THE TEMPEST WITH ALLIE: Summary/Analysis of Act 1 Scene 2

Miranda and Prospero watch the tempest from the shore of an island. Miranda pities the seafarers, saying “O, I have suffered with those that I saw suffer!” Suspecting that this is the work of her magician father, she pleads with him to calm the waters. Miranda’s character is gentle, empathetic, and kind. She is aware of her father’s great magical powers and always obeys him.

Prospero reassures her that no harm has been done and says that it’s time to tell Miranda about her past. He takes off his cloak, saying, “Lie there my art”. Prospero then reveals to Miranda that he was once Duke of Milan and that Miranda was a princess.

Prospero’s magic cloak represents his ability to construct illusions. He takes it off when he decides to tell Miranda the truth about her past. 

Prospero explains how, while duke, he became wrapped up in reading his books, allowing his brother Antonio to handle the affairs of the state. Antonio proved a skilled politician and gained a great deal of power through his dealings, until he seemed to believe himself Duke of Milan.

Prospero essentially gave Antonio full power. Yet Antonio wanted more than power: he wanted to be duke, and in turn, to look powerful. 

Antonio persuaded Alonso, the King of Naples and a long-time enemy of Milan, to help him overthrow Prospero. To sway Alonso, Antonio promised that, as duke, he would pay an annual tribute to Naples and accept Alonso as the ultimate ruler of Milan.

To overthrow his brother, Antonio makes himself subservient to Alonso, trading one master for another. He gains no more power, but he does gain the title of duke.

Alonso and Antonio arranged for soldiers to kidnap Prospero and Miranda in the middle of the night. The soldiers hurried them aboard a fine ship, and then, several miles out to sea, cast them into a rickety boat. The pair survived only through the generosity of Gonzalo, an advisor to Alonso, who provided them with necessities like fresh water, clothing, blankets, and food, as well as Prospero’s beloved books.

Though they didn’t use any magic, Alonso and Antonio created the illusion that Prospero and Miranda were sent away in a fine ship, in order to mask their evil intentions. Gonzalo’s generosity shows his goodness.

Miranda says that she would like to meet Gonzalo someday. She then asks Prospero why he created the storm. Prospero replies that circumstances have brought his enemies close to the island’s shores. He feels that if he does not act now, he may never have a chance again. Prospero then puts a spell on Miranda so that she sleeps and asks no more questions.

Miranda’s wish foreshadows the reunion that Prospero has set in motion. His reply to her highlights how quickly fortunes can change, casting one person out of favor while another assumes power.

Prospero summons his servant Ariel, who greets Prospero as his “great master,” then gleefully describes how he created the illusion of the storm. Following Prospero’s instructions, Ariel made sure that no one was injured and dispersed the courtiers throughout the island, leaving Alonso’s son all alone. The sailors are in a deep sleep within the ship, which is in a hidden harbor along the shore. The rest of the fleet sailed on for Naples, believing the king dead.

Ariel when describing his exploits in creating the tempest indicate

He seemed to enjoy it, and is willing to do whatever his master bids him to do. Ariel response to Prospero’s power over him is cheerful... yet Ariel would rather be free.

 Prospero thanks Ariel. Ariel reminds Prospero that he had promised to reduce Ariel’s time in servitude if Ariel performed the tasks that Prospero gave him. Prospero angrily reminds Ariel how he rescued Ariel from imprisonment. Ariel had refused to do the cruel bidding of Sycorax, the witch who ruled the island before Prospero’s arrival. Sycorax then imprisoned Ariel in a tree, and didn’t free him before she died. Ariel might have been stuck in that tree forever if Prospero had not freed him. Ariel begs Prospero’s pardon, and Prospero promises Ariel his freedom in two days’ time. Prospero then instructs Ariel to make himself invisible to all but Prospero. Ariel exits.  Prospero and Ariel have a complex relationship. Prospero freed Ariel from imprisonment but then enslaved him himself. Prospero appears to be a pleasant and kind master to Ariel, until the moment it becomes clear that Ariel would prefer not to have a master at all. Then Prospero wields his power more harshly, and becomes friendly only when Ariel begs his pardon.

