I.     The Tempest

A.  What’s weird about it

1.    Dream play, masque, Vision, pageant, play within play, intoxication and Error—Imagination—alternate realities—psychedelic!

a)   like Midsummer Night’s Dream

2.    Where are we? Where are characters?

a)   Opening scene—smack in the middle;  total chaos and confusion

(1) deliberately confounding us  1.2.14  p. 1296

b)   Prospero—central protagonist and author and director—like god in the bible; like the King viewing it as a pageant—controls everything including time, like an author—stops people in their tracks

(1) Masque in 4.1—p.1332

(2) Great revelation scene in 5.1 – p.1341

(3) Storm

(4) Disappearing banquet 3.3.17 p.1327

(5) Trickery and deception—ruling by dissimulationtesting and intelligence gathering;—like God and King James;

c)    Imagination—what the characters see, under what influence

(1) Power—“my strong imagination sees a crown dropping upon thy head” 2.1.188  p.1314

(2) Divinity—spirits and angels

(3) A Utopia—Gonzalo and Adrian: Golden Age

(4) The supressed contents of conscience

(5) Freedom—Caliban, Ariel

(6) Parodies of all—Stephano and Trinculo

(7) Prospero—vengeance and restoration

d)   Waking and sleeping

(1) Miranda, Ferdinand 1.1.487 [p.1309],  Antonio and Sebastian [p. 1314] Alonso 2.1.279 [p. 1316] , Prospero[I’ll yield him thee asleep p. 1325], Caliban 3.2.124 p. 1327

B.  Themes

1.    Imagination: vision and/or error

2.    Liberal arts—idealism—vs. politics: trust awakens treachery 1.2.93 p. 1298—the schoolmaster 1.2.172; the utopian counselor Gonzalo

3.    Authority and insurrection: ambition, aspiring minds, the crown

a)   Tone of authority—doubt of future foes

b)   Prospero’s challenges—control of enemies and allies

c)    Masters and slaves—proper and improper servitude; whose point of view

(1) Ariel: correspondant to command 1.2.300 p. 1304

(2) Caliban: incorrigible

d)   Ferdinand: myself am Naples 1.2.435  1307

4.    Plot summary to 2.2