A Reading of THE TEMPEST

By William Shakespeare

"Miranda - The Tempest" by John William Waterhouse

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Setting

Maybe because it’s so hard to locate specifically and realistically, the “uninhabited island” setting of The Tempest has a symbolic resonance that adds to its thematic richness.  Because the island  seems at times more like a mythical island than a real one, with elements of the Old World and the New World suggested by its location and all its exotic attributes, the setting takes on the feel of a “utopian” no-place that puts us in mind of imaginary worlds, of dreams.  As we see, these dreams and fantasies can be both self-serving or more socially minded, depending on the individual in charge of the fantasy.  This play takes a long look at how individual power and the social order can become malleable, something to be molded by our own aspirations.  So what kind of a world do we want to create?  What vision of society do we, like the powerful “Gods” we aspire to be, want to create?  This island seems to present its characters (and us viewers, vicariously) a blank slate on which to imagine our best and our worst (II,i.143-60; III,iii.30-39).  Here’s a place where civilization hasn’t arrived in any great force as yet, a place where nature is still raw and unspoiled—a place where corruption carried ashore from the Old World is likely to stand out in sharp relief. 

 

Colonialist interpretations based on a purely political reading of this play are quick to point out that as empty of “civilization” as it may be, the island is NOT uninhabited when Prospero arrives; if civilization hasn’t peopled it yet, it is nevertheless occupied by at least one person and by spirits—the “witch” Sycorax was exiled here (rather than burned because she was pregnant) and gave birth to Caliban, who is somewhat ambiguously human.  (The ambiguous status of Caliban reflects, perhaps, the ambiguity some Europeans seemed to feel about the native peoples they encountered in the New World.)  Ariel is a spirit inhabiting the island as well, a daemon of air and fire, imprisoned in a tree for refusing to serve Sycorax’s dark magic.  When Prospero arrives he frees Ariel by breaking the Sycorax’s spell.  On a symbolic level, Prospero’s ability to free Ariel is an affirmation of his powers as a magician but also of the goodness and rightness of his magic.  Ariel is also willing to serve Prospero because his magic is not evil but artful; the island has become Prospero’s theater, where emotions are evoked by “staged” events and well acted scenes.  Prospero’s magic is, on one level, the magic of art; his power is the power of the artist to induce illusions and dreams. When Prospero vows to “abjure” his “rough magic” and promises to “drown his book” (ACT V.i) many readers have seen Shakespeare himself withdrawing from his London career and retiring to Stratford-upon-Avon.

 

The setting of this play is evocative, therefore, on so many levels—as richly symbolic as ever a setting can be.  At once Prospero’s island is an imagined pastoral utopia (based on the writings of Thomas More, Michel de Montaigne, and Sir Walter Raleigh), a New World of expanded possibility inspired by the great Age of Discovery, and also a grand theater, a Globe (ACT IV.i), in the great age of Elizabethan theater.  And even more than this—in its depiction of Prospero, Caliban, and Ariel, it provides a powerful, poetic affirmation of a harmonious medieval model of the universe—a model that imagined human beings as centrally important at the absolute cosmic epicenter, located in a sphere between beasts (Caliban) and angels (Ariel), but vulnerable to being pulled up or down, toward heavenly aspirations or earthly appetites.  This cosmic model, in its earthly incarnation, was known as the Great Chain of Being. 

 

Character and The Great Chain

Each key character in this play is a proverbial link in the Great Chain of Being, the image that characterized the medieval understanding of the nature of universe and man’s place in it, an understanding that survived well into the Renaissance but was decidedly on the wane in the wake of Copernicus and Francis Bacon.  Shakespeare is not eager to let go of this image, and it reverberates through each of the characters in this play.

In this so-called great chain, which placed in its hierarchy every earthly substance from stones to humans, to spirits, to God, humanity finds itself sandwiched between beasts and angels. It was widely believed that we shared characteristics with both, which makes us a kind of mongrel beast-angel.  Caliban seems to be a dynamic representation of our bestial nature while Ariel is his heavenly counterpart, and the other human characters in the play all fall somewhere in that range between the two.

