the tempest day two engl 305 dr. fike. announcements outline for our last day of class: –course...

The Tempest

Day Two

ENGL 305

Dr. Fike

Announcements

• Outline for our last day of class:– Course evaluation.– Discussion of the final examination (May 5th, 11:30).

• Your portfolio is due on the final day of class. See the list of contents on the course calendar.– Term paper people should submit their work in a file folder. – Lesson planner(s): Use a ring binder. – Everyone must turn in a cover letter.

Next Assignment

• Portfolio: See course calendar for contents.• Conference abstract:

– See separate assignment sheet. Read this carefully. Two methods:

• Follow this outline: problem, previous scholarship, thesis, methodology, conclusions.

• These parts may help you get started: your intro, topic sentences, conclusion.

– Double space your abstract. – It should not exceed two pages double spaced.

Outline for Today

• First group exercise: Ariel’s song and other dualities in the play. Concept: sea change.

• Second group exercise: Prospero and his magic.

• Prospero and Psychology: Renaissance vs. Jungian.

• Concept: felix culpa.

First Group Exercise

We talked last time about the storm, which yields to calm. Storm and calm are major dualities in The Tempest. My point to you at day's end last week was that the play is built around such oppositions, a technique that we also observed in King Lear. Your assignment is to have a look at Ariel's song at 1.2.400ff. With a partner, identify dualities in (or implied by) the song and then brainstorm others in the rest of the play. After 5 minutes we will reconvene, and you will share your discoveries.

Dualities in Ariel’s Song

• Strange and wondrous (Miranda = mirale (Latin, wonder); see note on 3.1.37: “Admired Miranda”: “Her name means ‘to be admired or wondered at.’”

• Calm and tempest• Music and noise• Nature and magic• Death and life• Pagan (“nymph”) vs. Christian (“knell”)• Temporal vs. permanent

POINT

• The song is talking about a magical transformation—a change out of nature.

• As further evidence of transformation, Ferdinand now thinks that he is king (see the next line).

Concept: Sea Change

• Thus Ariel’s song clearly relates to another one of our key concepts.

• A sea change is a change in a character’s attitude or way of thinking while at sea; the passage over water is often at night.

• Hamlet experiences a sea change during his voyage to England.

• Shakespeare actually uses the phrase in The Tempest.

Other Dualities

• What other dualities did you identify in the play?

• (For help, see the open outline on the next slide.)

Dualities in the Rest of the Play

• Earth vs. ______::Caliban vs. ______::body vs. ______• Nature vs. ______::Caliban vs. _______• Slavery vs. _______• Despair vs. ______• Sovereignty vs. ________• Waking vs. ________• Revenge vs. _________• Sobriety vs. __________• Civilized vs. ________• Learned vs. ________

Dualities in the Rest of the Play

• Earth vs. air::Caliban vs. Ariel::body vs. spirit• Nature vs. nurture::Caliban vs. Miranda• Slavery vs. freedom• Despair vs. joy• Sovereignty vs. conspiracy/slavery• Waking vs. dreaming• Revenge vs. forgiveness• Sobriety vs. drunkenness• Civilized vs. savage• Learned vs. uneducated

More on Caliban

• His name means cannibal (“Caliban” is an anagram, a word formed by rearranging the letters of another word).

• He was sired by a witch and a devil; therefore, he is not a pure being.

• He tried to rape Miranda.• He is bent on revenge against Prospero for usurping the

island.• Prospero calls him “this thing of darkness” at 5.1.278-79

(he represents Prospero’s shadow? he is dark-skinned?). [See King Lear says at 1.4.227, “Who is it that can tell me who I am?” The Fool replies, “Lear’s shadow.”]

• Caliban is unlike “the innocent and pure” denizens of Gonzalo’s ideal commonwealth at 2.1.158.

Second Group Exercise

• We turn now to a question about Prospero: Work in your small groups for 7 minutes. Each group will deal with one question on the next slide. If your group finishes its work before the time is up, go on to one of the other questions. When we reconvene, be prepared to share passages and responses with the rest of the class.

Group Assignments1. Discuss passages that illuminate Prospero early in the play:

1.2.66-117, 161-69. How would you characterize his state of mind here? Do you think that he has learned from his exile?

2. At 1.2.197-238, what seems to be the nature of Prospero's magic? Of Ariel's? Whose magic causes the storm? And do you believe that Prospero's intentions are clear to him at the beginning of the play? In other words, is it possible that he may want revenge at this stage and that renewal occurs to him only later? As you reflect on these questions, have a look at 5.1.41-50 and 131-32.

3. Although it is tempting to consider Prospero to be merely a stage director, he is also a participant in the play's events. In your group, discuss ways in which he must participate. Does he drop the ball in any way?

4. What must Prospero (and Shakespeare?) do? See 1.2.22-25, 5.1.33-57, and 5.1.304-315.

Summary

• Like King Lear, The Tempest is built on dualities.

