The Tempest Quotes- Act 5 Scene 1

“Now does my project gather to a head”- Prospero Prospero has become a sorcerer, doesn’t have plans, but projects. Great sorcerer of Renaissance drama is finalising great project that is his life’s work. Climactic point. Rhyme and lyrical, poetic nature.
“Time Goes upright with his carriage”- Prospero Upright because his burdens have been lifted- no longer crushed under weight of stress and worry. Without worries, time is also light and passes quickly. Personified metaphor. Abandoning of power- giving farewells. Not much time left- like Shakespeare.
“They cannot budge till your release”- Ariel Syntax implies Prospero must be released from something for “the kings and followers” to budge. Until Prospero decides to release them
“His tears runs down his beard like winter’s drops From eaves of reeds”- Ariel Simile compares Gonzalo’s tears running from beard to cold raindrops falling from bottom of thatched roofs.- chilling image.
“if you now beheld them, your affections Would become tender”- Ariel Moment of change in how Prospero is presented. Start feeling genuine emotion for them. Become humanised. Wants to be a better person.
“Mine would, sir, were I human”- Ariel Ariel does most magic. Bitter riposte at Prospero. Implying Prospero is less human than he is. Prospero is not moved to tender affections when he regards the enslavement he bounds Ariel with.
“Hast thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling… Passion as they, be kindlier moved than thou art?”- Prospero Emphasises fact that Ariel isn’t human. Can’t empathise with humans fully. Frank Kermode: “Ariel is expressly not human…one of the achievements of the play is to have him observe human beings from a perspective that is fairy-like; knowing and partly understanding their behaviour but finding it strange, like puck.”
“The rarer action is In virtue than in vengeance”- Prospero People are more likely to do bad things than good. Violence more likely to happen than acts of good will. Prospero chooses to forgive not punish.
“you demi-puppets that By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make”- Prospero Prospero addresses fairies who he blames for creating fairy rings in the grass. Phenomenon in which discoloured grass grows rapidly in a ring.
“But this rough magic I here abjure”- Prospero The moment he gives up his magic, he becomes critical of it. Adjective before a noun= pre-modifier. Violent magic he is giving up. Irony. Doesn’t like his magic but finds it hard to give it up. Just as Shakespeare found it hard to give up writing. Ironic as magic pervades the whole scene. He finds it difficult to let it go. Allusion to Shakespeare? Abandoning his creativity. Only way he can return to civilisation mirrors Shakespeare.
“I’ll break my staff”- Prospero Prospero renounces his magic, accepting limitations of his power. Violence in the act. Extreme action for artist to separate from his art.
Tempest about truth? See each other closely as humans? Confine sin forever to the natural world. Out of the hands of humanity.
“Unnatural…approaching tide…foul…muddy”- Prospero Metaphorical, figurative language. Water reveals the truth. Cleansed by approaching tide- morality and revelation of why he brought them together.
“Fetch me the hat and rapier in my cell”- Prospero Forgiveness is devalued at this point. Wants to appear forceful and powerful. Have mopre impact. Egotistical. Wants them to know that it is him. Wants to take credit for the revenge. Satisfied.
“Where the bee sucks, there suck I…Under the blossom that hangs on the bough”- Ariel Ariel exhibits idyllic side in melody that communicates his natural inclination for nature. Blissful expectation at last being set free. Compared to animals who wander the earth and have calm presence.Singing reminiscient of supernatural. RSC reserved nature. Ariel has dark connotations.
“So, so, so”- Prospero Doesn’t want to give up his power. Procrastinating. He is nothing without Ariel? Conjunction- doesn’t want to set him free. Last hold on the idea that he has some power. Interjection to express emotion.
“To the king’s ship, invisible as thou art; There shalt thou find the mariners asleep Under the hatches”- Prospero Audience reminded of past motifs, bringing play full circle. Sleep and dream motif from Act 4 Scene 1.
“The wronged Duke of Milan, Prospero. For more assurance that a living prince Does now speak to thee”- Prospero Prospero’s ultimate “magic” trick. Not magic at all. To Gonzalo, Alonso, Antonio and Sebastian, appears Prospero is appearing out of thin air. All presumed him dead after banished from Milan, yet was alive on the island all along.
“All torment, trouble, wonder, and amazement”- Gonzalo Gonzalo still in troubled state of mind. Range of tempestuous emotions. Connected with life/humanity. Polysyndetic listing.
Goal the create harmony. Unity/unification Shakespearean comedy. Comedy came from Greeks. Aristotle. Conventions for comedy: misinformation, disguise, misdirection, marriage/unification, order/harmony. James trying to unify the kingdom. Aristotle: Harmony (end). Disorder to order. Through unification process e.g. marriage.
“Thou pardon me my wrongs”- Alonso Accepting all responsibility. Does not believe initially that it is Prospero. Blame ends here. Forgiveness of Antonio is unresolved. One hug from Prospeor reconciles him and he admits that he was wrong. Antonio is the one to blame. Only has one line this scene. King should assert his authority but backs down to Prospero. Humanises him. Shakespeare’s intention to show that we all make mistakes?
“my braces of lords”- Prospero Comparing Antonio and Sebastian to pair of hunted/caught animals. Zoomorphic. Ant and Seb lack the humanity of their respective brothers.
Antonio never addresses Prospero directly He has not changes. No spiritual renewal. Exhiled? Gentle nemesis? Direct binary opposition between Antonio and Prospero. Vocal, forgiving Prospero vs wicked, diminished, exhiled Antonio. Christian belief that evil that chosen.