 

Situated firmly on the ground with our heads in the clouds (so to speak), the human condition is to constantly struggle to overcome a partially animal nature and fulfill its  heavenly one.  In this world view, it would be the animal in us that would take responsibility for all of our messy, troublesome drives, appetites, and emotional extravagances, while the angelic side would provide us with intellect, reason, and rationality.  Our bestial natures are driven by desire, but our heavenly natures keep order, assign everything its proper place.  Freedom is at the heart of the human condition, but reason is what drives us to act morally, to make ethical, compassionate choices.  In dramatic terms, our ability to reason is the source or the power we have to save ourselves from ourselves.  It may be the difference between Faustus, who loses himself to his own arrogance and appetites, and Prospero, who saves himself from being swallowed by vengefulness by his “nobler reason” (ACT V.i). Shakespeare allows us to hold the characters in The Tempest responsible for their choices, whether driven by “noble reason” or by “appetite.” 

 

The characters in the play can all be located on the Great Chain of Being, some of them tending upward toward heavenly influences, some of them tending downward toward bestial ones, and some sandwiched between—reflecting the medieval understanding of the human condition…

 

SPRIIT: Ariel.  As a spirit of the air, Ariel is associated with freedom, intellect, aesthetic beauty (song), moral consciousness, and personal responsibility—surely one of Shakespeare’s most magical characters. 

 

The Masque characters (Iris, Ceres, Juno, Nymphs, Reapers).  These spirits are allegorical personifications of the subtler forces of nature related to seasonal fertility and marriage.  The pageant that Prospero contrives for them to perform is highly ceremonial, an overwhelming spectacle of the senses, a feast of song, dance, poetry, elaborate costume and choreography—the whole range of Elizabethan theatrical pyrotechnics.  Until this scene, Shakespeare never wrote these kinds of plays.   They were not drama, merely spectacle—an entertainment for the very rich and very royal; notice how quickly Prospero dissolves it—nothing is left behind.  Yet, in that quick dissolution, Prospero seems to sense something even more profound melting away, dissolving into air:

 

PROSPERO:

Our revels now are ended. These our actors,

As I foretold you, were all spirits and

Are melted into air, into thin air:

And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,

The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,

The solemn temples, the great globe itself,

Ye all which it inherit, shall dissolve

And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,

Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff

As dreams are made on, and our little life

Is rounded with a sleep.  (IV.i. l.148-163)

 

If “we are such stuff as dreams are made on” then—merrily, merrily, merrily—life is but a dream…  Prospero is troubled by this thought, his “brain is vexed” and he must “walk a turn or two to still his beating mind.”  What seems to disturb Prospero is the sense that even his “most potent art”

 

HUMAN: Prospero.  As the main character, Prospero seems to represent the human condition, a being whose nature is complex and ambiguous—a battleground pitting powerful emotions against “nobler reason.”  Prospero is knowledgeable and wise but his heart and mind are filled with revenge fantasies.  His “goodness” is easy to call into question—he has enslaved Caliban (to protect his daughter?), Ariel (extracting payment for a “debt”), Ferdinand (by ensnaring him as a suitable husband for his daughter), and even Miranda to some extent (although no one questions this but us, today!).  Finally, he has captured his enemies and placed them under a powerful spell, leaving them helpless and suffering (what I would call “torture”), which would seem an abuse of his so-called “good” magic.  Prospero’s character is therefore up in the air as the events of this play unfold. 

 

Ferdinand and Miranda.   These are the virtuous children of Civilization, children of the old social order who have learned to channel their passion properly; they are willing and able to delay gratification of their desire for one another. These two young aristocrats are social equals and their union represents the endurance of the order they represent—they are joining forces, strengthening that order exponentially and putting to right what had been horribly wronged. Ferdinand was raised at court as the King of Naples’ heir; Miranda was home schooled on a desert island—yet they’re very equally matched.  They represent, it seems, idealized  Old World virtues like chastity, innocence, purity, devotion, and, especially, excellent manners.  Their dreamy love has all the hallmarks of romance and courtly love, but in the midst of this lover’s dream, Prospero makes it pretty clear that to him their union is really more political motivated. His “business” language (especially his repetition of the word, “business”) indicates this in more than one scene, but especially in ACT IV.i where he lightens up on Ferdinand and “gives away” his daughter “as my gift, and thine own acquisition/ Worthily purchased” (lines 13-14).  Prospero asks Ferdinand to “ratify this my right gift.”  Like Faustus he’s eager to ink the deal, get the contract signed, sealed delivered—ratified.

