Prospero Is Human Essay

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

He appears in the story because he was the one who started the party and owned the castle. He is rich because he is the Prince and can do whatever he wants. The narrator says, “But the Prince Prospero was happy and dauntless and sagacious” (Poe 1). The quote connects to the theme because it talks about how happy he was and his name means “prosperous”. It shows that even though he is rich and has lots of power, the chances of him dying are the same as a poor person because nobody can escape death.

Originally, he was a fair duke that showed love to everyone he met; however, his love of magic gets him exiled by his own brother. Once on the island of his banishment, Prospero develops monstrous characteristics of greed and domination. He imposes his beliefs upon initial inhabitants by teaching them his own language so that they could communicate with him (Tempest. I.ii.352-364). Prosper felt he had the superior form of communication and higher level of intellect, so the previous occupants should have to learn his language. He also forced his self-proclaimed authority on this creature who was the birth-right land-owner. This creature, Caliban, is upset and claims, “This island’s mine by Sycorax my mother, / Which thou tak’st from me” (Tempest. I.ii.331-332). Just as Prospero’s kingdom was taken from himself, he retaliated by taking Caliban’s kingdom from him. To do this, Prospero enslaved Caliban as well as another he finds on the island through use of his magic and forces them to do his menial tasks. It is through his exploiting and dominating actions that Prospero is seen as a monster. He cultivated his supremacy over everyone to a malicious extent that he was a malevolent monster disguised as a

    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.

The nucleus of the plot in Shakespeare's The Tempest revolves around Prospero enacting his revenge on various characters who have wronged him in different ways. Interestingly enough, he uses the spirit of Ariel to deliver the punishments while Prospero delegates the action. Prospero is such a character that can concoct methods of revenge but hesitates to have direct involvement with disillusioning his foes. In essence, Prospero sends Ariel to do his dirty work while hiding his involvement in shipwrecking his brother, Antonio, from his daughter, Miranda.

Prospero, once the Duke of Milan, seeks revenge for the usurpation of his throne by his brother. In Act One Scene Two, we see Prospero admit he creates a storm in order to shipwreck his enemies' vessels. Prospero's means through which he seeks justice for himself involve conniving, manipulating

Prospero's intent throughout the course of The Tempest is neither to revenge himself upon his enemies, nor to reconcile himself with his estranged brother. It is, rather, to orchestrate the reclamation of his lost duchy, Milan, through both his magic and a shrewd manipulation of both the shipwrecked party and the islanders (Caliban and Miranda).

In the same fashion, Prospero had also been told by society that the only way he could live a good and prosperous life was to get his dukedom back. Without this fancy title, society convinced Prospero that he was unimportant. Prospero had the whole island to himself, a slave, a magical spirit, and his daughter, but yet, society tells Prospero that this was not enough. During the play Prospero said, “Now my charms are all o'erthrown, And what strength I have’s mine own, Which is most faint” (Act 4 Scene 1 lines 320-322). This quote shows the incredible heights Prospero went to in order to get his

Specifically, Prospero uses his love for Miranda to hide under the shroud of patriarchy. “The Tempest” opens with a storm in the first act and by scene two, the reader learns that it is Prospero who has commissioned the storm. First, one must examine why Prospero summoned the storm. When Miranda presses her father as to why the people in the ship are in the tempest, he says that “I have done nothing but in care of thee” (Act 1, Scene 2). In some aspects, Prospero is acting against patriarchal ideals because he summons the storm. Directly after Prospero declares the tempest in the name of Miranda, he debases himself. Prospero draws attention to his fall from grace and says "your humble father who lives in a poor little shack" (Act 1, Scene 2). Within these scenes, Prospero is reinforcing his patriarchal role. Furthermore, Prospero is constructing his salvation through Miranda's desires. The tempest has been summoned to maroon Ferdinand and Alonso and ensure Prospero's prosperity off the island. Prospero’s love for Miranda serves only towards his assimilation back into a position of

Prospero, the male lead of the Tempest, starts out as the victim of the play, but as the story goes on, it becomes apparent that he is actually the cause of all the problems and plots within the play. Prospero is important because he is the puppeteer that leads all of the characters to complete his orders. He strings all of the characters along to do his bidding, and by the end of the play, he is the only one who wins. Prospero is interesting because, without him, there would be no plot. He is the one who stirs up the Tempest and brings his usurpers to the island. Despite the original belief that Prospero is the victim of his brother’s commandeering of his throne, it becomes obvious that Prospero does not have good intentions, and is

The second that she offers is that the magic that Prospero controls only allows him control of the physical world. Since he cannot directly influence the thoughts and beliefs of others, he is limited to mostly trickery, albeit impressive trickery. He has the power to conjure spirits, control the weather and raise the dead, but for all this earthly power, he cannot change the basic tenets of men. He has to use his powers to attempt to make the characters of the play change themselves. This sometimes works, and sometimes does not. This interpretation of Prospero is in contrast with the last tenet. Prospero appears at the beginning, according to his own words, to be only interested in gains beyond the world, yet his magic is limited to only things in the world (assuming that spirits are also physical in nature, and not outside the realm of reality.) This means that he is restricted to using earthly means to attain a goal above earthly gains. He is a strangely hypocritical person here. He rejects the world in pursuit of his studies, yet he is restricted by that same earthly limitation. This adds to the dimension of his character. Perhaps he is not as simplistic as he seems. This allows him the possibility of having conflicting goals within the play, as he seems to have.

The play, The Tempest, by William Shakespeare is a very cleverly thought out piece of work. Shakespeare very deliberately inter-relates several different forms of power during the course of the play. There is political power, shown through the plethora of political characters and their schemes, while at the same time parodied by the comic characters. The power of magic and love, and its ability to reunite and absolve also plays a major role in the play. Throughout the play, Prospero, the main character, takes great advantage of his power and authority, both properly and improperly. The epiphany of this however, is realized at the end of the play.

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.

"From the moment they arrive on the island to the time of their release and pardon, they are almost continually guided, prompted, and motivated by visions that Ariel, acting for Prospero, weaves before them and by the spells he casts upon them". Prospero's motivation behind all this manipulating is to provide the group of nobles, mainly Alonso and Antonio, to become of aware of their wrongdoings, repent for stripping away his dukedom and casting him out to isolation. The first illusion that Prospero casts is planting the idea that Ferdinand has drowned during the shipwreck firmly within the mind of his father Alonso. It doesn't take much for Alonso to be thoroughly convinced that his son is head, batting away any words that offer any hope. "No, no, he's gone" At this point in the play, Alonso has not associated the drowning and loss of his son with Prospero. He believes that this is the result of marrying off his daughter Claribel to an African prince. Losing both his children and heirs to the throne, he feels as though he cannot go on "O thou mine heir/Of Naples and of Milan, what strange fish/Hath made his meal on thee?"

Prospero's vengeance against those who wronged him helps to show that people never forget the pain and may seek revenge on those who hurt them; therefore, the struggle to gain power over another person remains within. Stephano and Caliban's conspiracy to kill Prospero symbolizes the desperation for gain power can forever change a person's character. Even though people may get hurt by someone, vengeance is not the way to go because not only will it drive a person crazy and consume them through greed and hatred, but may forever change not only their life, but also who they