In Defense of Miranda

I’ve read The Tempest before and it’s actually one of my favorite Shakespeare plays. The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream are the only plays by Shakespeare I really enjoy, in fact. I don’t know if it’s because of the magical element or if that is just a coincidence, but it’s probably something to think about. Prospero is kind of a jerk and is definitely full of himself, but for a powerful magic user, he sure lets his spirit, Ariel, do most of the work. Honestly, I find him a little bit boring, and Miranda is a much more interesting character (I’ll admit, I’m usually drawn to the women in Shakespeare’s plays, simply because their characters are so far in the background most of the time that I think it’s interesting to figure out what they are thinking when their male companions act like idiots).

It’s strange that not many people seem to want to analyze Miranda. They focus on Prospero, Ferdinand, and even Caliban, but few critics seem to want to look at Miranda at all. I guess it’s because she seems to fit the role Prospero intends for her. She is a dutiful, innocent daughter who falls in love with the first man she sees who isn’t her father or his slave, just as Prospero intends. I think it’s interesting, though, that Prospero uses his books to educate Miranda. She may be under her father’s control, like everyone else, but she has some level of education, as well. Prospero does not allow her to read his magic books, apparently, but she has to know what they are and what he does. It makes me wonder if, when everyone returns to civilization, Miranda will become like her father, absorbing herself in occult knowledge, and become just as powerful as he is.

 Despite Miranda’s position as being under her father’s control, and therefore under the control of male authority, she does speak against him several times, in Act I, scene ii, when she begs her father to stop the tempest, and again in the same scene, beginning around line 467, when Prospero freezes Ferdinand and she begs him to be nicer to him. Miranda may be young and naïve, but based on her ability to protest some of her father’s actions, I don’t believe it’s fair to say that she has no will of her own. Especially considering she lived her entire life on an island, with her only exposure to other people being her father and Caliban, her naivety and devotion to her father, and even the haste with which she falls in love and marries Ferdinand, is understandable.  I believe that with more life experience, and after meeting many new people, Miranda could possibly become a stronger, more independent woman. 

Even if she does not, that does not make her an inherently bad character or a reason for scorn. Miranda’s good traits are plentiful, despite living on a mostly uninhabited island and only having two men who are, basically, complete jerks for company. She is compassionate and loving, two words that would not describe either Prospero or Caliban, and while they are considered feminine traits, neither is bad in any way. Her calm demeanor and gentle innocence are also what calm Prospero’s rage, it seems. Prospero genuinely cares about his daughter and while he has his plan in mind before she protests what she believes is his murder of everyone on the ship, perhaps without her influence, his rage may have been so great that he would have simply killed everyone instead. 

Essentially, Miranda is a much more important character than she may seem to be at first, both in the role she plays as Prospero’s pawn and in her overall character. She may seem to be passive, but in a way, her passivity is exactly what her character, and the other characters, need, and is something that she shows hints of outgrowing even early in the play.

(Week 2 of 5)

Prospero's Magical Epiphany

I am not very happy with the way The Tempest ended. I applaud Prospero for forgiving his brother and realizing that he needs to stop using magic. However, I felt like the whole play was leading up to this big plan Prospero had and bam! We get forgiveness instead of a giant magical vengeance.

In act four, Prospero says, "at this hour/lies at my mercy all mine enemies" (291-2). Is it just me or does that not sound like he is going to exact revenge on Alonso and Antonio and everyone with them? Granted, he uses the term "mercy", but I view it more like, "yeah, I could save you if I want to, but nah, I'm good" rather than, "I'm going to forgive you because that's what you deserve." Prospero just seemed so intent on using his magical powers again his brother, which he did, but not to the level I expected him to.

In the last act, it's like he has this epiphany and decides to forgive everyone instead of acting on his first intentions. In the last act, he says, "though with their high wrongs I am struck to th'/quick,/Yet with my nobler reason 'gainst my fury/Do I take part. The rarer action is/In virtue than in vengeance" (32-6). I appreciate that Prospero grows as a person and is able to understand that holding grudges and acting on those grudges does not solve anything, but couldn't he do that AFTER he exacted his major plan? Perhaps it is the dark side of me that wanted a little more magic from good ole Prospero. But at least he got his Dukedom back, right?

Prospero the Magician?

Prospero probably wouldn’t be winning any father-of-the-year awards or any sorcerer or duke awards for that matter either. In the first act, we see that Prospero seems to be obsessed with magic and fascinated with learning about it. He’s also so obsessed with his books that they took him away from his duties as Duke of Milan. And thanks to Gonzalo, a friend of Prospero’s, provided Prospero with books when he was exiled by Antonio. Prospero tells Miranda, “Knowing I loved my books, he furnished me/From mine own library with volumes that I prize above my dukedom” (The Tempest 1.2.198-200). His love of books is further shown when he talks about his younger brother practically running the dukedom while for “Me, poor man, my library/Was dukedom large enough” (1.2.130-31). Love makes some people blind and we can see that Prospero’s love for books probably limited his awareness to what was going on around him until he was exiled to an island. And on this island there was probably nothing better to do than practice magic, especially with the help of the magical Ariel.

            Ariel seems to be the vehicle through which Prospero can perform his magic. He is constantly sending Ariel off to do his bidding with magic. Whether Prospero is capable of performing magic or not, evidence seems to point to the latter. In the first act, Prospero tells Ariel to “Lend thy hand/And pluck my magic garment from me” (1.2.28-9). This implies that it is the cloak that is also providing magic to Prospero. However, it could also simply be a way to signal to the audience that Prospero is in his “magical mode.”

