notes on the tempest
Notes on
The Tempest: 1611
Genre:
Romance
● visionary, exotic, supernatural, unfamiliar, illusion; (mysterious encounters, concealed identities, hazardous journeys, unexpected meetings) = hopeful idealism
● Reconciliation: love and harmony resolves past discord.
● TIME = regenerative o masque = bounty of nature, seasonal cycles.
Context: Jacobean Era
● James VI of Scotland (son of Mary, Queen of Scots) becomes James I of England
1603 (Stuart Dynasty)
● James writes the King James version of the Bible + a text on daemons and daemonology Elizabethan Era
● Golden age of the Elizabethan Renaissance
● Theatre evolving from morality plays; masque plays of allegory
● Multiple texts being available through translation; Sources for T he Tempest were
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
Ovid’s
Metamorphoses (
Greek myths) + Virgil’s
Aeneid
+ current issues such as shipwrecks in the West Indies.
Tudor houses: ornate gardens; feather beds replaced straw mattresses
Exploration
Scientific discoveries such as Copernicus’ discovery that it is a heliocentric world not a geocentric one – challenges the place of man under God.
Protestant Reformation against the power of the Catholic Church
Internal peace under a central, wellorganised government in England
Working class = 90% of population “Progresses” – Queen progressively moved from noble estate to noble estate requiring free hospitality at great expense to the nobility
Rise in the merchant class – especially cloth trade
Population rose 40% during Elizabeth’s reign (3million to 4.2 m); food prices rose
75% because of demand
Poor law passed 1601 to help those too old or frail to work
Great Chain of Being
● Hierarchical representation of feudal society under God = cosmic order with
Mankind believed to be closest to God because of being made in God’s image, because of his capacity to reason and because he is blessed with a soul
● Reciprocal rights and obligations
The Tempest: 1611
Genre:
Romance
● visionary, exotic, supernatural, unfamiliar, illusion; (mysterious encounters, concealed identities, hazardous journeys, unexpected meetings) = hopeful idealism
● Reconciliation: love and harmony resolves past discord.
● TIME = regenerative o masque = bounty of nature, seasonal cycles.
Context: Jacobean Era
● James VI of Scotland (son of Mary, Queen of Scots) becomes James I of England
1603 (Stuart Dynasty)
● James writes the King James version of the Bible + a text on daemons and daemonology Elizabethan Era
● Golden age of the Elizabethan Renaissance
● Theatre evolving from morality plays; masque plays of allegory
● Multiple texts being available through translation; Sources for T he Tempest were
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
●
Ovid’s
Metamorphoses (
Greek myths) + Virgil’s
Aeneid
+ current issues such as shipwrecks in the West Indies.
Tudor houses: ornate gardens; feather beds replaced straw mattresses
Exploration
Scientific discoveries such as Copernicus’ discovery that it is a heliocentric world not a geocentric one – challenges the place of man under God.
Protestant Reformation against the power of the Catholic Church
Internal peace under a central, wellorganised government in England
Working class = 90% of population “Progresses” – Queen progressively moved from noble estate to noble estate requiring free hospitality at great expense to the nobility
Rise in the merchant class – especially cloth trade
Population rose 40% during Elizabeth’s reign (3million to 4.2 m); food prices rose
75% because of demand
Poor law passed 1601 to help those too old or frail to work
Great Chain of Being
● Hierarchical representation of feudal society under God = cosmic order with
Mankind believed to be closest to God because of being made in God’s image, because of his capacity to reason and because he is blessed with a soul
● Reciprocal rights and obligations