• Prospero’s magic affects nature as well as the mind. He is not just a stage director; he is also a participant in the action, a character who is very much “in progress.” He must give up his magic, marry off his daughter, reclaim his dukedom, forgive others, and acknowledge his coming death.

Major Concept

• The rhythm of Prospero’s life illustrates an important concept: felix culpa, the fortunate fall.

• “Thus even Adam's sin and the fall of man involved the paradox of the felix culpa in that it led to the Incarnation and the redemption of mankind by Christ” (from Credo Reference).

A Milton Moment

O goodness infinite, goodness immense!That all this good of evil [the Fall] shall produce,And evil turn to good; more wonderfulThen that which by creation first brought forthLight out of darkness [Paradise]! full of doubt I stand,Whether I should repent me now of sinBy mee done and occasiond [eating the apple], or rejoyceMuch more, that much more good thereof shall spring,To God more glory, more good will to MenFrom God, and over wrauth grace shall abound [Christ

overcomes sin and death].Paradise Lost 12.469-78

Chart

Time

Paradise RegainedMilan, forgiveness, individuation

ParadiseMilan

Irresponsiblity

Fall Island, hatred, anger

Points

• Knowing good by evil, being good despite the temptation to do evil, and forging good out of evil are greater accomplishments than being good in the unfallen garden.

• Cf. Joseph in Genesis: becoming a slave enables him to save his family and a whole people from starvation.

• Gonzalo sums up a parallel action at 5.1.207-15. See next slide.

Gonzalo’s Speech at 5.1.207-15

Was Milan thrust from Milan, that his issueShould become kings of Naples? O, rejoice Beyond a common joy, and set it downWith gold on lasting pillars: In one voyageDid Claribel her husband find at Tunis,And Ferdinand, her brother, found a wifeWhere he himself was lost; Prospero his dukedomIn a poor isle; and all of us [found] ourselvesWhen no man was his own.

Claribel

• “She is a successful Desdemona, a European who has achieved union with her dark African opposite.” This “prefigures the integration that Prospero is building in himself” (Rogers-Gardner 87).

The Shape of Prospero’s Life

• He falls from power, and on the island he undergoes a slow character transformation:

• Vexation and desire for revenge peacefulness, forgiveness, and the contemplation of death.

Prospero’s Psychological Journey

• The Tempest is about Prospero’s psychic integration (“individuation” is the Jungian term).

• A key to this journey is acknowledging the shadow: “This thing of darkness I / Acknowledge mine” (5.1.278-79).

• He embraces forgiveness:– 5.1.27-28: “The rarer action is / In virtue than in

vengeance.”– 5.1.78-79: “I do forgive thee, / Unnatural though thou

art.”– 5.1.131-32: “I do forgive / Thy rankest fault.”

Jungian Criticism (source: Barbara Rogers-Gardner)

POINT: The idea is that, together, the characters represent the human psyche:

• Prospero = rationality• Miranda = heart• Ferdinand and Miranda = the male and female halves of the psyche

—animus and anima• Ariel = imagination• Caliban = irrationality, passion, bestiality; he eats “pignuts”

(2.2.166).• Antonio & Caliban = shadow projections• Sycorax = negative anima; mother image• Alonzo and Gonzalo = father image

BR-G on Renaissance Psychology

• Reason is supposed to guide the will, and together they should subdue the passion. Repression is a positive thing in Renaissance psychology.

• Jung: Repression is bad. The shadow must be acknowledged and integrated. Rational and irrational need each other. Balance is the key thing.

• Dr. Fike’s connection to Yeats’s “Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop”: “‘Fair and foul are near of kin, / And fair needs foul,’ I cried.”

• Fair does not repress foul; they partner with each other. If fair represses foul, foul bites fair on the backside.

Prospero’s Individuation

• He acknowledges his shadow (Caliban) and embraces his anima (Miranda).

• BR-G: “At the end, Prospero ushers all the characters into the cave, signifying that he has transcended all boundaries, integrated all parts of himself” (106). (Dr. Fike: Cave parallels the “cells” within the brain.)

• “Prospero gathers all the pieces of himself, good and bad, word and image, into his home, his cave, his metaphoric funerary urn, acknowledging them as his own” (107).

Qualifications of Felix Culpa

• 5.1.185-86: “O brave new world / That has such people in ’t!” The statement is heavy with irony.

• Caliban is not rejuvenated.

• 5.1.179: “A most high miracle!” says Sebastian. Have he and Antonio been rejuvenated? Probably not.

The Point

• The storm has passed, and calm ensues, but weather abides. A particular situation has been resolved, but humanity is still fallen. One man’s psychological transformation is a good thing, but everyone must go through the same process. Prospero and Miranda are returning to a place where psychological balance is not the rule.

Next Time

• Be sure to bring a copy of “Of Cannibals.” Read it and annotate it.

• It is posted on the course calendar.

• We will also have a look at the vanishing banquet and the masque of Iris and Ceres.

END