 

Gonzalo.  He is a faithful servant of power, whoever happens to hold it.  He’s kind, moral, intelligent, and fair-minded.  His dream is the “utopian” dream of leisure, equality, ease, and abundance. 

 

Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio.  These political sharks are cunning, cruel, selfish, treacherous men of status and privilege, but debased morals and intellect.  They crave power, but like Faustus are unable to do anything productive with it once they have it, except pursue more power.  They pose a serious threat to the social order, because they are corrupt and self-serving. Their dreams are dreams of personal gain at the expense of anyone in their way.

 

Stephano and Trinculo.  These characters would like to be treacherous political operatives like Antonio, Sebastian, and Alonso but they are low status, underachieving drunks.  If there wasn’t a subtle undertone of humor throughout the play, we might call them our comic relief.  They can dream of power, but it’s a drunken fantasy they’ll never be sober enough to fulfill.  They pose a mild danger to the social order but not really a serious one.  They’re too drunk to take seriously, as Caliban, who mistakes them for powerful gods—as Miranda mistakes Ferdinand for a god, and just as Ferdinand and later Alonso mistake Miranda for a goddess.  Unlike the others, Caliban is never corrected in his mistaken impression, and he becomes their exploited partner in crime.

 

SO-CALLED ANIMAL: Caliban.  Caliban’s sub-human status is suggested but never really confirmed throughout the play.  The point is that the European characters question his humanity to the end, as he is referred to by turns as “villain,” “abhorred slave,” “fish,” “monster,” “thing of darkness,” “as strange a thing as e’re I looked on,” “a plain fish…and marketable,” and finally, “a devil, a born devil, on whose nature nurture can never stick: on whom my pains, humanely taken, all, all lost, quite lost!” Caliban’s first words on stage are a raucous curse (aimed at Prospero) and a loud accusation: “This island’s mine…which thou tak’st from me.”  Prospero, by his power and willingness to inflict pain, has enslaved Caliban rather than kill him for his attempted rape of Miranda because, as Prospero explains, “We cannot miss him: he does make our fire,/ Fetch in our wood, and serves in offices/ That profit us.” If Caliban represents raw, unchecked instinct (to “people the isle with Calibans”), he also represents one of the most eloquent voices in the play, a character whose musical, melodious speech but offensive, primitive appearance is the perfectly balanced complement to the filthy minded violence and treachery of the beautiful people—Antonio and Sebastian, and the rest.  Yes, Caliban is driven to satisfy his instinctual desires, yet he has as much a love and desire for freedom as anyone, his moral outrage at being enslaved is impossible to dismiss, and his finer aesthetic sensibilities are as eloquent, or more so, as any character in the play:

 

Caliban:

Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,

Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.

Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments

Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices

That, if I then had waked after long sleep,

Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming,

The clouds methought would open and show riches

Ready to drop upon me that, when I waked,

I cried to dream again.  (III.ii. 134-142)

 

“I cried to dream again.”  Caliban, despite everyone’s attempt to dehumanize him, seems as much or more complex and as deeply human as any character in the play.  His revenge fantasy of murdering Prospero and taking back his island is as powerful and arguably as “justified” as Prospero’s revenge fantasy against Antonio, even if it isn’t as effective, given his choice of helpmates.  Caliban has a plan for getting what he wants—his freedom:

 

Caliban:

Why, as I told thee, 'tis a custom with him,

In the afternoon to sleep: there thou mayst brain him,

Having first seized his books, or with a log

Batter his skull, or paunch him with a stake,

Or cut his wezand with thy knife. Remember

First to possess his books; for without them

He's but a sot, as I am, nor hath not

One spirit to command: they all do hate him

As rootedly as I. (III.ii. 84-92)

 

Caliban emphasizes here that he can find no substantive difference between himself and Prospero.  The moral problem posed by his enforced servitude never quite resolves; it remains as a question hovering over his audience, and over us, even as Prospero frees Caliban upon leaving.

