Download - 10. the Tempest Style
Variety of styleThe Tempest
• Shakespeare used different levels of speech and action to
portray his characters from different angles.
Variety of style
Different levels of speech
• A character may suddenly switch from everyday prose to
solemn verse.
• There is sometimes the insertion of allegorical scenes,
songs, music and dances, magical transformations.
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ProsperoFrom everyday prose to solemn verse
Variety of style
William Hamilton, Prospero and Ariel (from Shakespeare's The Tempest),
1797, Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin Only Connect ... New Directions
Everyday prose: Act I scene II[…]PROSPERO
Ariel, thy charge
Exactly is perform’d: but there’s more work.
What is the time o’ th’ day?
ARIEL
Past the mid season.
PROSPERO
240 At least two glasses. The time’ twixt six and now
Must by us both be spent most preciously. […]
Variety of style
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PROSPERO
Ye elves of hills, brooks, standin lakes, and
groves;
And ye that on the sands with printless foot
35 Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and do flyfly him
When he comes back; you demi-puppets that
By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make,
Whereof the ewe not bites;
SIGHT
HEARING
TASTE
TOUCH
Variety of style
Solemn verse: Act V, Scene I
Synaesthesia is typical of Prospero’s solemn speeches
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Variety of style
FerdinandSolemn verse of love
Angelica Kauffmann, Miranda and Ferdinand (1782), Austrian Gallery, Vienna
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FERDINAND
33 ‘Tis fresh morning with me when you are by at night […]
FERDINAND
I am, in my condition,
60 A prince Miranda; I do think, a King;
I would not so! […]
Hear my soul speak:
The very instant that I saw you, did
65 My Heart fly to your service; there resides,
To make me slave to it.
.
Variety of style
Solemn verse of love: Act III, Scene I
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Variety of style
CalibanRegression of the character
Caliban faces Prospero; Miranda sleeping in the cave (The Tempest, 1, 2), by Heinrich
Fuseli, 1806-1810.
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CALIBAN
331 As wicked dew as e’er my mother brush’d
With raven’s feather from unwholesome fen
Drop on you both! A south-west blow on ye
And blister you all o’er!
CALIBAN
363 You taught me language; and my profit on it
Is how know how to curse. The red plague rid you
For learning me your language!
Variety of style
Regression of the character: Act I, Scene II
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CALIBAN
1 All the infections that the sun sucks up
From bogs, fens, flats, on Prospero fall and make him
By inch-meal a disease!
CALIBAN SINGS DRUNKENLY
181 Farewell, master; farewell, farewell!
Variety of style
Regression of the character: Act II, Scene II
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Variety of style
CALIBANNo more dams I’ll make for fish;
Nor fetch in firing
185 At requiring;
Nor scrape trenchering, nor wash dish:
‘Ban, ‘Ban, Ca-caliban
Has a new master: get a new man.
Freedom, high-day! High-day, freedom! Freedom,
190 High-day, freedom!
Regression of the character: Act II, Scene II
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Variety of style
ArielMagic and the supernatural
Prospero and Ariel played by Dennis Kleinsmith and Don Pitsch in Auburn Regional Theatre’s 2007 production of The Tempest
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Enter Ariel like a water-nymph (Act I, Scene II);
Enter Ariel invisible playing and singing (Act I, Scene II);
ARIEL SONG
Come unto this yellow sands,
And then take hands:
Courtsied when you have and kiss’d
380 The wild waves whist:
Foot it featly here and there,
And sweet spirites bear
The burthen. Hark hark!
Variety of style
Magic and the supernatural: stage directions and songs
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Variety of style
ShapesMusic and dance
Dance Theatre Adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Thempest. October, 2007, McLennan College Theatre, Waco, Texas
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Solemn and strange music; and Prospero on the top (invisible).
Enter several strange Shapes, bringing in a banquet; and dance
about it with gentle actions of salutations, and inviting the king to
eat, they depart.
[…] then to soft music enter the Shapes again, and dance, with
mocks and mows, and carrying out the table.
(Act III, Scene III)
Variety of style
Music and dance: stage directions
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