Prospero and Ariel played by Dennis Kleinsmith and Don Pitsch in Auburn Regional Theatre’s 2007

production of The Tempest.

The Tempest
Performer Heritage
Marina Spiazzi, Marina Tavella,
Margaret Layton © 2016
 The Tempest

1. The plot
Act 1
• Setting in place An enchanted island away from
national claims and civilization.

Prospero, a magician; his daughter

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

A tempest. Shipwrecked, Alonso,

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

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 The Tempest

1. The plot
Act 2
• King Alonso is desperate
because he thinks his son
drowned.

• Ferdinand wanders through the

island, moved by Ariel’s
singing.

meets Miranda and falls in love. Frederick Goodall,

Miranda, exhibited in
1888.

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 The Tempest

1. The plot
Act 3
• Prospero makes Ferdinand perform
menial tasks to test him.

• Caliban meets Trinculo,

the king’s jester, They plan
to kill
and Stephano,
Prospero.
the royal butler.

• Ariel listens to them and reports

the plan to Prospero.

John Everett Millais, Ferdinand Lured

by Ariel, 1850, private collection.

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 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
Antonio 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).

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 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 Christopher Plummer as
Prospero of The Tempest
Miranda. in Stratford.

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 The Tempest

2. The characters
Prospero’s magic

The symbols • his books;

of his magic • his wand;
power are • his robe.

• to protect Miranda;
• to cast spells;
He uses magic
• to control the other
characters.

At the end he drowns his books

and renounces magic.
Giorgio Albertazzi and Roberta Caronia
as Prospero and his daughter Miranda.

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 The Tempest

2. The characters
Who is Ariel?

• Ariel is an airy spirit

who first appears in
Act I, Scene 2.

• He is Prospero’s
messenger.
Ben Diskant as Ariel in The Tempest, directed by Adrian Noble.
• He joins the power of
all elemental spirits.

He appears as

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 The Tempest

2. The characters
Who is Ariel?

• Formerly in the service of the witch

Sycorax, he was confined in a pine,
because he had offended her.

• After twelve years’ imprisonment,

Prospero’s magic power set him free
and he became his servant.

Kate Newlyn, Ariel,

2005.

Performer Heritage
 The Tempest

2. The characters
Ariel’s 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

Julyana Soelistyo as Ariel
on the word ‘aerial’. of The Tempest in
Stratford.

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 The Tempest

2. The characters
Ariel’s 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.

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 The Tempest

2. The characters
Ariel as Prospero’s tool

• Ariel is Prospero’s
eyes and ears
throughout the play,
using his magical
abilities to cause the William Blake,
tempest and to Ariel and
Prospero.
prevent other
characters’ plots
against his master.
Julyana Soelistyo
and Christopher
Plummer as Ariel
and Prospero
of The Tempest
in Stratford.

Performer Heritage
 The Tempest

2. The characters
Who is Caliban?

• The son of the witch Sycorax.

• A savage and deformed

creature, half human, Caliban (Tom Scofield)
in Folger Theatre’s
half monster. production of The
Tempest (2007).

• Attempts to rape Miranda.

• Forced into servitude

by Prospero.
Heinrich Fuseli, Caliban
faces Prospero; Miranda
sleeping in the cave
(The Tempest, 1, 2),
1806-1810.

Performer Heritage
 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 Heritage
 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’.
Maleficent: that of the witch
Sycorax
• works evil.
two types of magic
Beneficent: that of Prospero
• derives from study;
• used for good purposes.

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 The Tempest

4. The nature of the theatre

The Tempest uses all the techniques of the theatre:
• dramatic action;
• special effects;
• music;
• magic and monsters.

It is an exploration into the nature of theatre itself

Prospero, like the playwright, controls the whole

experiment through his ability to create illusions.

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 The Tempest

5. The style
• Shakespeare used different levels of speech
and action to portray his characters from different
angles.
• A character may suddenly switch from everyday
prose to solemn verse.
• At different times he included:
- allegorical scenes;
- noises;
- the sounds of the sea and of the island;
- songs, music and dances;
- magical transformations.
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