 

KEY PASSAGES IN THE TEMPEST

ARIEL’S PASSAGES

 

Ariel, like Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is one of Shakespeare’s unforgettable, magical characters.  His part is highly musical, which we definitely miss out on by just reading the play as text.  His song is associated with the music of the spheres (the harmonious sounds made by the eternally revolving celestial spheres); he’s an airy spirit, and a higher spiritual force in the play, a force Prospero not only harnesses but learns to abide by.  At first Ariel is depicted as Prospero’s servant (ACT I.i), but that changes.  By  Act V, Ariel has become the stronger moral force, and the one advising Prospero, who is wise enough, strong enough, and virtuous enough to take his advice. 

 

 

 

First Meeting: When Prospero summons Ariel (ACT I.ii:187 ff)

Pelican ed. (p. 39)

This is Ariel’s first appearance in the play.  From their first exchange, the master/servant relationship is established—Prospero has mastered Ariel, who is ready to do Prospero’s bidding. He’s a powerful spirit of the air and of fire which Prospero, through his magic, now commands. 

 

PROSPERO

    Come away, servant, come!  I am ready now.

    Approach, my Ariel: come!                            (Enter ARIEL)

ARIEL

    All hail, great master! grave sir, hail! I come

    To answer thy best pleasure; be't to fly,

    To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride

    On the curled clouds, to thy strong bidding task

    Ariel and all his quality.

PROSPERO

    Hast thou, spirit,

    Performed to point the tempest that I bade thee?

ARIEL

    To every article.

    I boarded the king's ship; now on the beak,

    Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin,

    I flamed amazement: sometime I'ld divide,

    And burn in many places; on the topmast,

    The yards and bowsprit, would I flame distinctly,

    Then meet and join. Jove's lightnings, the precursors

    O' the dreadful thunder- claps, more momentary

    And sight-outrunning were not; the fire and cracks

    Of sulphurous roaring the most mighty Neptune

    Seem to besiege and make his bold waves tremble,

    Yea, his dread trident shake.

PROSPERO

    My brave spirit!

    Who was so firm, so constant, that this coil

    Would not infect his reason?

ARIEL

    Not a soul

    But felt a fever of the mad and played

    Some tricks of desperation. All but mariners

    Plunged in the foaming brine and quit the vessel,

    Then all afire with me: the king's son, Ferdinand,

    With hair up- staring, –then like reeds, not hair,–

    Was the first man that leapt; cried, 'Hell is empty

    And all the devils are here.'

PROSPERO

    Why that's my spirit!

 

Ariel explains how, at Prospero’s command, he wreaked terror upon every inch of the ship—he is both fire and thunder, striking dread and panic everywhere, until it must have seemed like mighty Neptune himself had shaken his “dread trident.”  Prospero is mightily pleased with Ariel’s report, but is eager to make sure that all aboard were completely scared out of their minds, and isn’t satisfied until Ariel confirms that all were driven mad with fear and desperation.  Everyone aboard, except the professional mariners, dove overboard on fire and in a panic, but special attention is given to Ferdinand, who is mentioned by name—Ariel reports that this man’s hair stood on end as jumped, exclaiming how hell had emptied its devils upon them. Prospero is delighted with this news.  And just as we are about to be appalled at his cruelty, he makes it clear his intentions haven’t, in fact, been as murderous as they may seem.  Though the shipwreck was terrifying, it wasn’t fatal; the passengers are dispersed in three separate “troops” across the island, and the ship’s the crew is safely asleep in the harbor.  The rest of the fleet is sailing safely back to Naples.  Ariel performs all of this at Prospero’s command.  As the play develops, we discover Ariel and Prospero have a mutual respect, a bond that goes beyond servitude.  Their relationship is meaningful and satisfying both ways.

