Power and prestige are driving factors for many people's actions. This offers a person a certain control of people that can be valuable and beneficial to all, but also can be abused. Prospero is evidently an individual who enjoys being in control. This is easily seen through two simple examples. First, he controls his daughter's marriage to Ferdinand, providing hoops for Ferdinand to jump through. He is attempting to make his daughter hard to get as he wants to make sure Ferdinand really loves her. He notices how Ferdinand and Miranda fall in love at first sight and he wants to make sure that they truly understand their feelings for each other and test whether those feelings can endure. He is acting as many fathers of teenage daughters act, being controlling of their daughter as they feel apprehensive about any relationship they are in while masking their happiness and proudness. I think Prospero walks this tight rope with his daughter Miranda and it demonstrates his enjoyment of control.
The second example that displays Prospero's hankering for control is his situation with Caliban. Caliban is hell bent on revenge against Propsero as Prospero has controlled him his whole life. Caliban is heading to Prospero's lair to kill him, but Prospero is unnerved. He comments to his spirit servant Ariel, "A devil, a born devil on whose nature nurture can never stick, on whom my pains, humanely taken, all, all lost, quite lost. And as with age his body uglier grows, so his mind cankers. I will plague them all, even to roaring" (74). Here, Prospero condemns Caliban further saying that he will stop his advances with ease and Caliban will be left to suffer with his ugly self. When Caliban arrives, Prospero and Ariel unleash a band of hunting spirits that drive Caliban and his posse out of the cave leaving Prospero in control where he enjoys being.
Ryan, I agree that Prospero is a controlling person. I think that this is because he first expected to become king before he was casted away. He gets to the island and befriends Sycorax and later enslaves Caliban and Ariel. His controlling nature shows his determination to stay in power. I think in his mind, controlling others is a way to be dominate over others and keep a ruling mentality.
ReplyDeleteA desire to rule and control is very common amongst the men in "The Tempest." Caliban plans to kill and overthrow Prospero, who he believes stole his island from him. Before Prospero ended up on the island, Antonio ousted him from being Duke of Milan and now, Sebastion plots to kill his brother in order to be king. As the play was written during the beginnings of colonialism, its influence is pervasive throughout the work. Prospero basically enslaves and oppresses Ariel and Caliban, and lives on an island ripe for exploration.
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