Revision Exercise: Connecting Imagery across the play

You can use this document in two ways:

1) For the first three categories of imagery, I have given you some examples of how to draw links between different parts of the play that
use the same imagery. You can take points from there that you find useful or agreeable and add them to your own essays.

2) More productively, there are four categories of imagery where I’ve given you the quotes but not filled in the What can we draw from this
column. Have a go at writing your own overview of a particular image as it appears in the play, and see if you can draw out a deeper
meaning from it.

The list of quotes linked to each word/image is not exhaustive - I have only included the ones I think most useful.

Image Quotes What can we draw from this?

Sleep/Dream Prospero A1S2: “Thou art inclined to sleep, tis Useful for essays on: Magic, power, healing, spectacle, wonder, genre,
Imagery a good dulness / And give it way; I know thou Prospero, treachery
canst not choose.”
Ferdinand A1S2: “My spirits, as in a dream, Prospero’s magic is, from the first, associated with sleep and dreams when
are all bound up.” he uses it on both Miranda and Ferdinand. The whole story is itself
Sebastian A2S1 (to Alonso about to fall dreamlike - the bizarre coincidence that bought the ship near the island, the
asleep): “It [sleep] seldom visits sorrow; when strange structure, the wondrous visions of goddesses and spirits on stage.
it doth / It is a comforter.” Prospero’s sleep spells give the play a sense of symmetry - it begins with
Seb, to Ant about treason planning A2S1: him putting Miranda to sleep, and ends with him waking all the characters
“Surely it is a sleepy language and thou around him up. They have been through Prospero’s dream world of illusion
speak’st out of thy sleep.” and tricks, and now they emerge transformed.
Seb: “This is a strange repose, to be asleep /
With eyes wide open; standing, speaking, Prospero’s magic being compared to a dream may also be read as a
moving / And yet so fast asleep.” criticism of his power. He seems to realise in the “such stuff as dreams are
Ant: “If he were that which now he’s like, made of” speech that nothing he makes with his magic lasts - it’s beautiful,
that’s dead / Whom I, with my obedient steel, but it’s not real. Alternatively, Shakespeare may be emphasising the dream-
three inches of it / Can lay to bed forever.” like nature of the play to give the audience an out so they can enjoy
Trinculo, A2S2: “Misery acquaints a man with watching something (magic) that in real life they’d find morally reprehensible.
 strange bedfellows.” From a meta-theatrical point of view, seeing the play as a dream encourages
Caliban A3S2: Prospero “has a custom with us to view it as one man’s creation in the form of Prospero the director.
him / I’ th’ afternoon to sleep: there thou
mayst brain him.” Sleep is constructed both as a place of great danger and a place of healing.
Caliban A3S2: “Sometime voices / That, if I Both sets of traits - S&A and C&S&T - plan to kill a ruler while he’s asleep.
then had waked after long sleep, / Will make Caliban in A3S2 emphasises that Prospero is only vulnerable while sleeping.
me sleep again: and then, in dreaming, / The Antonio makes an even more sinister link, emphasising the similarity
clouds methought would open and show between sleeping and death, and euphemistically refers to his killing of
riches / Ready to drop upon me that, when I Alonso as “lay to bed forever.” The sleeping body of a ruler is vulnerable.
waked, / I cried to dream again.”
Prospero A4S1: “We are such stuff / as However, it is interesting that both of the characters who end up planning to
dreams are made of, and our little life / Is kill a ruler while asleep also talk about the healing benefits of sleep. In
rounded with a sleep.” neither case is this because they want to trick their target - Sebastian tells
Prospero A5S1: “Graves at my command / Alonso to sleep before Antonio convinces him to be treacherous, while
Have waked their sleepers.” Caliban is talking about himself. Both Caliban and Sebastian talk about
Prospero A5S1: As the morning steals upon dreams as an escape from the grief of everyday life.
the night, / Melting the darkness, so their
rising senses Begin to chase the ignorant Perhaps one way to reconcile these two views of sleep is to look at
fumes that mantle Their clearer reason. Sebastian and Antonio’s conversation, where both play along with the idea
Boatswain A5S1: “If I did think, sir, I were well of them just ‘sleep-talking’ for a surprisingly long time. As long as they can
awake / I’d strive to tell you. We were dead of maintain the mental pretense that they’re not really awake, nothing they say
sleep.” counts as treasonous. Perhaps sleep and dreams are a space where people
can do or feel things that they couldn’t feel in everyday life - Caliban’s music,
Alonso’s relief from grief, S&A’s treason. If the whole play, or island, is
considered dreamlike, then it can explain how characters can behave
outside of their normal roles - like a prince marrying a stranger - and how
they can emerge transformed.