 

Ariel’s Complaint: he wants his freedom (ACT I.ii: 242 ff)

Pelican ed. (p. 41)

Ariel makes his case for freedom.  He is a servant, a temporary servant, and not a slave; he’s an essentially free spirit who is paying off a debt, working towards his liberty. Prospero made him a promise and Ariel will hold him to keeping to it.  This is quite the opposite of Prospero’s relationship with Caliban, who was adopted as a free and equal member of the  family until he became a serious threat to Miranda’s chastity.  That threat constitutes the end of Caliban’s freedom—he is immediately reduced to slavery.  But Ariel’s servitude is circumscribed, impermanent.  His character is always longing for freedom, and only consents to do Prospero’s bidding because Prospero is does not abuse his power.

 

Ariel’s Goodness and Loyalty: he freely chooses to save Prospero’s life (Act III.ii: 112)

Pelican ed. (p. 79)

Ariel overhears Caliban’s plot to murder Prospero, “within this half hour.”  If he doesn’t tell Prospero, then Stephano, Trinculo, and Caliban will be able to take him by surprise.  If Prospero dies, then Ariel will be free, remember. And it’s only with Ariel’s help that Prospero becomes alert to this murderous plot hatching against him—therefore, in a very direct but subtle and easy-to-miss way, Ariel saves Prospero’s life here.  “This will I tell my master.”  This is a simple decision, but it’s a freely made choice, and a powerful one, especially because it’s not compelled by anything except Ariel’s sense of right and wrong.  This is another instance where Ariel acts out on his sense of loyalty and moral rightness, rather than in a self-serving manner.

 

Ariel’s Moral Force: he convinces Prospero to have mercy and forgive (ACT V.i: 1-57)

Pelican ed. (p. 96-7)

Ariel seems to disapprove of Prospero’s “torture” of his enemies and claims that if Prospero were to see them his “affections would become tender” (lines 17-19). Prospero acknowledges this disapproval and acts on it immediately.  He resolves to give up his magic and his revenge in favor of mercy and forgiveness: “Yet with my nobler reason ‘gainst my fury/ Do I take part. The rarer action is/ In virtue than in vengeance” (lines 26-28).  Prospero makes an eloquent speech that testifies to the awesome power, which in his imperfect hands has become a “rough magic” that he will soon “abjure.”  What’s going on in Prospero’s mind at this point?  What has caused him to decide to forgive?  This is a definite turning point in the play, a crucial moment when Prospero becomes more likeable, more sympathetic, more human.

 

Ariel’s Last Words before gaining his freedom (ACT V.i 241)

Pelican ed. (p. 105)

Ariel asks Prospero, “Was’t well done?”  Clearly taking some pride in his work (not “toil” as he called it in ACT I), Ariel seems genuinely to care whether Prospero is pleased.  Real feeling passes between them, it seems, here and elsewhere.  Prospero also wishes Ariel well: “Be free, and fare thou well!” he cries at the end of the play.

CALIBAN’S PASSAGES

Caliban is a fascinating character in this play because of his ambiguity. By the time we meet him, he has already rejected Prospero’s “civilizing” tutelage—his strong attraction to and desire for Miranda overpowered whatever love he might have felt for Prospero, whatever restrain he was expected to maintain.  We are led to understand that his present status as a “slave” is just punishment for this intended violation—Prospero views him now as beneath human status  and beyond rehabilitation.  Under that heavy sentence, Caliban has been imprisoned and forced to serve them in menial tasks like gathering and delivering wood.  In spite of his roughness, readers may see Caliban as a sympathetic character who’s been exploited unfairly. Although his humanity is questioned from beginning to end, he is intriguingly parallel to almost ALL of the other characters in the play!

 

Like Ariel, Caliban is a “servant” who craves freedom, but for complaining (like Ariel complains) he receives mostly insults and threats (I.ii 365 ff) (Pel. Ed., p. 46):

 

 

Prospero. Hag-seed, hence!

      Fetch us in fuel; and be quick, thou'rt best,

      To answer other business. Shrug'st thou, malice?