 Prospero awakens Miranda and, calling for his “poisonous slave,” summons, Caliban, the malformed son of Sycorax. Caliban and Prospero immediately start trading curses. Caliban asserts his rightful claim to the island as Sycorax’s son, and recalls how, when Prospero first came to the island “Thou strok’st me and made much of me; wouldst give me / Water with berries in’t; and teach me how / To name the bigger light, and how the less ... and then I lov’d thee, / And show’d thee all the qualities o’ th’ isle, / The fresh springs, brine-pits, barren place, and fertile”. But then, Caliban says, Prospero made Caliban, who had been king of the island, his subject and servant.  Like Ariel, Caliban is Prospero’s slave. But where Ariel is cheerful in his servitude, Caliban is bitter. Why? Perhaps because Prospero rescued Ariel from a worse imprisonment, while Caliban previously had been free and powerful. The process Caliban describes, in which Prospero first befriended Caliban, educated him, and then enslaved him is similar to methods of European explorers—they often did the same thing to the natives in the lands they colonized.

 Prospero angrily responds that he treated Caliban with “human care” and even let Caliban live in his own home. Yet, in response, Caliban tried to rape Miranda. Caliban replies, “O ho! Would’t had been done.”  Prospero sees himself as having been nothing but kind to Caliban. Caliban’s anger is so great that he is unrepetant for trying to rape Miranda.

Miranda angrily scolds Caliban, recalling how she tried to lift him out of savagery by teaching him to speak their language “When thou didst not, savage, / Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like / A thing most brutish”.. Yet despite this gift of education, Miranda continues, Caliban remained innately vile and brutal. Caliban retorts, “You taught me language, and my profit on’t is, I know how to curse”.   The viewpoints of colonizer and colonized are on display here. Miranda believes Caliban owes her a debt of gratitude for trying to civilize him. But Caliban sees himself as having been free, and insists he was better off without all the “elevating,” which resulted in him losing his autonomy.

Enraged, Prospero hurls new curses at Caliban and orders him to get to his chores. Caliban grudgingly obeys, knowing that Prospero’s power is greater than his own, and exits.

Like Ariel, Caliban submits to Prospero’s power. Ariel submitted humbly, but Caliban feels bitter and resentful in giving up his power.

 Nearby, the invisible Ariel sings a haunting song to Ferdinand, Alonso’s son, who has awakened to find himself alone on the island. The song’s lyrics deceive Ferdinand into believing that his father drowned in the shipwreck: “Full fathom five thy father lies. / Of his bones are coral made”. Unseen, Prospero and Miranda watch Ferdinand approach. Miranda declares Ferdinand handsome. Ferdinand soon notices Miranda and, struck by her beauty, tells her of his troubles. She expresses pity for him, and they fall in love at first sight. Prospero, in an aside, admits that he is pleased by their attraction.  Ferdinand is another character deeply affected by loss—the death of his father. Alonso isn’t really dead, but Prospero manipulates Ferdinand into thinking that he is. Prospero’s trick reveals one of Miranda’s best qualities—her sympathetic nature to Ferdinand. Prospero’s pleased response to Ferdinand and Miranda’s attraction suggests that he desires reconciliation with his enemies, not revenge. 

 However, to test the depth of Ferdinand’s love for Miranda, Prospero speaks sharply to Ferdinand and takes him into captivity as a servant. Miranda begs her father not to treat Ferdinand too harshly, but Prospero angrily silences her and leads Ferdinand away. For his part, Ferdinand says that the captivity and hard labor Prospero promises will be easy as long as he regularly gets to see Miranda.  Prospero has now enslaved three people. In contrast to Caliban, Ferdinand cheerfully accepts his loss of power. Ferdinand is cheerful because he dreams of Miranda’s love. Caliban, whom Miranda saw as a savage, never had a chance at love with Miranda.

