Analysis P

Analysis P

1. Magic

   • • Throughout the play Prospero uses his magic to make up a powerful storm, to put on an astounding wedding entertainment, to bully Caliban, to manipulate his enemies, and to arrange his daughter's marriage to the Prince of Naples.

2. Prospero's Art = Shakespeare's Art

   • • Uses magic to control and amaze, just like Shakespeare. Some critics think Prospero manipulates the action of The Tempest like a skillful director.
   • • Prospero’s way of getting the audience to see his idea of magic mirrors the way a writer writes in order to get people to see a story from his world
   • • As the sorcerer Prospero breaks his staff, Shakespeare puts down his pen and it's as though he's speaking about his own retirement from the theater when Prospero says, "Now my charms are all o'erthrown, / And what strength I have's mine own" (Epilogue). He asks only that we appreciate what he's done, and humbly takes his leave of us to disappear quietly, letting his words work magic long after he has gone.

3. Bitter Old Man to Merciful Human Being

   • • Prospero seems to nothing but a bitter dictator. He's taken Caliban's island in return for his own lost title, he manipulates his daughter, is cruel to Ferdinand and Caliban, and kind to Ariel only when the spirit is totally submissive. He also puts his enemies through all kinds of agony to gather them up so he can judge them.
     • • Although Prospero does everything in his power to confront his enemies, Prospero's humanity is clearly obvious in his treatment of Antonio, whom he calls traitor but whom he declines to treat as a traitor. Instead of seeking vengeance that could have turned The Tempest into a "tragedy," Prospero ultimately discovers that the capacity for mercy and forgiveness is what makes us human.
       • • After learning about his enemies’ pitiful state, Prospero declares "the rarer action is / In virtue than in vengeance" (5.1.2).. By this point in his career, Shakespeare made a name for himself writing plays like Hamlet, and Macbeth, where violence and suffering are the names of the game. Yet, in Prospero, Shakespeare creates a figure who decides to forgive his enemies even though they have betrayed in the worst possible way.
         • By the play's conclusion, it is clear that Prospero is just and fair, in addition to intelligent.

4. controlling tyrannical magic man or kindly godlike figure

   • controlling tyrannical man
     • He is on the island because of this lack of respect for others and his selfishness, and are led to believe that because of this he has spent the twelve years on the island planning his revenge and perfecting his magic. •
     • to prove how powerful he is, he threatens to kill all the other characters before the play even begins
     • threatens people- In act 1 scene 2, when Ariel reminds Prospero of his promise to free him, as well as reminding Ariel that he saved him, he goes on to threaten that he will ‘rend an oak, and peg [Ariel] in its knotty entrails.’ Shakespeare’s use of the verbs ‘rend’ and ‘peg’ show that Prospero is willing to use his powers to dominate others, even to the extent of making them ‘howl’.
     • • Controls people using his magic just as a puppet master controls his puppets. First he controls his own daughter by telling her to ‘give [sleep] way. I know thou canst choose’. Magic so powerful that whosoever he has put a spell on must obey him for they don’t have a choice.
     • • led Alonso to believe that his son was dead, leading Alonso having a lot of suicidal thoughts and wished he himself ‘were mudded in that oozy bed where [his] son lies’. Prospero reveals things to people in his own time not thinking about the consequences of his actions and how it might affect others as long as his plan works.
     • • Manipulates people to get what he wants Prospero purposely tells Miranda not to tell Ferdinand her name knowing that she will. He also releases Ariel from the pine tree in which he was imprisoned by Sycorax, because in return Ariel would have to work for him, enabling him to do much more than he can with his magic cloak.
     • • In act 5 scene 1 Prospero admits to darkening the noon time, calling angry winds, creating earthquakes and went as far as changing fate by opening ‘graves at [his] commands’ and waking ‘their sleepers’. These show how powerful Prospero is, he almost begins to play the role of God. He also ‘twixt the green sea and azured vault set roaring
   • kindly Godlike figure
     • Prospero tells Miranda about her true identity 12 years after they got to the island, when she was 15 because only then is she old enough to understand. Just like God Prospero reveals what he things when the time is right.
     • • loving father, tells Miranda to ‘wipe [her] eyes’ and to ‘have comfort’.
     • • tests Ferdinand’s love for his daughter, to ensure that he would be able to take care of her. Prospero’s actions make him a noble father, showing us that he has his daughter’s best interest at heart.
     • • does care about the feelings of other people, he ratifies his ‘rich gift’ - like a kindly god rewards people when they have proved sufficient. – Ferdinand apologizes for ‘austerely’ punishing him
     • • has an eye on everyone in the story at all times and constantly punishes people for doing bad things, in act 1 scene 2 he says to Caliban ‘for this, be sure, tonight thou shalt have cramps’ - sees himself as a godlike figure or an ‘instrument of judgment’ and he brings it upon himself to pass sentences over people.
     • • Understands people’s pain, realizes he has been harsh on his enemies and feels compassion for them, choosing to act virtuously because ‘the rarer action is in virtue than vengeance’.
   • Prospero exercises control both intellectually and physically. By controlling the way Ariel and Miranda think about their lives, he makes it difficult for them to imagine that challenging his authority would be a good thing to do, and by threatening Ariel (and, shortly thereafter, Caliban) with magical torture, he sets very high stakes for any such rebellion. For his part, Ariel promises to “do my spiriting gently” from now on.

5. general

   • • Prospero is one of Shakespeare’s inexplicable protagonists.
   • • He is a sympathetic character - he was wronged by his usurping brother, but his complete power over the other characters and his coarse speeches make him hard to like.
   • • By makings his ‘art’ his number one priority, Prospero gets trouble in the first place. By neglecting everyday duties when he was duke, he gave his sneaky brother a chance to rise up against him.
   • • His possession and use of magical knowledge renders him extremely powerful and not entirely sympathetic.
   • His punishments of Caliban are petty and malicious, as he calls upon his spirits to pinch Caliban when he curses.
   • • He is defensively dictatorial with Ariel. For example, when Ariel reminds his master of his promise to relieve him of his duties early if he performs them willingly, Prospero bursts into fury and threatens to return him to his former imprisonment and torment. He is similarly unpleasant in his treatment of Ferdinand, leading him to his daughter and then imprisoning and enslaving him.
   • Prospero spawns the plot of the play almost single-handedly, as his various schemes, spells, and manipulations all work as part of his grand design to achieve the play’s happy ending.
   • • Prospero emerges as a more likable and sympathetic figure in the final two acts of the play. In these acts, his love for Miranda, his forgiveness of his enemies, and the happy ending his scheme creates all work to moderate some of the undesirable means he has used to achieve his happy ending.
   • has a lot of passion for his magic and at times is purely evil, he can also be fatherly and forgiving. His better nature is illustrated at the end of the play when he relinquishes his magic and, as a result, appears to regain some of his humanity. • Prospero has suffered injustices and has made mistakes and perhaps deserves to be forgiven just as he forgave those who wronged him.