The Tempest Compassion and Forgiveness Quotes

If by your art, my dearest father, you have Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them - William Shakespeare

If by your art, my dearest father, you have
Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them.
The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch,
But that the sea, mounting to the welkin’s cheek,
Dashes the fire out.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2. Miranda is a very gentle and compassionate young teenager and on witnessing the shipwreck on the island she appeals to her father Prospero to allay the storm if he is the cause. She is aware of Prospero’s magic powers and knows that he can control nature. She is suspicious that he conjured the storm and wild waters and caused the shipwreck.

O, I have suffered
With those that I saw suffer! A brave vessel,
Who had, no doubt, some noble creature in her,
Dash’d all to pieces. O, the cry did knock
Against my very heart! Poor souls, they perished.
Had I been any god of power, I would
Have sunk the sea within the earth or ere
It should the good ship so have swallowed and
The fraughting souls within her.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2. Miranda is a very empathetic and sympathetic person and feels the suffering of those on board the ship caught in the wild tempest. She believes that they have drowned. But if she were a god with power, she tells her father Prospero, instead of sinking the ship she would sink the seas so that the ship and passengers could be saved.

For this, be sure, to-night thou shalt have cramps,
Side-stitches that shall pen thy breath up. Urchins
Shall, for that vast of night that they may work,
All exercise on thee. Thou shalt be pinched
As thick as honeycomb, each pinch more stinging
Than bees that made ’em.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2. Just after Caliban showers curses on him and his daughter, Prospero issues this threat to his unruly and disobedient slave. Prospero is a sorcerer and his powerful magic can indeed inflict this kind of physical pain that he describes on Caliban in order to control him. He uses nature as a threat to cause him pain, urchins being spirits in the form of hedgehogs. There is an unforgiving relationship between the master and servant. The deformed Caliban is usually seen as the monster in the play, but Prospero could also be seen as part monster in the things he does to control and manipulate the other characters.

This island’s mine, by Sycorax my mother,
Which thou tak’st from me. When thou cam’st first,
Thou strok’st me and mad’st 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 show’d thee all the qualities o’ th’ isle,
The fresh springs, brine-pits, barren place and fertile.
Cursed be I that did so! All the charms
Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you,
For I am all the subjects that you have,
Which first was mine own king; and here you sty me
In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me
The rest o’ th’ island.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2. Caliban asserts his rights through his mother to the island, which he claims Prospero took from him by flattering him, giving him berries, teaching him about the sun and stars and then betraying him. He admits that he loved Prospero at first. He showed the magician all the qualities of the island with its freshwater springs and saltwater pits, Caliban being a native inhabitant and close to nature. But he curses himself for doing so, and Prospero as well, who now confines him in a cave on the island. Invoking the name of his witch mother Sycorax, Caliban once again calls on her wicked magic charms to curse his captor. He is unforgiving about how Prospero has mistreated and enslaved him. All of this raises the question of who is the monster here – Caliban or Prospero? Perhaps both!

Thou most lying slave,
Whom stripes may move, not kindness, I have used thee,
Filth as thou art, with human care, and lodged thee
In mine own cell, till thou didst seek to violate
The honour of my child.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2. Prospero is unforgiving towards his slave Caliban for his attempt to violate his daughter Miranda. He calls him a piece of filth, but he did allow him to live in his Prospero’s own dwelling until he tried to rape his daughter. He tells Caliban that he only responds to whipping, not kindness.

Thou, which art but air.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 5, Scene 1. Prospero is speaking to the spirit Ariel. The full quote is: "Hast thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling Of their afflictions, and shall not myself, One of their kind, that relish all as sharply Passion as they, be kindlier moved than thou art?" Ariel has told his master that the imprisoned Alonso and his men are in a bad state, and that if he were human, Ariel would feel sorry for them. Prospero says that he is moved to compassion and sympathy for his enemies by Ariel’s words.

