TheTempest

Prospero and Ariel played by Dennis

Kleinsmith and Don Pitsch in Auburn
Regional Theatres 2007 production
of The Tempest

Performer - Culture & Literature

Marina Spiazzi, Marina Tavella,

Margaret Layton 2012

The Tempest

1. The plot
Act 1

Setting in place

an enchanted island.

Protagonists

Prospero, a magician, his daughter

Miranda; Caliban, a strange
creature of brute intelligence;
Ariel, a spirit of the air.

Main event

a tempest. Shipwrecked, Alonso,

King of Naples, his son
Ferdinand, Antonio, Duke of
Milan, and their court are washed
up on the island.

Performer - Culture&Literature

The Tempest

1. The plot
Act 2
King Alonso is desperate

because he thinks his son

drowned.

Ferdinand wanders through the

island, moved by Ariels
singing.

meets Miranda and falls in love.

Performer - Culture&Literature

Frederick Goodall.
Miranda, exhibited in 1888

The Tempest

1. The plot
Act 3

John Everett Millais, Ferdinand Lured by

Ariel, 1850, private collection.

Performer - Culture&Literature

Prospero makes Ferdinand perform

menial tasks to test him.

Caliban meets Trinculo,

the kings jester,
and Stephano,
the royal butler.

Ariel listens to them and reports

the plan to Prospero.

They plan
to kill
Prospero.

The Tempest

1. The plot
Act 4 an interlude to entertain Miranda

and Ferdinand while Prospero completes his

plans.

Act 5 general reconciliation

Miranda and Ferdinand get

married;
Prospero forgives his brother and
returns to Milan;
Caliban is left alone on the island;
Ariel is released.
Edward Reginald Frampton , Ferdinand and Miranda,
The Tempest, act 5, (1870-1923).

Performer - Culture&Literature

The Tempest

2. The characters

Who is Prospero?

A magician, the former

duke of Milan, usurped by
his brother Antonio twelve
years before, in concert
with Alonso, king of
Naples, and forced to flee
on a boat with his daughter
Miranda.

Performer - Culture&Literature

Christopher Plummer as
Prospero of The Tempest
in Stratford

The Tempest

2. The characters
Prosperos magic

Giorgio Albertazzi and Roberta Caronia

as Prospero and his daughter Miranda
Performer - Culture&Literature

The symbols
of his magic
power are

his books;
his wand;
his robe.

He uses magic

to protect Miranda;
to cast spells;
to control the other
characters.

At the end he drowns his books

and renounces magic.

The Tempest

2. The characters

Who is Ariel?
Ariel is an airy spirit
who first appears in
Act I, Scene 2.

He is Prosperos
messenger.

He joins the power of

all elemental spirits.
He appears as

Performer - Culture&Literature

Ben Diskant as Ariel in 'The Tempest,' directed by Adrian Noble

The Tempest

2. The characters

Who is Ariel?
Formerly at the service of the witch

Sycorax, he was confined in a pine,

because he had offended her.

After twelve years imprisonment,

Prosperos magic power set him free

and he became his servant.

Kate Newlyn, Ariel,

2005.
Performer - Culture&Literature

The Tempest

2. The characters

Ariels name
His name means Lion of the
Lord.

In the play, his voice is

sometimes confused with lion

roars.

Ariel may also be a simple play

on the word aerial.

Performer - Culture&Literature

Julyana Soelistyo as Ariel

of The Tempest in Stratford

The Tempest

2. The characters

Ariels powers
Ariel can control other spirits and

music, which is a way to transform

reality and to confuse and terrorise
the enemies.

He can become invisible.

He is as fast as a thought and can
change his appearance.

David Scott, Ariel and Caliban, 1837

Performer - Culture&Literature

The Tempest

2. The characters

Ariel as Prosperos tool

Ariel is Prosperos
eyes and ears
throughout the play,
using his magical
abilities to cause the
tempest and to
prevent other
characters plots
against his master.

William Blake,
Ariel and Prospero

Julyana Soelistyo
and Christopher Plummer
as Ariel and Prospero
of The Tempest
in Stratford.
Performer - Culture&Literature

The Tempest

2. The characters

Who is Caliban ?
The son of the witch Sycorax.
A savage and deformed
creature, half human,
half monster.

Attempts to rape Miranda.

Forced into servitude by
Heinrich Fuseli, Caliban
faces Prospero; Miranda
sleeping in the cave
(The Tempest, 1, 2) 18061810
Performer - Culture&Literature

Prospero.

Caliban (Tom Scofield)

in Folger Theatres
production of The
Tempest (2007)

The Tempest

2. The characters

The character of Caliban

He considers himself mistreated
and overworked.

He accuses Prospero of befriending

him to take advantage of his
gratitude and rob him of the island.

His brutal mind is in contact with the

pure and original forms of nature.

Dion Johnstone as Caliban

of The Tempest in Stratford

Performer - Culture&Literature

The Tempest

3. The themes

Forgiveness: all ends in reconciliation and peace,

with music intensifying the enchantment.

the relationship between natives and invaders,

the problem of forced labour.

the element of magic and its representation as theatrical

illusion.

two types of magic

Maleficent: that of the witch

Sycorax
works evil.
Beneficent: that of Prospero
derives from study;
used for good purposes.

Performer - Culture&Literature