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Caliban Quotes

Browse 22 quotes about Caliban.

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Tempest

Caliban Quotes

“Prospero, you are the master of illusion. Lying is your trademark. And you have lied so much to me (Lied about the world, lied about me) That you have ended by imposing on me An image of myself. Underdeveloped, you brand me, inferior, That s the way you have forced me to see myself I detest that image! What’s more, it’s a lie! But now I know you, you old cancer, And I know myself as well.”

PlayShakespeareCalibanThe TempestPostcolonial
Book:A Tempest: Based on Shakespeare's 'The Tempest;' Adaptation for a Black Theatre
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“When thou cam'st first, 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, That burn by day and night; and then I loved thee And showed thee all the qualities o' th' isle, The fresh springs, brine-pits, barren place and fertile.”

GivingFirstsMadeLightNightNamesWaterQualityTeachSpringBiggerGive MeAstronomyTheePitsDay And NightBarrenFertileTempestBerriesIsleGonzalo From TempestCaliban
Book:Four Late Plays
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“Do I do as false prophets do and puff air into simulacra? Am I a Sorcerer--like Macbeth's witches--mixing truth and lies in incandescent shapes? Or am I a kind of very minor scribe of a prophetic Book--telling such truth as in me lies, with aid of such fiction as I acknowledge mine, as Prospero acknowledged Caliban.”

KindBookLyingFictionAirMinesShapesAidsAcknowledgeProphetWitchMinorsMixingPropheticTruth And LiesPuffFalse ProphetsScribesCalibanProspero
Author:A. S. Byatt
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“At the happy ending of the Tempest, Prospero brings the kind back togeter with his son, and finds Miranda's true love and punishes the bad duke and frees Ariel and becomes a duke himself again. Everyone - except Caliban - is happy, and everyone is forgiven, and everyone is fine, and they all sail away on calm seas. Happy endings. That's how it is in Shakespeare. But Shakespeare was wrong. Sometimes there isn't a Prospero to make everything fine again. And sometimes the quality of mercy is strained.”

KindSometimesQualitySeaSonFineMercyCalmSailForgivenHappy EndingsTempestDukesArielMirandaCalibanCalm SeasProspero
Author:Gary D.
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“Gargoyles were the complement to saints; Leonardo's caricatures were complementary to his untiring search for ideal beauty. And gargoyles were the expression of all the passions, the animal forces, the Caliban gruntings and groanings which are left in human nature when the divine has been poured away. Leonardo was less concerned than his Gothic predecessors with the ethereal parts of our nature, and so his caricatures, in their expression of passionate energy, merge imperceptibly into the heroic.”

HumansHas BeensPassionEnergyLeftForceAnimalHuman NatureDivineExpressionConcernedIdealsSaintPassionateHeroicGothicPredecessorsCaricaturesComplementEtherealLeonardoComplementaryGroaningGargoylesCaliban
Author:Kenneth Clark
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“One of the reasons [William] Shakespeare is so endlessly fascinating is that you can look at that figure from about 10 different angles: Caliban in Shakespeare's day was probably viewed as a sort of comic, barbarian type, but into the 19th century there were productions where Caliban was the hero. He's a potential rapist of a minor. Is that a good thing? No, it is not. On the other hand, Prospero's got him cooped up in a cave and tortures him if he doesn't do what Prospero wants. Is that a good thing? No. Shakespeare doesn't let you off easy.”

IfsWantLooksDifferentReasonHandsEasyCenturyFiguresTypeHeroGood ThingsProductionsComicTortureFascinatingMinorsAngleCaves19th CenturyBarbariansDifferent AnglesCalibanProspero
Author:Margaret Atwood
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“Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises, Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not. Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments Will hum about mine ears; and sometime voices, That, if I then had waked after long sleep, Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming, The clouds methought would open, and show riches Ready to drop upon me; that, when I waked, I cried to dream again.”

IfsGivingLongSometimesShowsDreamSoundVoiceHurtSleepAirMinesReadySweetThousandEarsInstrumentsCloudsDelightRichesNoiseCriedTempestIsleSleep And DreamSleep DreamCalibanLong Sleep
Author:William Shakespeare
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“A southwest blow on ye and blister you all o'er!' 'The red plague rid you!' 'Toads, beetles, bats, light on you!' 'As wicked dew as e'er my mother brushed with raven's feather from unwholesome fen drop on you.' 'Strange stuff' 'Thou jesting monkey thou' 'Apes with foreheads villainous low' 'Pied ninny' 'Blind mole...' -The Caliban Curses”

LightMotherStuffStrangeLowsRedBlindBlowCurseWickedBatsMonkeysFeathersPlagueApesDewForeheadsRavensToadsMolesBeetlesBlistersCaliban
Author:Gary D. Schmidt
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