Summary
ACT I
- Ship in storm
- Nobles getting in the way → conflict
- Prepare to drown
- Prospero tells Miranda their past → controls the narrative
- Nobles have been scattered on island
- Prospero tells Ariel his past & promises freedom → manipulation
- Caliban tells his past → unintentional colonialism portrayal
- Find out about the attempted rape
- Ferdinand grieves his father
- Ferdinand’s and Miranda’s attraction
- Ferdinand must prove himself to Prospero
ACT II
- Alonso mourns Ferdinand
- Gonzalo tries to reassure Alonso & his utopian vision *
- Seb and Ant are horrible
- Alonso blames himself: Seb and Ant agree
- Ariel puts them to sleep
- Ant convinces Seb to kill Alonso but Gonzalo wakes
- Their true nature is revealed
- Drunk Stephano and Trinculo
- Master-slave relationship between Caliban and the two idiots → slavery, “freak” shows,
exploitation
*the island appears differently depending on the nature of the person
ACT III
- Confirms sincerity of Ferdinand’s love
- She proposes to him (inversion) → Prospero pleased with the outcome
- Caliban’s plan to kill Prospero w/ the two idiots → Ariel spies
- Stephano will become “king”
- Caliban’s ennobling monologue abt the island → the noble savage
- Alonso is close to giving up, Seb and Ant still plot to kill him
- The banquet, harpy → Prospero is pleased
- Alonso is guilty, Seb & Ant don’t care
ACT IV
- Prospero “gives” Miranda to Ferdinand but still warns him
- Blessing on the love, the masque → natural order, utopia of marriage
- Prospero ponders mortality
- He must give up Miranda, she must grow up and defy, passing of time
- Start of his change & softening
- Stephano & Trinculo fail the plan and go off in a drunken mess
1
ACT I
- Ship in storm
- Nobles getting in the way → conflict
- Prepare to drown
- Prospero tells Miranda their past → controls the narrative
- Nobles have been scattered on island
- Prospero tells Ariel his past & promises freedom → manipulation
- Caliban tells his past → unintentional colonialism portrayal
- Find out about the attempted rape
- Ferdinand grieves his father
- Ferdinand’s and Miranda’s attraction
- Ferdinand must prove himself to Prospero
ACT II
- Alonso mourns Ferdinand
- Gonzalo tries to reassure Alonso & his utopian vision *
- Seb and Ant are horrible
- Alonso blames himself: Seb and Ant agree
- Ariel puts them to sleep
- Ant convinces Seb to kill Alonso but Gonzalo wakes
- Their true nature is revealed
- Drunk Stephano and Trinculo
- Master-slave relationship between Caliban and the two idiots → slavery, “freak” shows,
exploitation
*the island appears differently depending on the nature of the person
ACT III
- Confirms sincerity of Ferdinand’s love
- She proposes to him (inversion) → Prospero pleased with the outcome
- Caliban’s plan to kill Prospero w/ the two idiots → Ariel spies
- Stephano will become “king”
- Caliban’s ennobling monologue abt the island → the noble savage
- Alonso is close to giving up, Seb and Ant still plot to kill him
- The banquet, harpy → Prospero is pleased
- Alonso is guilty, Seb & Ant don’t care
ACT IV
- Prospero “gives” Miranda to Ferdinand but still warns him
- Blessing on the love, the masque → natural order, utopia of marriage
- Prospero ponders mortality
- He must give up Miranda, she must grow up and defy, passing of time
- Start of his change & softening
- Stephano & Trinculo fail the plan and go off in a drunken mess
1
