prospero presents a masque of Ceres, the goddess of grain (hence “cereal”) and also of fertility. What does it say about Prospero that he stages a masque for Ferdinand and Miranda?
  2. Throughout the play, Prospero seems to be staging little dramas for the various castaways under his power. All in all, how would you assess Prospero as a dramatist? What do his performances suggest about drama in general—about its purpose, its powers, its limitations, its relationship to reality?
  3. At the climax of the masque, Prospero suddenly interrupts the performance. Miranda says, “Never till this day/ Saw I him touched with anger so distempered” (4.1.144-45). We know that Prospero has just remembered the plot of Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo, but why is he so unusually upset? Is it something about Caliban, or about himself, or about plots, or something else entirely?
  4. Near the end of the play, when the plot of Stephano, Trinculo, and Caliban is revealed, Prospero says to Alonso, "Two of these fellows you/ Must know and own. This thing of darkness I/ Acknowledge mine" (5.1.272-274). What does he mean by this? Has Prospero's perception of Caliban been confirmed, or has it changed and evolved over the course of the play?
  5. What are the effects of Prospero's "plots" on the castaways-- Alonso, Ferdinand, Gonzalo, Antonio, Sebastian, Stephano, Trinculo. Who has changed, and why, and how? Who has not changed, and why not?
  6. Prospero declares his intention to leave the island with the others and to "retire me to my Milan, where/ Every third thought shall be my grave" (5.1.307-308). What has Prospero intended to achieve? Has he achieved it?
  7. At the beginning of Act 5, Prospero vows that he will soon give up his "rough magic." In the Epilogue, he addresses the audience and asks to be "set free." There are many ways to interpret Prospero's magical powers. What do you take them to represent? Does the play ultimately stress Prospero's power, or the limitations on his power? And what is the role of the audience-- or the reader-- in the drama?