The Tempest Themes and Quotations — Extensive list

English Literature

The Tempest Themes

Betrayal

• “that a brother should be so perfidious” — Betrayal of family for power
• “My strong imagination sees a crown dropping upon thy head” — Betrayal to sovereign for power
• “I do begin to have bloody thoughts” — Betrayal to master for power
• “I am your wife, if you will marry me” — Betrayal to father for freedom

Magic

• “volumes that I prize above my dukedom” — Magic > Position
• “Peg thee in his knotty entrails till thou hast howl’d away twelve winters”, “foul witch Sycorax” — Magic on gender (hypocrisy)
• “I must obey; his art is of such power” — Magic forcing subservience
• “Thou art inclined to sleep” — Magic used to control (Miranda)
• “having first seized his books” — Prospero is powerless without his books (when Caliban plots to kill Prospero)

Power

• “What cares these roarers for the name of king?” — Power of elements/subverted power —> Boatswain > King
• Tempest subverts natural order — Tempest is a metaphor for the conflict between members of family, colonizers and the colonized, and forbidden love
• “This island’s mine, by Sycorax, my mother” — Power over land by right
• “My strong imagination sees a crown dropping upon thy head” — Killing for power
• “I must obey; his art is of such power” — Magic forcing subservience
• “should a brother be so perfidious” — Love sacrificed for power
• “I do begin to have bloody thoughts” — Betrayal to master for power

Control

• “I am your wife, if you will marry me” — Miranda proposes to Ferdinand and gains control from Prospero
• “My strong imagination sees a crown dropping upon thy head” — Antonio manipulates Sebastian into killing Alonso
• “I must obey; his art is of such power” — Subservience controlled by power
• “thou liest malignant thing” — 
• “my zenith doth depend upon a most auspicious star” — Prospero in control of sea-storm for revenge
• “But this swift business I must uneasy make” — Prospero’s control over love
• “Now does my project gather to a head” — Prospero controls events  —> Shakespeare

Subservience

• “What shall I do? Say what! What shall I do?” — Excitement in subservience (Ariel and Prospero)
• “I must obey; his art is of such power” — Forced into subservience
• “cease more questions. Thou art inclined to sleep” — Prospero orders Miranda to sleep and she submits
• “I will rend an oak and peg thee in his knotty entrails till thou hast howl’d away twelve winters” — Subservience transforming into tyranny

Freedom

• “And as from crimes would pardoned be, let your indulgence set me free” — Forgiveness frees men from sins
• “I am your wife, if you will marry me” — Betrayal to father for freedom
• “I must obey; his art is of such power” — Forced into subservience
• “No occupation, all men idle” — Gonzalo’s utopia of freedom
• “Freedom, high-day! High-day, freedom!” — Irony of freedom —> Caliban leaves one master for another

Manipulation

• “more to know did never meddle with my thoughts” —…