Tides/Ebbing/ Ferdinand A1S2: “Myself am Naples / Who Useful for essays on: Power, Treachery, instability, justice, hierarchy
Flowing with mine eyes, never since at ebb, beheld / Antonio and Sebastian, chaos
The King my father wrecked.”
[I’m breaking Just like the tides ebb and flow, in and out, so power ebbs and flows in the
down the A2S1: Tempest and characters that have climbed higher or been thrown down
water return to their original positions.
imagery “Sebastian: Well, I am standing water.
because if I Antonio: I’ll teach you how to flow. Tides are associated with instability and change. Prospero explicitly says
didn’t we’d Sebastian: Do so: to ebb / Hereditary sloth that Sycorax could “make flows and ebbs,” or control the tides - he uses this
be here all instructs me. as evidence that she, and therefore Caliban, were evil.
day.] Antonio: [...] Ebbing men, indeed / Most often
do so near the bottom run.” Sebastian initially calls himself “standing water” - he’s happy staying where
he is - but then immediately corrects himself to say that “to ebb” comes
Prospero A5S1: “Their understanding / begins naturally to him. Ebb = being at low tide, and Sebastian is admitting that he
to swell, and the approaching tide / Will has very little power at that moment but he’s too lazy to do anything about it.
shortly fill the reasonable shore / That now Antonio offers to teach him how to “flow” - how to rise like the tide. This
lies foul and muddy.” vision of politics, in which all power is liquid, insubstantial and constantly
moving, is very Machiavellian. Again, being linguistically compared with the
Prospero A5S1: “His mother was a witch, and tides is considered a sign of a character being evil.
one so strong / That could control the moon,
make flows and ebbs.” Ferdinand describes how his eyes have been “never since at ebb” since his
father died. Ferdinand is obviously not evil, but here the tide imagery is still
used to show political instability - Ferdinand is weeping for a dead king, and
the fact that he’s now king [and shipwrecked] before he wanted to be.

However, at the end, Prospero describes the return of reason and

wakefulness to the other characters as a tide returning, and does so in
positive terms - the “tide” of “understanding” has to fill in the “shore” of their
minds, as right now those minds are “foul and muddy.” The mental tide-
flowing is a good and natural thing.

One could perhaps read this line as evidence that Shakespeare isn’t using
tides as a symbol of instability, but rather meddling with tides/tide imagery is
a sign of someone going against the natural order. Antonio wants to “flow”
higher than he should, Sycorax tried to control the tides with magic, and
Prospero holding back the “tide” of their mind has left it “foul.” It’s only once
people stop meddling that the natural ebb and flow of the tides can be
restored. Alternatively, the use of tide imagery across all characters could
suggest a surprisingly cynical view of political power - all power flows
around, and there is no natural order, only who’s on top right now.

Drowning Ariel A1S2: “Full fathom five thy father lies; Useful for essays on: redemption, repentance, Prospero, Alonso,
Of his bones are coral made; restoration, magic, change
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade Drowning language is used to show a deep change and repentance in
But doth suffer a sea-change characters, perhaps as a symbol of baptism. All the characters go into the
Into something rich and strange. sea and come out changed [See Gonzalo’s lines about the Boatswain at the
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell” beginning and end of the play for another example]. However, Alonso and
Prospero offer the most interesting drowning imagery. Ariel’s song to
Alonso A2S2: “What strange fish / Hath made Ferdinand is cruel and creepy, but it’s also a metaphor for what’s happening
his meal on thee?” to Alonso. He’s not dead, he won’t “fade” - he’s just undergoing a “sea-
change” into something new. It will be “strange” - foreign, other, very
Ariel A3S3: “Even with such like valor men different to the Alonso that exists now - but it will be “rich” and better, as he’s
hang and drown / Their proper selves” described as transforming into precious materials like “coral” and “pearl.”