      If thou neglect'st or dost unwillingly

      What I command, I'll rack thee with old cramps,

      Fill all thy bones with aches, make thee roar

      That beasts shall tremble at thy din.

 

Caliban. No, pray thee.

      [Aside]

      I must obey: his art is of such power,

      It would control my dam's god, Setebos,

      and make a vassal of him.

 

Like Prospero, Caliban wants revenge for having his autonomy and “sovereignty” taken away from him by force (III.ii 38-56) (Pel. Ed., p.76-77):

 

Caliban. I thank my noble lord. Wilt thou be pleased to

      hearken once again to the suit I made to thee?

 

 

Stephano. Marry, will I. kneel and repeat it; I will stand,

      and so shall Trinculo.

 

[Enter ARIEL, invisible]

 

Caliban. As I told thee before, I am subject to a tyrant, a

      sorcerer, that by his cunning hath cheated me of the island.

 

Ariel. Thou liest.

 

Caliban. Thou liest, thou jesting monkey, thou: I would my

      valiant master would destroy thee! I do not lie. 1440

 

Stephano. Trinculo, if you trouble him any more in's tale, by

      this hand, I will supplant some of your teeth.

 

Trinculo. Why, I said nothing.

 

Stephano. Mum, then, and no more. Proceed.

 

Caliban. I say, by sorcery he got this isle; 1445

      From me he got it. if thy greatness will

      Revenge it on him,—for I know thou darest,

      But this thing dare not,—

 

Stephano. That's most certain.

 

Caliban. Thou shalt be lord of it and I'll serve thee.

 

Note that Ariel, who is invisible to Stephano and Trinculo in this scene, does NOT sympathize with Caliban, but sides with Prospero.  Caliban doesn’t sympathize much with him either, calling him a “jesting monkey.”  In other words, Caliban accuses Ariel of getting on Prospero’s good side by playing the “fool,” by a kind of “court jester.”  Why don’t these two, who are both serving Prospero, have any sympathy for one another?  How should we understand their antipathy?

 

Like Ferdinand, Caliban is attracted to Miranda, though he has none of the graceful looks or fine manners with which to win her affections.  His drives overpower any sense of right and wrong, and if it weren’t for Prospero’s intervention, Miranda would have been his innocent victim.  Ferdinand is only slightly more trusted than Caliban.  If you look at Prospero’s stern warnings to Ferdinand, it’s clear he doesn’t fully expect much restraint from either of them (or he’s pretending not to) (I.ii 344-351) (Pel. Ed., p. 46):

 

Prospero. 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 honor of my child.

 

 

Caliban. O ho, O ho! would't had been done!

      Thou didst prevent me; I had peopled else

      This isle with Calibans.

 

Like Miranda, Caliban has been tutored by Prospero and somewhat by Miranda, too, in all the refined manners, speech, and customs of the Old World, but he rejects it all—except for the power of language, which he uses to free his mind even as he curses it (I.ii 363-65) (Pel. Ed., p. 46):

 

Miranda. Abhorred slave,

      Which any print of goodness wilt not take,

      Being capable of all ill! I pitied thee,

      Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour

      One thing or other: when thou didst not, savage,

      Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like

      A thing most brutish, I endowed thy purposes

      With words that made them known. But thy vile race,

      Though thou didst learn, had that in't which good natures

      Could not abide to be with; therefore wast thou

      Deservedly confined into this rock, who hast

      Deserved more than a prison.

 

Caliban. 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!

 

The Sparks Notes on Caliban may help readers quickly grasp his complex role in the play but they seem to do him an injustice, too, by calling him, along with the Europeans in the play, “a sensitive monster who allows himself to be transformed into a fool.”  While this is in some sense true, if it’s so easy to brush off Caliban’s vulnerabilities, and the people in the play who have clearly exploited them, then who is really inhumane?  Who is the real monster?  If Caliban is a “sensitive monster” well then so are we; if he’s a “fool,” then so are we.  Caliban is us and we are him.  In an us and them world that may be hard for some people to see, but there are others who clearly see what Shakespeare had the instinct and the insight to vividly imagine.

 

PROSPERO’S PASSAGES?

