In Act 1 Scene 2, just after Ariel described to Prospero how he created the tempest, Prospero asks him, `My brave spirit, / Who was so firm, so constant that this coil / Would not infect his reason? `. Prospero is basically asking `Was anyone on the ship he is so keen on getting his revenge against his enemies.
In contrast in Act 5 Scene 1 Prospero shows affectionateness when Ariel tells him how much they are suffering and he manages to forgive them.
Right at the beginning of Act 5 Scene 1, Prospero starts off by saying, ` Now does my project gather to a head. / My charms crack not, my spirits obey; and time / Goes upright with his carriage. How’s the day? ` Prospero’s `project` to get his revenge, is nearly complete and you realise that Prospero has been in control throughout the play. However Ariel changes Prospero’s mind when he tells him, `…the good old Lord Gonzalo. / His tears run down his beard…Your charm so strongly works’em, / that if you now beheld, your affections / would become tender`. After non-human Ariel suggests forgiveness rather than vengeance of their original crimes would justify, Prospero decides to forgive everyone. He also decides to give up his magic altogether.
At the beginning of the play, in Act 1 Scene 2, Prospero wants his shipwrecked enemies safe when he could have had them killed; he has a clear plan in mind and he times it very well. For example, on ll.217-18, ` But are they, Ariel, safe? `, and again 23 lines later on l.240, `The time ‘twixt six and now / Must by us both be spent more preciously`.
Prospero’s decision to forgive is a difficult one for him; evidence for this in Act 5 Scene 2 on ll.25-7 when he says `Though with their high wrongs I am struck to the quick, / Yet with my nobler reason ‘gainst my fury / Do I take part`. The power of magic is so powerful that it means that the real battle has been within Prospero himself, rather then between him and his enemies.
In Act 5 Scene 1 Prospero forgives those who have wronged him, even though his memory of their crimes is still fresh. On ll.78-9, `I do forgive thee, / Unnatural though thou art! `, and later on ll.131-132 (three lines before the end of the play), `I do forgive thy rankest fault - all of them`. Therefore we see that Prospero forgives them.
This forgiveness shows Prospero’s victory over himself and over his desire to take revenge.
