“Thou let’s thy fortune sleep – die, rather, winks’t whiles thou art walking.”
The imagery used in the language personifies that the human status will raise level of impatience, “fortune sleep” – also the grammar shows the relationship between die and sleep. The dash indicates a pause, engages the readers attention. It also shows Antonio changing his mind, to emphasize on the fact that the chance will be lost to kill the king. Furthermore the vocabulary shows a manipulative tone by suggesting that it is fortune’s wish that they take this opportunity “fortune” to kill the king; in addition the association of eye movement sees the opportunity. The semi-colon links the two ideas together, which accentuates that, he’s missing out on a golden opportunity.
In contrast authority is also presented as something that is accepted. Caliban is an example of this, when he comes across Trinculo and Stephano he immediately asks them to be his masters, by saying that he has given away his authority and has immediately asked to be inferior:
“I’ll show thee every fertile inch o’the’island, and I will kiss thy foot.
I prithee, be my god.”
The desperation of Caliban is immediately seen in the quote when he emphasizes that he’ll show the entire land and he will kiss their feet. The vocabulary illustrates the desperation and extreme anxiety of a needed master. In addition it also has a hyperbole, “be my god” – he over exaggerates by saying he wants Trinculo and Stephano to be his Gods. This shows that Caliban has no desire to be an authorative figure; he has accepted his position in the social hierarchy.
On the other hand, the reason for their acceptance is because they are going to be liberated, example Ariel. Ariel knows that he will once again be free by doing as his master says. We know this as Prosper once saved Ariel’s life and Ariel now has to correspond with the master to be liberated.
“Is there more toil? Since thou dost give me pains,
Let me remember thee what thou promised,
Which is not yet performed me”
As you can see, Ariel asks a rhetorical question which doesn’t need answering, as he already knows the answer to it. In addition, the vocabulary advocates that he is tired of doing errands for Prospero. Also he reminds him of his promise, which shows how desperate he is for his liberation. The punctuation has use of commas that try to persuade him by saying, “Let me remember thee..” this conveys us that he is trying to remind Prospero his promise and emphasizes his aspirations of being free, by reminding him “what thou promised.” Therefore Ariel knows in the long run his reward will come for doing various errands for the master. However, authority is based on knowledge it is the quintessential element of power.
Prospero is the ideal character with knowledge and shows this throughout The Tempest. He is the antagonist with immense amount of power various amount of power from persuasion, magic and knowledge from books. An example of this is:
“If thou more murmur’st, I will rend an oak,
And peg thee in his knotty entrails, till
Thou has howled away twelve winters.”
Prospero shows that he has the power to do anything. He threatens Ariel to do as he says or Ariel will pay the consequences by being put inside an oak tree. The vocabulary is strong, “I will rend an oak” a strong suggestion of eagerness to fulfil his words with actions – also there is seriousness in his tone which might seem as though he is exaggerating “Thou has howled away twelve winters, if there is a “murmur” from Ariel. Furthermore there is a break in speech with the use of a comma, which reinforces and links the idea of being exiled into an oak tree for twelve winters – the authority over Ariel is just a part of Prospero’s knowledge:
“Knowing I loved my books, he furnished me
From mine own library with volumes that
I prize above my dukedom”
From this we learn how educated Prospero is and we can blatantly see that he has a vast knowledge over many volumes where he gained his knowledge and power. There is an emphasis that he had his own library, with various volumes that he could prize upon.
In contrast, we see how it is to be inferior take in Miranda for consideration she is the daughter of Prospero. Now Prospero has immense amounts of power so you would expect the same off Miranda, but in fact it is quite the opposite. Miranda doesn’t have any of the quintessential prowesses to be an authoritive figure she is weak, flaccid and doesn’t carry the wide amounts of knowledge like her father, she hardly has any knowledge of the outside world which makes her vulnerable this enables people to take advantage of her or to guide her through a black path since she is blinded with her lack of knowledge she will follow anyone easily, for example falling in love with Ferdinand:
“As well as it does you; and I should do it
With much more ease; for my good will is to it,
And yours it is against.”
Here we can see that there is a lot of punctuation used, the semi-colons link the ideas together she wants to help but is told not too. She tries to use persuasion but as she hasn’t much knowledge she is told to follow rules, ever since she was born. In addition, the tone is passive and weak – she is helpless and cannot do what she wishes. Miranda is portrayed as an enthusiastic character but with insufficient knowledge and this becomes her downfall and makes her inferior.
In conclusion the presentation of authority shows that in order to have authority and stabilise it you need to have knowledge and power to do so. Prospero is a perfect example as he shows he has immense amounts of authority by having magic and knowledge from books. However, authority is also illustrated as being unequal the King, being on top of the social hierarchy – doesn’t show any authority and if he tries it is dismissed. On the other hand inferiority is subjective – as some people have accepted that they are inferior for example Caliban. However Ariel accepts this as he is going to get something out of it, freedom. I don’t think you need to be on top of a social hierarchy to have authority you can gain it.
