The Tempest Foreshadowing Quotes

The Tempest by William Shakespeare

What cares these roarers for the name of king? To cabin: silence! trouble us not.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 1. The Boatswain tells the passengers, members of the nobility, that the roaring waves do not respect kings. He makes it clear that the fearsome storm is not going to calm down because Alonso, the King of Naples, is on board the ship. Caring little for the rank of the king, he orders the royal party below decks. This is something that they don’t like as they are used to giving the orders. The storm is a metaphor for a disturbance in the social order, and also for Prospero’s anger – he is responsible for the storm and bringing his enemies to his island. The reversal of the social order on the stricken ship, with the Boatswain telling the royal party what to do, also foreshadows the disruptions to and upheavens in the social hierarchies that are about to take place on the island.

My brother and thy uncle, called Antonio –
I pray thee, mark me – that a brother should
Be so perfidious! – he whom next thyself
Of all the world I loved and to him put
The manage of my state; as at that time
Through all the signories it was the first
And Prospero the prime duke, being so reputed
In dignity, and for the liberal arts
Without a parallel; those being all my study,
The government I cast upon my brother
And to my state grew stranger, being transported
And rapt in secret studies. Thy false uncle –
Dost thou attend me?

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2. In a lengthy speech, Prospero dominates the conversation with his passively listening daughter Miranda ("Doest thou attend me?"), as he explains how they wound up on the island. He explains that he gave over the day-to-day government to his brother Antonio, while he focused his attention to studies in the art of magic – "rapt in secret studies." But his brother turned out to be false and deceitful. Since Prospero realizes that he lost his dukedom because of his relentless pursuit of magic, this foreshadows the decision he will later make to renounce his magic so that he can take back his position of Duke of Milan. There is also use of a travel metaphor in "being transported And rapt in secret studies" to describe Prospero’s intellectual voyage.

Know thus far forth:
By accident most strange, bountiful Fortune,
Now my dear lady, hath mine enemies
Brought to this shore; and by my prescience
I find my zenith doth depend upon
A most auspicious star, whose influence
If now I court not but omit, my fortunes
Will ever after droop.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2. Prospero, asked by Miranda why he used his magic to raise the sea storm, says that a fortunate accident has delivered his enemies to the island through the shipwreck. He tells her that if he did not act now he may never have a chance again. With the revelation that Prospero engineered the arrival of his enemies who stole his throne and banished him to an island exile, this foreshadows Prospero’s revenge and also that his and Miranda’s circumstances will soon be altered.

As wicked dew as e’er my mother brushed
With raven’s feather from unwholesome fen
Drop on you both. A southwest blow on you
And blister you all o’er.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2. The first words spoken by Caliban in the play shows his hatred and extreme anger towards Prospero and Miranda. Showing his rebelliousness and disobedience when called, he curses them in two different ways, invoking the name of his dead sorceress mother Sycorax. He references her witchcraft, calling on her "wicked dew" to drop on them. Caliban believes the island is rightfully his and was stolen by Prospero. This level of extreme hatred foreshadows Caliban’s plot to hurt Prospero and Miranda.

You taught me language; and my profit on ‘t
Is, I know how to curse: the red plague rid you,
For learning me your language.

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2. The monster bites back! Caliban is reacting angrily to Miranda’s attack on him as a savage that she tried to educate. He says that he gained nothing of value from the education, except that he learned how to curse. He hopes that she dies of the plague for teaching him her language. Ironically Caliban is also capable of using beautiful, poetic language, as in his "Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises" speech (Act 3, Scene 2). At the heart of The Tempest is the vexed and toxic relationship between the colonized and colonizer, Caliban and Prospero. Caliban deeply resents Prospero’s and Miranda’s attempts to "civilize" him and sees them only as oppressors. He is rebelling against the use of language as a tool of colonization and repression. His threatening words in this passage are foreshadowing of his plot later in the play to kill Prospero and take his daughter.

A daughter?
O heavens, that they were living both in Naples,
The king and queen there! That they were, I wish
Myself were mudded in that oozy bed
Where my son lies. When did you lose your daughter?

– William Shakespeare

The Tempest, Act 5, Scene 1. Alonso’s speech is an example of dramatic irony, when the audience knows something that the character is unaware of. It’s also an example of foreshadowing, an indication of a future event. Here Alonso declares that if both Ferdinand and Miranda were alive (which the audience knows they are), he would be happy to see them married, and they would be the future king and queen of Naples (foreshadowingt their marriage and accession to the throne will after Alonso).
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