Alonso A3S3: “The name of Prosper: it did Alonso is tortured by vivid imagery of his son drowning, imagining
bass my trespass. / Therefore my son i’ th’ Ferdinand’s fate in the most graphic terms. It’s not enough that Ferdinand
ooze is bedded, and / I’ll seek him deeper drowned - Alonso has to picture Ferdinand being eaten by a fish, or describe
than e’er plummet sounded / And with him Ferdinand’s grave in words that drip with disgust, like “ooze” and “mudded.”
there lie mudded.” This language captures Alonso’s anguish as he mentally tortures himself
with the worst possible pictures. He also understands that Ferdinand’s
Prospero A5S1: “And deeper than did ever drowning is a punishment for his “trespass” against Prospero. Alonso
plummet sound / I’ll drown my books.” responds by deciding that he will drown himself to be with his son and to
take his punishment - and it’s this decision to drown himself and accept his
Alonso A5S1: “O heavens, that they were responsibility that leads to his redemption. When he expresses a desire to
living both in Naples, / The king and queen be drowned if only Ferdinand and Miranda could be King and Queen of
there! that they were, I wish / Myself were Naples, he gets his deepest wish. The language that Alonso uses is
mudded in that oozy bed / Where my son deliberately, almost shockingly, self-effacing - a king getting “mudded” in the
lies.” “ooze” - but it also shows the extent of his humility that he feels he deserves
mud.

Prospero and Alonso both use a phrase about being “deeper” than a
“plummet” (a plum line aka a piece of lead on a string used to measure the
depth of something), Prospero to talk about drowning his books, Alonso to
talk about drowning himself. This shows how much of a sacrifice Prospero is
making by giving up his magic, as he’s using the same language his friend
used to talk about suicide. It also shows the two legitimate rulers in the play -
 Prospero and Alonso - going through a rebirth/baptism that cleanses away
their sins and allows order to be returned to the world.

Fire Imagery Miranda A1S2: “The sky, it seems, would pour

down stinking pitch.”

Ariel A1S2: “To fly, to swim, to dive into the

fire.”

Ariel: “On the topmast, the yards and

bowspirit, would I flame directly.”

Ariel: “The fire and cracks of sulphurous

roaring.”

Ariel: “The vessel all afire with me.”

Caliban A2S2: Prospero’s spirits “lead me like

a firebrand.”

Prospero A4S1: “The strongest oaths are

straw to the fire in the blood.”

Caliban A4S1: “Burn his books.”

Prospero A5S1: “To the dread rattling thunder

have I given fire.”

God / Gods Gonzalo A1S1: The king and prince at Prospero’s power is continually compared to that of a god - Miranda implies
prayers! Let’s assist them, for our case is as that she sees his power as equal to one in A1S2, Caliban says that Prospero
theirs. could easily control Setebos, and in A1S2 and A5S1 his feats are compared
to those of “Jove” and “Neptune”. In fact, Prospero almost seems to see
Miranda A1S2: Had I been any god of himself as greater than the Gods, as he “rifted Jove’s stout oak with his great
power… bolt,” implying a sense that he has stolen power and property from the Gods.
We see him have seeming power over the gods when he summons Ceres,
Ariel A1S2: Jove's lightnings, the precursors / Iris and Juno to Miranda’s wedding. Other characters also refer to him as
O' the dreadful thunder-claps, more godlike without realising - Ferdinand saying that Ariel must serve “some
momentary / And sight-outrunning were not; god”, and Alonso referring to the person “who severe’d us” as a god. This
the fire and cracks Of sulphurous roaring the perhaps suggests that the text supports Prospero’s view of himself as god-
most mighty Neptune / Seem to besiege and like - even characters who aren’t flattering him and don’t know they’re talking
make his bold waves tremble, Yea, his dread about Prospero view his actions as godlike. Prospero self-consciously takes
trident shake. on a god role, having Ariel tell the “three men of sin” that Ariel is an “agent of
fate,” which places Prospero in the role of fate.
Caliban A1S2: “His art is of such power / It
would control my dam’s god, Sebetos / and Prospero’s godlike dominion could be read in a metatheatrical sense, in
make a vassal of him.” which he gives up his godlike power as director of the story when he asks
the audience for “prayer.” Alternatively, Shakespeare may be playing up how
Ferdinand A1S2: Ariel’s music “waits upon / powerful Prospero is in order to make his sacrifice - and his redemption -
some god o’ the island.” more poignant at the end. Prospero’s monologue rejecting magic echos a lot
from his first conversation with Ariel in A1S2, including lines about Jove and
Ferdinand A1S2: Miranda is “most sure, the Neptune, reminding the audience of his arrogance and pride when he first
goddess / on whom these airs attend!” started and emphasising how far he’s come.

