Thursday, October 6, 2011

The Tempest

Summary: Prospero, with the help of Ariel, creates a storm which causes his former enemies along with Gonzalo, Alanso, Ferdinand, Trinculo, and Stephano to come to his island. Antonio and Sebastion plot to kill the king, while Caliban teams up with Trinculo and Stephano and plot to kill Prospero. Both are unnsuccessful, and the play ends after Miranda and Ferdiand marry and all leave the island except Ariel, who is set free by Prospero, Prospero, and Caliban.
Paraphrase: Act 3, Scene 2, Lines 132-141
Don't be afraid. This land is full of joyous and innocuous sounds. Occasionally I hear instumentals. Other times I hear voices that put me back to sleep even after I have just woke. Sometimes in my dreams, I believe that the heavens are poised to shower me with riches. However, after I wake, I see that they haven't, and I long to dream again.
Close Reading: Line 141 "I cried to dream again."
The first thing I noticed about this line, was that it does not follow the pentameter present in the rest of the work. This line only has six syllables, as opposed to ten. This fact drew my attention to this line. The second thing I looked at was what tense this sentence was in. The word "cried" establishes that this sentence is in past tense. This means that the act of crying has already occurred. The next two words in this line, "to dream", describe the reason why Caliban cried. He "cried to dream". Taken alone, this statement doesn't seem to make much sense. Dreaming is something that is easily done. We all have the ability to dream at any time, so why would Caliban desperatly cry out for dreaming? If we look at the context in which Caliban is making this statement, we can make some more sense out of it. In the two preceding lines, Caliban describes a dream he had. In this dream, Caliban saw riches about to be bestowed upon him. After waking from this particular dream, Caliban "cried to dream again." Because of the content of this specific dream, I would say that Caliban is crying not for the act of dreaming itself, but for the riches he was about to recieve in this dream. This is very important in understanding the character of Caliban. Although he is a slave in a very poor situation, he still has hopes of becoming rich and prosperous. He does not simply hope for his freedom, as Ariel does, but rather he hopes to become the rich and prosperous ruler of his island. These lofty goals explain why Caliban wants so desperatly to take down Prospero. If he simply wanted to be free and live a humble existence, he would not have attempted to usurp Prospero so hastily.

1 comment:

  1. This is a good start--I especially like your attention to line length. You're a little belaboring the reading the line--the point of a close reading is to show the complexity or nuance in something simple. One suggestion I'd make is that you consider how Caliban's discussion of dreams here contrasts with other moments in the text that deliberate on sleep or dreams. Also, consider how this line works in its context--Caliban's telling the others not to be beguiled, but he ends his speech expressing basically his desire to be beguiled--why?

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