            Prospero also seems to have this commanding quality that actually belittles the people is bossing around. He calls Miranda “wench” (1.2.167) and I don’t know if it’s just me, but it doesn’t seem right for a father to call his daughter a wench. He also does a little of this with Ariel, whom he considers to be his servant that only lives to answer his magical beck and call. He also holds the matter of Ariel’s freedom over him – he promises that if Ariel completes a specific task, he will free him. The problem? He does this several times to Ariel. And another victim that I feel especially sympathetic for is Caliban. Caliban looks different and everyone believes him to be a monster because he is the son of the witch Sycorax. In Acts Two and Three we see Caliban petitioning Stephano and Trinculo that he will serve them if they kill Prospero. But the thing is, Stephano and Trinculo treat him no better than Prospero. They ignore him and make fun of him.

            One time in the past year, I happened to see part of the 2010 movie adaptation of The Tempest. I was confused because it was just Helen Mirren and her daughter on the island. I then figured out that Mirren’s character was changed to be Prospera just to make a powerful female character. They speak in the Shakespearean language but some of them have strange costumes. The parts that I saw showed an interesting portrayal of this play and maybe after we finish this book, I might try to watch the movie.

 

                                                                  <en.wikipedia.org>

 

                                                          <www.anders-fischer.net> 

 

Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. New York: Simon & Shuster Paperbacks. 1994. Print.

Prospero's Power

In class, we discussed whether or not Prospero has magical powers, and if those powers are strong or weak. I think, on some level, Prospero has magical powers (obviously), but I also think they are stronger than Shakespeare makes them seem.

Ariel clearly has magical powers: he creates the storm that causes everyone to come to the island, he can wake people up when Prospero puts them to sleep, and he can turn into Harpy and give a stunning speech to some fellas who stare at him dumbfounded.

Prospero clearly has magical powers: he freed Ariel from the tree, he can make people fall asleep, and he can freeze people in any position they are in.

But whose magical powers are more considerable?
I think since Ariel is so afraid of Prospero, and so unwilling to free himself from Prospero, his powers are not as strong as those of his master. If Ariel had stronger powers than Prospero, I feel like he would use them to leave Prospero. Instead, Prospero uses his power over Ariel to enslave him and makes him do pretty much all of his dirty work. Ariel is so afraid of him that he does not even attempt to free himself.
Perhaps as the play goes on, Prospero's powers will become more explicit and we can learn if he is indeed as powerful as he views himself to be.

Prospero the magician or hypnotist

         I really enjoyed reading the first act in The Tempest by Shakespeare. This book has so many broad statements that it is easy to draw different assumptions than other people. The class was torn between Prospero having magical powers. The class could not even decide if Prospero's "magical powers" were strong or weak. This is why I love reading plays from Shakespeare; every person interprets the reading differently yet we are all reading the same play. 

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         Prospero must have some type of powers, or else how could have he freed Ariel from the tree (33). Though I do not understand why he would not just use his powers to take him home. Why did Prospero not use his powers to stop his brother from exiling him? Also, it is hard to believe Prospero freed Ariel from the tree and none reproductions happened to Prospero. A witch locked Ariel in the tree, why would the witch not set a trap? I was really hoping something more would happen or we would learn more about the witch. Putting Miranda asleep could have required magic but hypnotist do not use magic to put people to sleep (25). I do not think Prospero used magic to put Miranda to sleep, I think he used the same tactics that hypnotist use to put people to sleep.

         Maybe Prospero does not have magical powers. Ariel could just be a figment of his imagination. We are not even positively sure that Miranda was asleep. Miranda could have just zoned out while Prospero lagged on about his life. 

blog post #5

Is the Paint Dry Yet?

After reading the first two acts of The Tempest, I feel as though I need to watch paint dry for a while. It was a lot to take in, and there are so many characters. So. Many. I had to keep flipping to the beginning of the play to keep them all straight.

I kind of hate everyone in this play. A lot.
People I like: Ariel (can he be considered a person? Is he a he or a she?), Gonzalo (or maybe I feel bad for him), Trinculo and Stephano, and Caliban (once again, I could just feel bad for him).
People I dislike: Prospero (jerk much?), Miranda and Ferdinand (love at first? really?), Antonio and Sebastian (what did Alonso ever do to them?).

The way Prospero treats Ariel really bothers me. I know that Ariel is a spirit and is bound to Prospero because he set him free, but does he really have to be so mean to him? He does whatever Prospero wants him to, so I feel like Prospero should probably treat him a little better. Hence, my dislike of Prospero and my keenness for Ariel. Prospero's treatment of Caliban also fuels my disdain for him. Prospero treats Caliban so poorly even though he does so much for him. I am happy he decided to join Stephano and Trinculo...even though they are both kind of insane (in a good way, maybe?).

I also really hate the way Antonio and Sebastian treat Gonzalo. I know Gonzalo is not the brightest in the play, but I'm kind of endeared by him. My favorite line of his is, "Who in this kind of merry fooling am/nothing to you. So you may continue, and laugh at/nothing still" (2.1.194-6). That reasoning sounds perfect to me; Sebastian and Antonio think nothing of Gonzalo, but he accepts that and doesn't let it bother him. I adore Gonzalo for that.

Miranda and Ferdinand are stupid. That may be a very elementary thing to say, but they are. I think since the whole "love at first sight" thing is so fairytale-ish and not very realistic, I find them to be very annoying. Ferdinand is the third male Miranda has seen, so he must be her soul mate, right? The third time is a charm.

shakespearememes.tumblr.com

 

Hopefully as the play goes on, I will no longer want to watch paint dry and I will like more of the characters. We shall see!