Caliban A2S2: “There’s a brave god and However, there are hints that Prospero’s magic is not really his, but instead
bears celestial liquor. / I will kneel to him.” the result of taming/controlling other spirits. The Ariel speech from A1S2 is
about Ariel showing off his own powers, and Prospero begins his A5S1
Caliban A2S2: “I prithee, be my god.” speech by talking about he he’s had “aid” from the “elves” and that they are
Trinculo: “When god’s asleep, he’ll rob the the ones who can “chase the ebbing Neptune.” Jove’s bolt is still “his great
bottle.” bolt.” In all of these, it’s someone else’s power and Prospero’s just borrowing
it.
Ariel A3S3: “I and my fellows / are ministers of
fate.” This play is remarkably un-Christian for its time, and most of the capital-G
god talk is associated with crowns and comes Gonzalo. At the start, he
Prospero A5S1: “And ye that on sands with wants to “assist” the king and prince in prayers; at the end, he asks God for
printless foot / do chase the ebbing Neptune a “blessed crown” for Miranda and Ferdinand. True royalty is always
[...] by whose aid…” associated with the Christian god. (Compare, for example, Gonzalo asking
“To the dread rattling thunder / Have I given god to “drop” a crown on Ferdinand and Miranda versus Antonio telling
fire and rifted Jove’s stout oak / With his great Sebastian that his “strong imagination sees a crown / dropping upon thy
bolt.” head” - it should be God’s right to decide who has a crown, instead of
leaving it up to men’s ambitious “imaginations.”) Perhaps Prospero asking
 Alonso A5S1: “Is she [Miranda] the goddess for “prayer” from the audience at the end after freeing Ariel is proof that he’s
that hath sever’d us / And bought us thus fitting himself back into a Christian society rather than a pagan one, and is
together?” therefore ready to assume political power rather than magical power.

Gonzalo A5S1: “Look down, you god / And on

this couple drop a blessed crown!”

Caliban A5S1: “What a thrice-double ass was

I, to take this drunkard for a god.”

Prospero, Epilogue: “And my ending is

despair / Unless it be relieved by prayer.”

Free Space - Antonio: “My strong imagination sees a crown

Pairs of / dropping upon thy head.”
echoing lines Gonzalo: “Look down, you god / And on this
couple drop a blessed crown!”

Prospero A1S2 (about Antonio): “He needs

will be / Absolute Milan.”
Ferdinand A1S2 (about being king now his
dad’s dead): “Myself am Naples.”

Prospero A1S2: Who was so firm, so

constant, that this coil [storm] / would not
affect his reason?
Prospero about Miranda falling in love with
Ferdinand: Poor worm, thou art infected!
Prospero A5S1: For you, most wicked sir,
whom to call brother / Would even infect my
mouth, I do forgive.
Prospero: Do not infest your minds with
beating on / The strangeness of this business.

Prospero A1S2 about Ferdinand: He’s

something stained / With grief that’s beauty’s
canker
Prospero A4S1 about Caliban: And as with
age his body uglier grows / So his mind
cankers.
(Canker = an infected sore, or a growing
dead/infected area in a plant)