Prospero is the play’s central character, but our response to him is anything but simple.  We relate to him on many levels—as the former Duke of Milan, as Miranda’s strict, protective father, as a knowledgeable but sometimes frightening “magician,” as a powerful overlord with spirits who “serve” him, as vengeful revenge-seeker capable of inflicting mental and physical torture.  In his overbearing manner, we see the makings of a tyrant, but in his gentle affection for Ariel and Miranda, we see his tender side, too.  Most of all, we observe the dynamic aspect of Prospero’s character as we watch him change during the course of the play.  What causes this change?  Why does he give up his revenge fantasy?

 

The Sparks Notes, once again, provide an excellent quick summary of Prospero’s character.  Especially helpful is the observation that Prospero quite appears to us as the consummate theater director and stage manager; the well timed events of this play seem to flow according to his command, or his inspiration.  All readers may not agree, however, as these notes seem to imply, that Prospero has benign intentions from the beginning, that he has a “grand design to achieve the play’s happy ending.”  My own interpretation is that Prospero’s plan is originally a lot more sinister and vengeful, that he is moody and provoked by the nearness of his arch enemies, tormented by the memory of their treachery and that only by following his muse, Ariel (who might also be his conscience), is a qualified happy ending achieved. 

 

Prospero’s “passages” are really on every page of the play.  Each time we see and hear him, he’s revealing another facet of his complex personality.  What do you think are the most significant passages that give you insight into his conflicts and their ultimate resolution?

 READING SLOWLY:

 ACT I Reveals Character

The Tempest: Prospero, Miranda and Ariel, 1976 by Rosemarie Beck

 

Scene 1

The play opens in the middle of a loud, tumultuous tempest, the crisis of a ship being “wrecked” and the tumult of the crew and passengers believing they’ll soon drown.

• Boatswain is a minor but memorable character who shows that status doesn’t make the man.  He’s “below” the nobles but much more able and sensible.   All they can do is be useless and curse him for no reason.  Their curses are perhaps parallel with Caliban’s later; there are other parallels between Caliban and the Antonio/Sebastian alliance, but this is a first one. 
• Gonzalo is established as more sensible than the others; shows great faith in the Boatswain’s abilities; laconic observation about him hanging for insolence rather than drowning.

 

Scene 2

Static compared to the action of the previous scene—quite a contrast that would have been visceral in the theater.  After the tumult of the ship, we are in the quiet presence of Prospero as he tells Miranda of their past.  They both reveal important aspects of their character.

 

• Miranda’s character
• As sweet and compassionate, very empathetic (see her opening speech I.ii:1-13)
• As intelligent, able to catch on fast to what Prospero is explaining to her despite her lack of experience in Milan. 
• Won’t blame her grandmother for her uncle’s villainy: “Good wombs have borne bad sons”
• Her humility—she thought she was trouble to her father in their exile, but Prospero assures her that it was only her child’s resilience that saved him, gave him guts
• Has a “beating mind”—she throbs with intelligence and curiosity; Shakespeare  almost never writes about dumb or stereotypical women

 

• Prospero’s character
• As a powerful magician—he raised the tempest but it’s all a “show” and no harm is really done.  This is just like in a play, where great actions take place in the safety of the theater and though great emotions are aroused—including the fine emotion of compassion in Miranda—there’s “no harm done” (I.ii:15 and 23-33).  This is a deep theme in this play—the way art can be a “safe” and vivid experience. 
• As stage manager: “The hour’s now come;/ The very minute bids thee ope thine ear” – Prospero as stage manager has the timing down impeccably.  Also, in his repeated reminders that Miranda must listen carefully to all of this exposition!  Interrupts himself several times to make sure she’s listening
• As a former Duke/failed politician—his head was in his books all the time and he neglected his duke duties, giving them over to his corrupt brother. (lines 89-92).  He wasn’t paying proper attention.  Before he knew it, the “role” he gave his brother to “play” became the reality.  In Milan, apparently, he wasn’t as successful a “writer/director/stage manager” as he is on this island.

