Cesaire Slides

A Tempest -Aime Cesaire Catherine D, Mike G, Deja B, Amanda Y

1

Fast Write 

Fastwrite: What differences did you notice in Cesaire’s rewrite compared to the original? What do you think this means for the development of the play past Act I? Are there any particular characters that have changed? Why?

2

Reading + Discussion Question 

Act III, Scene 5 p. 56-66



Questions:   

3

Why do you think Prospero frees Ariel and not Caliban? Why does he change his mind about leaving the island? What is Cesaire trying to symbolize?

Eshu In A Tempest: Crashes the wedding party; sings song In Myth: A Yoruban diety of chaos and trickery; the personification death

4

Eshu Eshu can play many tricks Give him twenty dogs! You will see his dirty tricks.

Eshu plays a trick on the Queen And makes her so upset that she runs Naked into the street Eshu plays a trick on a bride, And on the day of the wedding She gets into the wrong bed

5

Eshu can throw a stone yesterday And kill a bird today He can make a mess out of order and vise-versa. Ah, Eshu is a wonderful bad joke. Eshu is not the man to marry a heavy load. His head comes to a point. When he dances He doesn’t move his shoulders... Oh, Eshu is a merry elf Eshu is a merry elf, And he can whip you with his dick, He can whip you, He can whip you….

Discussion question Cesaire focuses strongly on Caliban’s native “black” magic, that is also exemplified by the spirit Eshu, and ultimately, the defeat of Prospero’s “white” magic, that is overrun by an opossum plague. How does this tie in with the play’s colonization theme?



6