“for I have lost my daughter”- Prospero Lost Miranda to Ferdinand. Prolonging revelation. Dramatic irony. Audience know Ferdinand is alive. In royalty marriage would join enemies together.
‘Here Prospero discovers Ferdinand and Miranda playing at chess’- stage directions. Critic Margaret Jones-Davis- Chess interlude consists of 64 words, 2 exchanges of 32 words each- paralleling 64 squares/2 halves of a chess board. Symbolic of royal court. Reduces their parents’ political wrangling’s to a simple game. The island and Tempest is a microcosm for the political world of England. Foreshadows their life as monarchs. Political movements they will go on.
“look down, you gods, And on this couple drop a blessed crown”- Gonzalo Similar invocation can be found in final scene of Winter’s Tale. “You Gods, look down And from your sacred vials pour your graces upon my daughter’s head”.
“Sir, all this service Have I done since I went”- Ariel Ariel is a nice spirit. Doing all the magic to make sure everything is safely found although doing it so Prospero will free him from enslavement. Ariel offers reading of the text that is anti-slavery but still pro doing one’s duty and granting kindness upon others.
“What a thrice-double ass Was I to take this drunkard for a God, And worship this dull fool!”- Caliban Caliban regrets ever seeing Stephano as his master and know bows to Prospero once again.
“I’ll bring you to your ship, and so to Naples…And thence retire me to my Milan”- Prospero Many mixed messages in regards to female characters. Entire resolution of the plot resolves around Miranda’s willingness to fall in love with and marry one particular man.
By end of Act 5, all sub-plots are integrated. Tragedy has been averted, love and reconciliation are stressed. Audience wonder why Antonio and Sebastian are treated more leniently than Caliban, but play ends on note of hope.
“In this last tempest”-Prospero Pun. Hasn’t lost her in the same way. No technically lying. How he perceives it. Interplay between love and power. Prospero is reticent to finally let Miranda go. Withholding information- because of power? Foreshadows the unification.
“Here I have few attendants, And subjects none abroad”- Prospero Reconciled with his former position. Seems humble. Appears innocent.
“Sweet lord, you play me false”- Miranda Suggests that Ferdinand has tricked her. Flirting? Doesn’t really mean it. Echoes her father’s false accusations.
“A most high miracle!”- Sebastian Sarcastic. Unchanged. No solution. Doesn’t fit with comedic conventions.
“Of a glad father compass thee about!”- Alonso Finds out that Ferdinand is alive so is delighted from now on. Seafaring references linked with joy/love. Previously associated with something terrible.
“O wonder!”- Miranda Melodramatic. Exclamatory interjection. Apostrophe.
“O brave new world”- Miranda Hopeful message. New start after everything Prospero had done. Justifying actions of sending them to the island and Prospero’s actions involving his “art”. new beginning. End of Shakespeare’s career. Metaphor for humanity and life cycle. Irony. how much of a new world are they experiencing? Social and political issues will continue. Can’t get rid of evil. Choice.
“goodly creatures… beauteous mankind”- Miranda Irony. Miranda seen as most sympathetic character. However, audience see characters for who they really are. Reveals truth about people. She cannot see true nature of characters. Innocent/naïve. Refusal? Doesn’t want to see it. Disowns people. Looks from positive and celebratory perspective. Shakespeare celebrates multiplicity of human life. All of human life contained within it. Looks for good in mankind. Façade?
“Let us not burden our remembrances with A heaviness that’s gone”- Prospero Contradicts reason for the Tempest. Refusing to take responsibility for his actions- hasn’t changed.
Gonzalo’s speech Doesn’t mention Antonio, Sebastian, Caliban, Stephano or Trinculo. No mention of lower characters. Plotted murder. Re-establishes harmony and order- restored. Comedic convention. Lack of closure for the play. End= problematic and turbulent. Represents real life. It is okay to have chaos.
“hands”- Alonso Changes the subject. We want closure. About unity rather than open-endedness. refusal to acknowledge it.
“roaring, shrieking, howling, jingling chains”- Boatswain A syndetic list. Strengthens metaphysical and sinister aspects of Ariel. Has complete power on the island.
“Every man shift for all the rest, and let no man take care for himself, for all is but fortune”- Stephano In prose. Baseness and lower social class.
“Corragio, bully-monster, corragio!”- Stephano Sudden shift to prose. Baseness and lower social class. Typical Shakespeare convention- change to prose. Humorous- driven forward by ridiculous thing.
“How fine my master is!”- Caliban Change. Returns to being a natural servant. Cyclical character- change can only happen to nobility? Caliban is not transformed- not achieved aim of resolution at the end of the play. Apostrophe- address entity not physically there.
“One of them is a plain fish”- Antonio Lacks morality. Shakespeare regularly mentions fish= social standing. Antonio’s only line in this scene. No spiritual or moral transformation. Has not learned anything. Shakepseare disowns his character. Critical of society. Part of civilised world. Caliban displays more humanity than Antonio- Montaigne.
“this thing of darkness”- Prospero Some acknowledgement of responisibility but no vindication (consequence).
“disproportion’d in his manners”- Prospero Physical appearance. Retains some humanity yet still views him with a thinly-veiled comtempt- bearing a grudge. Contradiction in his acceptance.
“Ay, that I will”- Caliban Finally submits entirely. Given back his island, returing to the natural world where he belongs.