Though with their high wrongs I am struck to th’ quick,
Yet with my nobler reason ‘gainst my fury
Do I take part. The rarer action is
In virtue than in vengeance: they being penitent,
The sole drift of my purpose doth extend
Not a frown further. Go release them, Ariel:
My charms I’ll break, their senses I’ll restore,
And they shall be themselves.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 5, Scene 1. Prospero is ready to forgive the betrayals of his enemies, and forgoes the infliction of punishment and revenge on those who betrayed him, even though he has been deeply wounded by them. Instead of retaliation he chooses compassion – "the rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance." He accepts that those who wronged him are remorseful and bids Ariel to release them from their imprisonment and says that he will break his spell on them and restore their senses. As a deep human emotion is touched in Prospero, prompted by the very human display of compassion by the non-human spirit Ariel, this is an important step in Prospero’s voyage of self-discovery

Flesh and blood,
You, brother mine, that entertain’d ambition,
Expell’d remorse and nature; who, with Sebastian,
Whose inward pinches therefore are most strong,
Would here have kill’d your king; I do forgive thee,
Unnatural though thou art.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 5 Scene 1. Prospero excoriates his brother Antonio, saying that he followed his ambition and lost compassion and their natural bond as brothers. With Sebastian he was ready to kill his king Alonso. However, despite the fact that Prospero brands Antonio as "unnatural" – i.e. a monster – he decides to forgive him.

Whether thou best he or no,
Or some enchanted trifle to abuse me,
As late I have been, I not know: thy pulse
Beats as of flesh and blood; and, since I saw thee,
The affliction of my mind amends, with which,
I fear a madness held me. This must crave,
An if this be at all, a most strange story.
Thy dukedom I resign, and do entreat
Thou pardon me my wrongs. But how should Prospero
Be living, and be here?

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 5, Scene 1. Alonso is baffled and confused by the announcement that he is the wronged Duke of Milan. How could Prospero be living and be on the island, there must be an extraordinary story to explain this, he says. Nevertheless, he makes up his mind straight away to act: he acknowledges his guilt and asks for Prospero’s forgiveness for his wrongdoing. And he withdraws his support for Antonio taking Prospero’s dukedom.

For you, most wicked sir, whom to call brother
Would even infect my mouth, I do forgive
Thy rankest fault; all of them; and require
My dukedom of thee, which perforce, I know,
Thou must restore.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 5, Scene 1. Prospero clearly has an intense dislike for Antonio because of his betrayal of him, saying that to call him brother would "infect" his mouth. But he decides to be the bigger man and not follow the path of vengeance and vindictiveness. Instead he decides to forgive Antonio, but requires his dukedom back which he says Antonio must restore.

Now my charms are all o’erthrown,
And what strength I have’s mine own,
Which is most faint: now, ’tis true,
I must be here confined by you,
Or sent to Naples. Let me not,
Since I have my dukedom got
And pardoned the deceiver, dwell
In this bare island by your spell;
But release me from my bands
With the help of your good hands:
Gentle breath of yours my sails
Must fill, or else my project fails,
Which was to please. Now I want
Spirits to enforce, art to enchant,
And my ending is despair,
Unless I be relieved by prayer,
Which pierces so that it assaults
Mercy itself and frees all faults.
As you from crimes would pardoned be,
Let your indulgence set me free.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Epilogue. Prospero’s fascinating and moving soliloquy before he exits the stage in what is thought to be William Shakespeare’s last play, is often taken as Shakespeare’s own farewell to the stage. Speaking to the audience, after the rest of the characters leave the stage, Prospero says that he has given up his magic powers to become an ordinary human being, reclaimed his dukedom and "pardoned the deceiver." He is about to return to the real world in Milan after living on his magical island. He asks his audience to set him free with their applause – "release me from my bands With the help of your good hands." In the final lines two he asks for the audience’s forgiveness for what he has done, to pardon him for his actions on the island which he is now restoring to its natural state, without his magic.

As you from crimes would pardoned be,
Let your indulgence set me free.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Epilogue. In the final lines of his closing speech, after forgiving the shipwreck passengers for their former betrayals, Prospero asks the audience for their forgiveness and his own freedom. He is about depart the island where he has been exiled and retake the dukedom of Milan. He is a happy and satisfied man who has avenged the wrongs done to him and made his enemies see the enormity of their crime.
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