How Does Shakespeare Have A Magical Power

     In Shakespeare's The Tempest, Prospero's magic is the means that Prospero teaches his lessons to the plays various characters. Whether or not those lessons were learned or not is irrelevant. The main issue is that Prospero's character is indeed a complex one, and one that deserves much attention. Two essays that look at the complexity of Prospero and his magic are Stephen Miko's "Tempest," and Barbara Mowat's "Prospero, Agrippa, and Hocus Pocus." Both of these essays, in dealing with Prospero and his magic reveal things about Prospero that only enhance the mystery of his character.

One of the many timeless plays by William Shakespeare is Macbeth, a tragedy written in 1606, shortly after the attempted treasonous assassination of James 1, the current King of England at the time. James 1 was disliked due to his strive to unite England, and the place in which Shakespeare’s work took place, Scotland. Enkindled by these recent events, Macbeth, the protagonist, experiences power struggles in his relationships with other characters, which prove to be crucial to the outcome of the play. It is his relationships with Banquo, a fellow soldier; the Apparitions produced by the Witches, and Macduff, the Thane of Fife, that most significantly portray his internal strife.

    In William Shakespeare's The Tempest, Prospero lives with his daughter Miranda on a deserted island.  On the surface, he appears to be a benevolent leader doing his best to protect and care for the inhabitants of the island, especially for Miranda.  On closer inspection, however, Prospero plays God, controlling and creating each individual to fit the mold he desires.  He takes advantage of his authority over the people and situations he encounters while wearing a facade of integrity and compassion to disguise his wily intentions and to retain love and respect.

Prospero orchestrates the events of the play with ease, his magic giving him the power to manipulate the characters and environment around him. This almost omniscient power that is presented pushes the audience to question what is

Magical powers play a tremendous role in supporting Prospero’s ambitions. Once again, Prospero abuses his magical powers and imbalances the natural elements. The opening scene of Act I begins with a tempest. In this scene, Shakespeare demonstrates that abusing elements, such as water, only creates trouble. When Miranda first speaks to Prospero about the ship wreck, she says “If by your art…you have/Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them/The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch,” (1.2.1-3). This creates

After breaking his staff and throwing his books into the sea, Prospero is left with little to no power of his own. It is in his last speech in the play, in the epilogue, that he realizes that his magic is nothing without outside help. He no longer has the outside power of his books and staffs to make his magic work so he is weak and vulnerable. Prospero realizes he will never get off

Macbeth by William Shakespeare is about the hidden power that the three witches had over Macbeth as he is ultimately subject to their influence, not that of Lady Macbeth. The weird sisters were the foreshadowers and initiators of the play, Macbeth takes the final action in determining what he wants and Lady Macbeth is just the influencer at times. The witches have foreseen all of the important moments in the play, which relate to Macbeth’s life. If Macbeth never met the witches, he may have not been so tempted to become king and leave a trail of woe and regret throughout the play. All five characters have different parts in which they show their traits, feelings or even values, which show their importance in the play; however Macbeth and Lady

William Shakespeare lived and wrote over 400 years ago, but his wonderful plays continue to entertain and influence the audiences of the Twenty-First Century. Despite the outdated content and language of his works, Shakespeare’s plays remain popular with modern readers and play watchers for another reason. In all of his works, including William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, he uses countless literary devices and techniques to affect the mood of the audience and enhance their enjoyment. He utilizes puns and juxtaposition to create a comical or light hearted mood. He also uses dramatic irony and oxymorons for a dramatic or serious mood. Although Shakespeare’s work does not include modern language or modern situations, the literary devices that he uses work to keep an audience of any time feeling involved

Power is a dangerous game for he who wields it and those whom he or she wields power over. William Shakespeare’s Macbeth displays characters, as in Macbeth and Macduff, using power selfishly and selflessly. Macbeth uses power selfishly to obtain the crown while Macduff uses power selflessly to protect the people.

In Hamlet he is a ‘slave to fate,’ and feels like he’s lost control of the situation. Hamlet often wonders what his place is, and whether it would be better to die than to try to fight fate. Prospero on the other hand is very much in control of his destiny. Throughout The Tempest Prospero remains the puppet master- controlling all the people stranded on the island despite their various plots and schemes. Ironically, Prospero’s control is through trickery- it is the spirit Ariel that he manipulates everything. Perhaps Shakespeare is saying you can’t truly control your fate, but you can make it look like you do. Either way, Prospero’s air of control is a direct foil to Hamlet’s helpless

During the reign of James VI, Reginald Scot wrote a book detailing his opinions on the witch hunting craze. The book was ironically titled The Discoverie of Magic despite what the content of the book. In his book, Scot explains how unrealistic he believes witches are. His whole book explains why he did not believe in the existence of witches. One quote from his book states his key argument: “If witches could do any such miraculous things, as these and other which are imputed to them, they might do them again and again, at any time or place, or at any man's desire: for the devil is as strong at one time as at another, as busy by day as by night, and ready enough to do all mischief, and careth not whom he abuseth” (Scot). Scot found it very strange

A widely renowned and well known inspiration for The Tempest's Prospero was magus and conjurer, Dr John Dee. Dr Dee was known for his ability to talk to spirits and was somewhat of a celebrity during the 1600’s. Elizabeth I was extremely fascinated by Dr Dee and magic in general, which is why Shakespeare includes magic in the majority of his plays. Dr Dee as previously mentioned was a huge influence on Shakespeare’s Prospero and much like Dr Dee, Prospero uses magic to fascinate,fear and gain control. It was believed by many that magic was the key to power and Shakespeare shows this in the play as we know Prospero took over the island.

     Many believe that Shakespeare, personified his character into Prospero, because Prospero ultimately created the entire plot of the play with his magic, which he obtained shortly after being marooned on the island. Because The

Altogether, Prospero gave up his position as Duke of Milan because he chose to study black magic instead of taking care of his responsibilities to his people. The quest of knowledge of the black magic made Prospero become so studious that it seems that he completely forgot about his kingdom. In Act 1, Scene 2 Prospero acknowledged that he was caught up in his occult books, and as a result, he let his control of the government slip into Antonio’s hands. Prospero allowed his brother to help him run the government so he could get more involved in the occult. Antonio, Prospero’s brother, was able to take advantage of the situation by dethroning Prospero and becoming the new Duke of Milan. Antonio also decided that he would send Prospero and his daughter, Miranda, to live on an island. Magic had already become a major part of Prospero’s life, and being exiled to the island only helped him pursue it more. On the island, there was a witch, Sycorax, that ruled over it, and when Prospero defeated her, he gained the service of Ariel and Caliban.

Despite the contemporary Jacobean audience's consciousness of ‘all magic is evil’,Prospero is not shown to be evil during the play- Prospero does not kill anyone on the boat and arguably this could be Shakespeare's way of questioning, is all magic really evil? Infact it could be argued that Shakespeare did not fear magic himself and only showed black magic in his plays in order to please the audience. The contemporary audience became much easier to please when he moved to the indoor theatre where he used dramatic methods to show (in The Tempest) Prospero's magic ability. In Macbeth, Shakespeare shows Lady Macbeth using black magic;