If by your art, my dearest father, you have Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them.
If, by your magic, dear father, you've Caused this storm, please calm it down.
Miranda · Act 1, Scene 2
Miranda, watching the shipwreck, begs her father to stop the storm if he has caused it. The line matters because it reveals Miranda's moral center—she cannot bear suffering even in strangers—and because it is the first hint that Prospero's power may be darker than his control over nature. It establishes the central tension of the play: that mercy and power are in constant negotiation.
My brother and thy uncle, call'd Antonio-- I pray thee, mark me--that a brother should Be so perfidious!
My brother and your uncle, named Antonio-- Please listen to me--that a brother could Be so treacherous!
Prospero · Act 1, Scene 2
Prospero tells Miranda the story of his usurpation by his own brother, the betrayal that launched the entire action of the play. The line endures because it captures the shock of familial treachery—the moment when Prospero must speak a brother's name as though it belongs to a stranger. It establishes that the central wound is not political loss but the violation of the closest human bond.
You taught me language; and my profit on't Is, I know how to curse.
You taught me language; and what I've gained from it Is that I now know how to curse.
Caliban · Act 1, Scene 2
Caliban speaks this after Prospero has threatened him with torment for his attempted assault on Miranda. The line is unforgettable because it distills the entire colonial encounter in a single bitter paradox—education becomes a tool of oppression, and the gift of speech becomes the ability to articulate rage. It shows us Caliban as neither monster nor servant but as a dispossessed human forced to see his own enslavement through the language his master gave him.
