How does Shakespeare present the character of Prospero in The Tempest?

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How does Shakespeare present the character of Prospero in ‘The Tempest?’

The Tempest is a play written by Shakespeare. It is quite a powerful play, it looks at the theme of love between Ferdinand and Miranda , but also deals with evil in, ‘Antonio’ Prospero’s brother.  Who in my opinion is the meanest character in the play? The Tempest is a comedy, but not like we would think of comedy today, like ‘My Family’, but the audiences would have found it funny. The play is about Prospero’s revenge and his desire to get his Dukedom back from his brother.

 “Twelve years since, Miranda, twelve years since, thy father was the Duke of Milan and a prince of Power.”

 Antonio had always been trusted by his brother “like a good parent, did beget of him a falsehood in its contrary as great as my trust was, which had, indeed, no limit.” But Antonio’s greed for power took control. So much so, he decided to cast his brother and Prospero’s daughter, Miranda, adrift in a rotten carcass of a boat and he hoped to their death.

Prospero is a powerful man with strong magical skills, a wizard he had held a superior position ‘The Duke of Milan’ before his brother had planned with King Alonso of Naples to take over this position as permanent one.

 In the play we see a lot of changes in Prospero's Character. He has a lot of anger and revenge inside of him and as the play goes on we see a more forgiving side to his character. Prospero was the rightful Duke of Milan when he chose to study magic more extensively, so he temporarily gave his powers to his brother Antonio to govern the country.

In Act one Scene two Prospero tells Miranda how they came to the island and how they managed to survive due to the kindness of Gonzalo, (An old lord) who gave them food clothes, and Prospero’s magic books.

“By providence and divine                                                             some food we had, and some fresh water, that                                    a noble Neapolitan, Gonzalo,                                                                  out of his charity,”                                                                      When she becomes distressed at the story of his bothers betrayal  and how Prospero has made the storm, ‘The Tempest’ to bring his enemies to him,- he makes Miranda go to sleep. Was this due to the fact that she was distressed and he wanted to comfort  her or was it a form of control? “thou art inclined to sleep; ‘tis a good dullness,                                 and give it way: I know thou canst not choose .

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Prospero had not been unpopular as a Duke and that was probably why Antonio didn’t want to kill him, as it would have caused problems with the Milanese people.

I feel that Prospero was selfish to put his desire to study magic above looking after the needs of his people.                                             “The Government  I  cast upon my brother,                                           ...

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