The Tempest
Name the main characters of the Tempest.
Prospero, Miranda, Ariel, Caliban, Ferdinand, Alonso, Antonio, Sebastian, Gonzalo, Stephano, Trinculo
Where and when is "Intimate Apparel" set? Why is this significant in regards to the play's themes?
1905 in New York City. The characters are not American in origin; they've come to NYC to pursue the American dream.
The Handmaid's Tale is full of a certain type of allusion. What is it? Can you give an example?
Biblical allusions.
Gilead, the Eyes...
What is a unique feature of Emily Dickinson's poetry?
Bonus: what might this feature do in her poems?
- The use of dashes --
- The use of slant rhyme
What happens the first time Miranda and Ferdinand meet?
They fall in love at first sight.
BONUS: How do they describe each other? Why?
I might call him
A thing divine, for nothing natural
I ever saw so noble.
What does the smoking jacket represent in "Intimate Apparel"?
Esther gives the jacket to George as a romantic gesture, but she made it for the man she thought he was. George doesn't appreciate it, and casts it aside just like he casts aside Esther's supposed love for him.
At the end of the play, Esther gives the jacket to Mr. Marks; they both appreciate its provenance and craftsmanship. The "intimate" garment and the shared admiration for it points to their ability to have a more mutually intimate relationship.
Characterize Serena Joy. What was her job before Gilead? What does she think of Gilead now?
She was a singer on television, she was instrumental in creating Gilead and advocating for traditional values. But she also feels trapped in Gilead, and is willing to bend the rules sometimes.
Who wrote "O Captain, My Captain"? What type of poem is it?
Walt Whitman, an elegy.
What does the "Tempest" itself symbolize?
A violent storm: the suffering Prospero has endured, Prospero's magical power, a shift in the power dynamics of those who sought to usurp Prospero's power...
Why does Sylvia Plath call her father "Daddy"?
Father--Child relationship, infantilized position of the speaker. Sexual undertones...?
What is the Handmaids uniform? (Think about the color). What might its significance be?
The Handmaids wear the color red. Red can symbolize fertility, blood, menstruation -- all of which relate to the handmaids' function in Gilead.
Red could also represent power and strength, making it an ambiguous...
Who wrote this poem? What is the speaker saying? What type of language/technique is in these lines?
I'm Nobody! Who are you?
Are you - Nobody - too?
Then there's a pair of us!
Don't tell! they'd banish us - you know!
Emily Dickinson, perhaps there is a community of 'nobodies,' paradox of nobody = no people, and yet there is a speaker and the person who is being addressed... so perhaps they are both somebodies?
Also: Dickinson had a disdain for the public eye/admiration by other people.
Who is Caliban? What does he represent? How is he characterized at the beginning of the play?
Prospero's 'slave' or 'monster,' the son of Sycorax, imprisoned/enslaved on the island. Prospero's imperial/colonialist attitudes.
He's described as sub/inhuman: "A freckled whelp, hag-born) not honored with
A human shape." (I.2)
What are the images, metaphors in these lines? How would you analyze them?
Bit my pretty red heart in two.
I was ten when they buried you.
At twenty I tried to die
And get back, back, back to you.
I thought even the bones would do.
But they pulled me out of the sack,
And they stuck me together with glue.
And then I knew what to do.
I made a model of you,
A man in black with a Meinkampf look
The speaker has attempted to commit suicide -- she has spent the majority of the poem fixated on death, and now she has tried to get back to him through death. But that doesn't work: she is metaphorically pulled back out of a bag, a bunch of pieces "glue[d]" back together. Her failure to get back to her father results in even more fragility and brokenness in her relationship to him.
CHAPTER 23
We play two games. Larynx, I spell. Valance. Quince. Zygote. I hold the glossy counters with their smooth edges, finger the letters. The feeling is voluptuous. This is freedom, an eyeblink of it. Limp, I spell. Gorge. What a luxury. The counters are like candies, made of peppermint, cool like that. Humbugs, those were called. I would like to put them into my mouth. They would taste also of lime.
The Commander asks Offred to play a game of Scrabble with him, after having invited him into his study, where she finds glimpses of 'normal' 'before' life. She sees numerous books. The words she spells during the game are ironic and telling: relating to the voice/speaking, fruit, fertilization/birth, food...
What is the tone in the opening lines of this poem? What is happening in this poem?
Because I could not stop for Death –
He kindly stopped for me –
The Carriage held but just Ourselves –
And Immortality
The tone is not what we might expect: death is addressed calmly, almost welcomed. There's no fear; the speaker accepts her fate.
Death and Immortality are personified.
What is the genre of The Tempest? (think: drama, tragedy, comedy, history...)
It can be classified as a tragedy, comedy, or tragicomedy. But traditionally it is one of his comedies: no characters die, there's romance, and there's a 'happily ever after,' unlike many of Shakespeare's tragedies.
ACT 5 SCENE 1
But this rough magic
I here abjure, and when I have required
Some heavenly music, which even now I do,
Prospero gestures with his staff.
To work mine end upon their senses that
This airy charm is for, I’ll break my staff,
Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,
And deeper than did ever plummet sound
I’ll drown my book.
Prospero pledges to make changes, stop using magic, abandon his books. Overall, he's reconsidering his ideas of revenge, renouncing his previous ideas. His character has evolved over the course of the play.
CHAPTER 43
"This man," says Aunt Lydia, "has been convicted of rape." Her voice trembles with rage, and a kind of triumph. "He was once a Guardian. He has disgraced his uniform. He has abused his position of trust. His partner in viciousness has already been shot. The penalty for rape, as you know, is death. Deuteronomy 22:23-29. I might add that this crime involved two of you and took place at gunpoint. It was also brutal. I will not offend your ears with any details, except to say that one woman was pregnant and the baby died."
A sigh goes up from us; despite myself I feel my hands clench. It is too much, this violation. The baby too, after what we go through. It's true, there is a bloodlust; I want to tear, gouge, rend.
Particicution Scene
What poem is this from? What is happening to "Reason"? Why does the poem end unfinished?
And then a Plank in Reason, broke,
And I dropped down, and down -
And hit a World, at every plunge,
And Finished knowing - then -
"I felt a funeral, in my brain," Emily Dickinson.
The speaker's mind is losing control throughout the poem and in this stanza, things finally fall completely apart. The speaker is "finished knowing," and thus does not, and cannot know, what happens next.