THE TEMPEST WITH ALLIE: Summary/Analysis of Act 1 Scene 1

         

        A terrible storm tosses a ship at sea.  The ship carries Alonso, the King of Naples, and assorted courtiers on the journey home from Alonso’s daughter’s wedding in Tunisia.  The Boatswain of the ship shouts commands at the passengers to keep below deck to ensure their safety and because they are getting in the way of the sailors’ work.  When Gonzalo reminds the Boatswain to remember who is on the ship, the Boatswain insists that nature does not care that the ship holds a king and that, under such circumstances, his own authority must be respected: “What cares these roarers for the name of king?  To cabin! silence! Trouble us not.” 
       The play begins with a scene of upheaval.  The courtiers are bound for a place where nothing is as it seems, and big changes await them.  In this scene, they get their first taste of powerlessness.  The wildness of nature (in reality a spell worked by Prospero) has turned the tables on them, so that someone who would normally be their subject, the Boatswain, now gives them orders.
       Gonzalo, a counselor to the king, jokes that he’s no longer afraid of drowning, because it seems to him that the Boatswain is destined to die by hanging rather than drowning.
       Gonzalo’s response to his powerlessness is to make a joke... 
      Antonio and Sebastian are furious at the Boatswain for his audacity in ordering them around. They hurl insults at him, calling the Boatswain, among other things a “dog,” “cur,” “whoreson,” and an “insolent noisemaker” (1.1.35-38). 
       In contrast, the more power-hungry Antonio and Sebastian are infuriated by the Boatswain’s lack of regard for their authority. 
      The ship cracks. Sailors pray for their lives. Antonio and Sebastian run to be with King Alonso as the ship goes down, while Gonzalo prays for land, any land, to save him from drowning.
      Antonio and Sebastian want seek out the king (and his power) in times of trouble. The storm has humbled the menso that—survival is more important now than anything else.


                                       

FRANKENSTEIN TIME WITH ALLIE: "Walton, in continuation" Summary and Analysis

 


 The novel returns to the frame of Walton’s letters to his sister, Margaret Saville.  In a letter on August 26, Walton says that he believes Victor’s story and recalls how Victor described himself as the victim of “lofty ambition,” which brought him to despair.  Walton laments that he did not know Victor when they could have been friends.  As Walton writes, “I have sought one who would sympathize with and love me.”  Yet while Victor responded kindly to his offers of friendship, he remained fixated on his only remaining destiny: to destroy the monster.   Walton and Victor are after the same thing: love, acceptance, and glory.  And in both cases, their ambition worked against their hope for love and acceptance.  Both men end up trapped and isolated, Walton by nature and Victor by the need for vengeance. 

 In a letter on September 2, Walton tells Margaret that his ship and crew are in grave danger: the ship is now surrounded entirely by ice.  He blames himself for their fate and says they may all die as a result of his “mad schemes.”  He fears a mutiny.   Just as Victor lost his innocence and realized the dangers of his ambition, so too does Walton.  Walton also fears vengeance from the “monster” of his crew.  

 In a letter on September 5, Walton says that his crew have demanded that he turn the ship around and head for home as soon as the ice frees them.  Victor speaks up in his defense, telling the rebellious crew members they should “be men” for they had set out to be the “benefactors of [their] species.”  The speech changes the crew’s mind, but Walton fears only temporarily. He says he’d rather die than return in shame with his “purpose unfulfilled.”   Walton maintains the innocent ideal notion that he can somehow enlighten all of humankind by seeing the North Pole. The same mix of arrogance, benevolence, and lust for fame fuels both his and Victor’s ambitions.  Victor’s speech implies that he has not, in fact, changed much at all.  

 In a letter on September 7, Walton says he has agreed to the crew’s demand to turn back.  He considers what has happened an injustice.   Like Victor, Walton blames his failure not on his ambition or his fallibility, but on others. 

