Prospero in The Tempest by William Shakespeare - Book Report/Review Example

Prospero in William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” is, most probably, the last play he wrote entirely alone and has often been referred to as “Shakespeare’s Play” in that the character of Prospero seems to be orchestrating the actions upon the island in the same creative, artful way in which Shakespeare himself must have conducted the actors and the scenes upon the stage (Frye, 1370). Within the action of the play, one learns that Prospero was once the Duke of Milan, but was overthrown by his own brother, Antonio, who had conspired with the King of Naples, Alonso, to seize all power of the Dukedom. With the help of some friends, Prospero was able to escape with his life and the life of his infant daughter in a small boat that was also provisioned with some food, fresh water, clothing and Prospero’s treasured books, which gave him the power he now wields over the elemental spirit Ariel and others. The two landed peacefully enough on the nearly uninhabited island, finding there only the abandoned son of Sycorax, a man called Caliban, and the imprisoned character of Ariel who has been trapped within the split trunk of a pine tree for the past twelve years after refusing to do the deeds requested of him by the evil witch. It was the freeing of Ariel that gave Prospero the ability to command the elemental and therefore to achieve all that has been achieved in the twelve years since he landed on that island. The action of the play, however, doesn’t start until Prospero’s daughter, the lovely Miranda, is of an age to be married and chance brings Prospero’s enemies, in the form of Alonso and Antonio, within reach of Prospero’s island domain. Although this action is started as a result of Prospero’s desire to exact revenge upon his brother and Alonso for exiling him for these several years, the play examines the nature of justice as it pertains to human nature as well as the relationships that form between master and slave based on the same human nature, eventually seeming to make the statement that justice, like many other things, is in the eye of the beholder. Within the first act, it is possible to deduce that many of Prospero’s actions at this point are turned toward revenge against his usurping brother and the king that helped him. Although it was he that commanded the tempest be brought to sink the ship that Antonio and the King travel aboard, we know Prospero is not evil because he also commands that no harm should befall anyone as a result, not even the brother he wishes to punish. His feelings toward his brother are openly expressed as he tells Miranda of their shared history: “that a brother should / Be so perfidious” (I, ii, 67-68) and “Thy false uncle” (76) are among the phrases he uses to describe this brother. Yet whether his brother deserves such evil description is something to be thought on. Prospero himself admits that he turned much of his Dukedom over to the management of Antonio willingly: “Me (poor man) my library / Was dukedom large enough” (I, ii, 109-10). In exacting revenge, Prospero seems content to merely re-establish his position as Duke and return to society, forgiving his brother without being asked it and without apology from the same: “For you, most wicked sir, whom to call brother / Would even infect my mouth, I do forgive / Thy rankest fault – all of them; and require / My dukedom of thee, which perforce I know / Thou must restore” (V, i, 130-134). Antonio’s lines following this statement are confined to comments upon the fools Stephano, Trinculo and Caliban much later in the play indicating that revenge has indeed been achieved. This idea of justice within the play seems to rebound on Prospero, though, by the end, as can be seen in the roles of master and servant played throughout the island and in the final scenes of Miranda and Prospero’s Epilogue. As the play opens, we see Caliban as an unwilling servant to Prospero, kept in line through threats and cruel treatment and we see Ariel also as a servant to Prospero, though in a much kinder aspect. “Ariel is loyal because of his debt of gratitude to Prospero, and because he is a very high-class spirit … But even he has a short memory, and has to be periodically reminded what his debt of gratitude is” (Frye, 1370) while Caliban is loyal because if he is not, “thou shalt have cramps / Side-stitches that shall pen they breath up; urchins / Shall, for that vast of night that they may work / All exercise on thee; thou shalt be pinched / As thick as honeycomb, each pinch more stinging / Than bees that made ‘em” (I, ii, 325-30). Yet both of these strive for freedom – Caliban for the kingdom of the island he had once before Prospero came and Ariel for the freedom inherent to the elementals that was stolen from him by Sycorax. Elsewhere in the play, we see where servants are beginning to question the right of their masters to rule. The boatswain has little respect for the nobles aboard his ship and Gonzalo imagines a world free of any kind of mastery: “I’ th’ commonwealth I would by contraries / Execute all things; for no kind of traffic / Would I admit; no name of magistrate … No occupation; all men idle, all; / And women too, but innocent and pure; / No sovereignty” (II, i, 143-45, 150-52). In working to bring Antonio and Alonso to a sense of what he perceives as just treatment, Prospero begins to realize that he must also face justice as he learns of the plots against him by his own servants undertaken in their own name of justice and watches his daughter become lost to him in favor of Ferdinand. Even though he himself set the wheels in motion in both cases, it is nevertheless eye-opening to him to observe that these events were so easily attained, perhaps helping him to see things from another’s perspective for the first time. Watching others come to grips with their own inherent failures – Alonso with the idea that he has brought destruction upon himself when he still believes Ferdinand drowned and Caliban in realizing he was willing to follow a drunken fool – Prospero is able to accept how he brought about the events that landed him on an island for twelve years. “Prospero himself, while symbolizing enlightened civilization, nevertheless (at least in the early part of the play) shows a remarkable lack of self-knowledge which is evident in his lack of consciousness of the part his negligence played in the usurpation of Antonio” (Lian, 1996). This leads finally to his Epilogue in which he begs for the forgiveness of his audience even as he has forgiven those he whom he perceived as having wronged him. Thus, Prospero comes full circle within the play, demonstrating that justice is always in the eye of the beholder. While he felt justified in bringing his usurping brother to ruin, he was also forced to admit his own neglect in ruling his dukedom, preferring instead to secrete himself in his library and study his books. If he wished to rule, he must leave some of that art behind and take part in the business of ruling, which his brother felt justified in taking as he was the one performing all the management of the realm. Similarly, Prospero was forced to admit that one person cannot rule the mind and heart of another as was demonstrated to him by his own daughter, who had been raised and tutored only by him upon the island, but who was blissfully happy to marry Ferdinand in the end, causing him to lose her as well. In the light of this revelation, Prospero forgives all his enemies, whether or no they would ask it of him, and frees all his slaves before requesting of his audience: “As you from crimes would pardoned be, / Let your indulgence set me free” (Epi, 19-20). References Frye, Northrop. “Introduction to ‘The Tempest’.” The Complete Pelican Shakespeare. Ed. Alfred Harbage. New York: Penguin Books, 1969. 1369-1372. Lian, Yeo Siew. “The Tempest – Ideas vs. Dramatic Principle.” 1996. Prospero’s Isle. February 1, 2006 . Shakespeare, William. “The Tempest.” The Complete Pelican Shakespeare. Ed. Alfred Harbage. New York: Penguin Books, 1969. 1373-1395. Read More