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April 6, 2007
Prospero is the gooey center
Miko, ''Tempest'' -- Jerz EL312 (Literary Criticism)
“We seem to be put repeatedly in the position of trying to decide what the magic means before we can say what it is. And that meaning, or those meanings, are all extensions of Prospero.” (377)
Another fan of the outlines, Miko does a good job of breaking it all down. What I mostly got out of this was that while we are wondering forever what the tempest and the magic of it is doing to the islanders, really we need to focus on why it’s all happening. Prospero wants to keep his daughter innocent, he wants to keep his slaves in captivity, and he wants a suitable young man to take care of everything once he’s gone (if he ever is). To do this, he has incorporated magic all through out the play. I think what makes it so unique is that Miko uses this to explain why Prospero really is the main sign to interpret.Yet, at the end of the day, there are so many branches that all we can do is crack open a beer and leave it up to Archie Bunker. By the way, what was up with the “horse piss” line? There were no horses on the island Miko said. Was that just for extra punishment pizzazz or what? What does the sign of horse piss mean…ooh that’s deep.
Posted by ErinWaite at April 6, 2007 11:47 AM
Comments
Erin, you should become a philosopher. Just quit school and go right into philosophy! Horse piss has become the new artistic representation of art.
Alright, on a serious note, I really enjoyed Miko's interpretation of how loose ends are intentional in The Tempest. To take it one step further, I think that this application can be applied to many different pieces of literature and poetry, like the questioning in Keats's poetry. Asking why many of these scenes are occurring is important, especially in the search of finding meaning, but asking what the intentions were behind the loose-ends in the literature is another attempt to make a deep search into the literature.
Posted by: Jason Pugh at April 12, 2007 4:50 PM
There are only loose ends if you untie the story. Miko has untied what Shakespeare tied tightly.
Posted by: Dave Moio at April 12, 2007 5:38 PM