 

• Gonzalo’s character (mentioned, also, we see him in scene i)
• As the good man who made sure Prospero had his books and some necessary provisions in the boat they were sent out on

 

• Ariel’s character
• Prospero calls him a “servant” and that is what his role is; yet he’s a servant who will soon earn his freedom, which he is eagerly awaiting
• It’s Ariel who performs the supernatural tasks at Prospero’s request, and he performs them willingly.
• He is a spirit who can take the form of many elements (mainly fire and light)
• Wants his freedom; challenges Prospero

 

• Caliban’s character
• As an “abhorred slave” (in Miranda’s words), since she feels he paid back her “kindness” (efforts to school him) with violence
• Caliban is immediately a character to be reckoned with in evidence in his first lines in the play to Prospero and then to Miranda.  (p. 45-46).  He speaks surprisingly eloquently but feels his “education” is of no value; it’s taught him how to curse, that’s all.  It’s enough of an education to let him know he’ll never be an equal.  His complaint is that his home was stolen from him.
• When Caliban protests “serving” (which parallels Ariel’s protest) Prospero immediately resorts to physical threats to control Caliban; he feels justified in it all the way, not as an act.  Caliban must respect his power, his “art.”

 

• Ferdinand’s character
• Drawn to Miranda by Ariel’s spell and song, which is about his “drowned father” who is metamorphosed as a beautiful, strange and rich sea creature “full fathoms five”
• No false modesty, calls himself the “best of those that speak this language” (i.e., highest ranking)
• Falls in love with Miranda instantly, offers her to be his queen

 

Also of note in this scene:

• Miranda asks: how did we come ashore, and Prospero tells her it was “divine providence,” echoing the language of pilgrims to the New World.  We’re here on this island because we were meant to be here; God has provided this for us.
• Because of their misfortune, Miranda has the benefit of being homeschooled by Prospero himself, which seems to be a great advantage to her.
• Prospero must act now, right now, because if he doesn’t the wheel of fortune is sure to spin down—it’s at its height bringing all of these enemies within his grasp—the time motif might be related, too, to that sense of timing needed on the stage is at work on this island-stage
• “brave”—Ariel is a “brave spirit” – this adjective is repeated often throughout the play in many different contexts; it becomes a single word “motif”
• Prospero’s purpose in raising the storm is revenge; his first questions to Ariel have to do with making sure that his victims have suffered mentally (their “reason” infected) but not physically—he wants them unharmed.  Is it because they must be safe, no harm done, like in a play, or because he wants to bring them in closer where he can take revenge on them in person?  What are his intentions, do you think?
• Prospero gets angry at Ariel and takes him to task for asking for freedom too early.  He makes it clear Ariel must serve him in his plan—but his arguments are mainly those of moral, not physical force.  But he has to keep making the same argument over and over, it seems, of the service he’s done for Ariel and that Ariel still owes him gratitude, and the debt of servitude.  He chides Ariel for making him feel like a slave master, when Prospero feels he should be grateful and willing to pay his debt.  Prospero ends his tirade with a physical threat, to back up his moral one.  But he has clearly already made his case, and his meanness is perfunctory, an ACT (Prospero shows he can act, too). 
• Prospero’s comic description of the “brave” form of the human being: “it eats, sleeps and has five senses”
• We learn in this scene that Prospero is plotting the love between Miranda and Ferdinand
• Prospero sees that Miranda and Ferdinand fall in love instantly but wants to make it harder for them. Why?  Will trials make their love stronger?  He wants them to prove it.  They are only attracted to each others’ looks, but they need to get to know each other more, respect each other’s virtues.
• Prospero make Ferdinand his “slave” too—he’s imprisoned by love
• Miranda sides with Ferdinand rather than her father, which makes Prospero furious with her!  “Silence!  One word more/ Shall make me chide thee, if not hate thee.  What,/ An advocate for an imposter?  Hush!” He then proceeds to take Ferdinand as his prisoner, and Ferdinand is happy to be taken as long as it means he can continue to see Miranda.
• Miranda, however, assures Ferdinand that her father is probably just acting! She’s knows him well.  “Be of comfort,” she tells him, because “my father’s of a better nature, sir, than he appears by speech.”