 In his final letter on September 12th, Walton says that he has turned back, his hopes of “glory” and “utility” crushed. In addition, Victor, has died.  Victor had objected to Walton’s decision to turn back his ship and said that his own “purpose” remained firm.  Victor then tried to rise and return to the ice, but could not.  He reaffirmed his certainty that he acted well in trying to defend his fellow man against the monster, his creation.  He then died quietly, eager to rejoin the relatives he had lost in life.  Like Victor, Walton’s ambition destroys everything around him until he’s left alone.  Victor, quick to judge everything but himself, expects Walton to stick to his convictions, but his own conviction is a need for revenge.  If he had truly acted in “good faith,” he would have confronted his prejudice, or, failing that, told his secret earlier.   

Walton interrupts his letter upon hearing a disturbance in the cabin where Victor’s body lies.  He returns to tell Margaret that he has just seen the monster crying over Victor’s corpse. To Walton’s shock, the monster says he suffered remorse and pity for Victor all along. Walton calls the monster a “wretch.”  The monster is unsurprised, having been rejected by people from the start. It says that it abhorred itself even as it was doing evil, and describes itself as a “fallen angel,” yet it also wonders why only it, and not Felix, or the man who shot it, or Frankenstein, is considered a “criminal.” The monster then promises to end its own life, springs from the cabin back onto the ice, and disappears.  The last person the monster encounters before killing itself treats it unfairly, with the same prejudice and bitterness the monster faced throughout its life. The monster’s use of religious language to describe its plight suggests the connection between Frankenstein and Paradise Lost, and between the monster, Adam, and Satan.  With a final condemnation of the prejudice it has always faced and the weakness of men, the monster reveals its final loss of innocence: it’s own self-hatred, and wish to die.

FRANKENSTEIN TIME WITH ALLIE: Chapter 23 and 24 Summary and Analysis

The monster killing Elizabeth

CHAPTER 23

A storm rolls in after they arrive at the cottage.  Victor, armed with a pistol and terrified that the monster will attack at any moment, sends Elizabeth to bed for her own safety.  But as he searches the house, he hears a scream.  Elizabeth has been murdered.  While huddled over her lifeless body, Victor sees the monster at the window.  He fires at it, but misses.  Victor assumed the monster would attack him, not realizing that the monster wanted revenge by subjecting him to the same horror to which he subjected it: isolation.  This mistake resulted in Elizabeth’s death.  Victor rushes back to Geneva.  The news of Elizabeth’s death overwhelms his father, who dies a few days later.  Now the monster’s revenge is complete: Victor is alone (besides Ernest).  Victor goes mad for several months and is kept in a cell.  When he regains his senses he tells his entire story to a local magistrate, hoping to enact justice on the monster.  The magistrate listens but doesn’t entirely believe Victor and, anyway, considers tracking down the monster impossible.  Victor resolves to seek his revenge on his own.  Finally, Victor tells his secret.  But it’s too late.  Now he faces the same predicament as the monster: rejected by humankind, he must seek revenge on his own.  He curses the magistrate and all of humanity.  “Man,” he cries, “how ignorant art thou in thy pride of wisdom!”  Victor’s curse is similar to the monster’s curse of him.  They are now essentially the same.

Victor trekking the monster in the icy North

 CHAPTER 24

Victor decides to leave Geneva forever.  While visiting the graves of his family he swears revenge, and hears the monster’s voice calling him a “miserable wretch.”  The monster’s revenge is successful; now Victor suffers isolation as it does.  For months, Victor tracks the monster northward into the frigid Arctic regions, led by clues and taunting notes the monster leaves behind. Victor chases the monster onto the frozen ocean with sleds and dogs, and comes within a mile of the monster’s own sled, but then the ice breaks up beneath Victor’s sled.  The barren arctic is a perfect symbol of isolation and the power of nature. A man in this tundra is utterly alone and entirely at the mercy of nature.  This is the point at which Walton’s ship rescued him.  The narrative comes to the present.  Victor, knowing he’s dying, begs Walton to take vengeance on the monster if he should happen to see it.  Victor has finally told his story and secret to a sympathetic audience.  But is there any difference between Victor and the monster but appearance?