Is Prospero a power obsessed tyrant or an egalitarian?
Is Prospero a power obsessed tyrant or an egalitarian?
The play 'The Tempest' portrays one mans fight to bring justice to those who have betrayed him in life. This character, Prospero, once the rightful duke of Milan, was overthrown by his brother, Antonio, and is now hell bent on seeking revenge.
Throughout the play, there are elements of tyranny, egalitarianism and autocracy. Although these three elements are present, it is my opinion that Prospero is overall an autocrat. I will now explore the character of Prospero and show why I believe this.
Prospero and his daughter Miranda where set adrift into the Mediterranean Sea after he was overthrown. Once Prospero arrived on the island, he immediately imprisoned two people, Ariel, an airy spirit, and Caliban, a monstrous creature. Ariel her self had already been imprisoned by Sycorax, an evil witch, when Prospero reached the island. When he found her, Prospero freed her but in return made her his magical slave. Although Prospero has imprisoned Ariel he is not tyrannical in his nature. He has not used force or death to manipulate her and cannot therefore be branded a tyrant. Prospero also says 'I will discharge thee', when his work has finished. If he is willing to free Ariel after her purpose is served then he is not being tyrannical in imprisoning her as a tyrant would not free one of his captives. He cannot be an egalitarian either. By imprisoning Ariel Prospero is neither fair nor equal in what he is doing. He can therefore not be an egalitarian as someone who is, believes in equality and equal rights.
Prospero's imprisonment of Caliban is also similar. Although his reason for imprisonment is much different, he does not use physical force or aggression to keep Caliban under his control. Prospero imprisons Caliban as he thinks Caliban attempted to rape his daughter, Miranda. Caliban is also the son of a witch, Sycorax, and this may lead Prospero to believe that Caliban is evil. Where this reason is a good one for imprisoning Caliban, it does not justify the fact that he is not being fair imprisoning anybody at all. Caliban is also the rightful owner of the island as ...
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Prospero's imprisonment of Caliban is also similar. Although his reason for imprisonment is much different, he does not use physical force or aggression to keep Caliban under his control. Prospero imprisons Caliban as he thinks Caliban attempted to rape his daughter, Miranda. Caliban is also the son of a witch, Sycorax, and this may lead Prospero to believe that Caliban is evil. Where this reason is a good one for imprisoning Caliban, it does not justify the fact that he is not being fair imprisoning anybody at all. Caliban is also the rightful owner of the island as it was owned by Sycorax. By overthrowing Caliban, Prospero is doing exactly what Antonio has done to him and is therefore being hypocritical and subjective. He has not liked being overthrown himself, but has still decided to do the exact same thing to Caliban. Again this can show that Prospero is neither an egalitarian, as he obviously has not been equal or fair in his actions, nor a tyrant as his methods to gain control do not included force or death.
Miranda is also imprisoned by Prospero is various different ways. Miranda knows nothing of the outside world as Prospero has deliberately starved her of human knowledge. Miranda says, 'you have often began to tell me what I am; but stopt'. She obviously feels that Prospero deprive her of her own life and because of this, Miranda is imprisoned socially and mentally as she cannot fend for herself and is trapped within Prospero's world. Prospero's autocratic nature can be seen within this statement. He does not use force to imprison Miranda but is still unfair in doing so. I believe Prospero imprisons Miranda for her own good. He has a fatherly protectiveness over her as he knows that the outside world can be hurtful. He chooses to have complete power over Miranda, like an autocrat, to protect her. The fact that Miranda says that Prospero, 'left me to a bootless inquisition', showing that Prospero has complete power over her life as he is the only person who can actually tell her who she is. 'Bootless', shows that Miranda finds the knowledge completely useless. This shows that Prospero has complete control over what he wants Miranda to know, and is being autocratic in having this power.
Prospero manipulates the characters in to doing what he wants. His main method is the use of magic. Prospero conjures the tempest which eventually brings Ferdinand, Miranda's future lover, to the island. He has done this so that he can regain his kingdom by using Ferdinand as a link to the Dukedom. By using Miranda and Ferdinand in this way, Prospero is treating them like slaves, which is similar to how he treats Ariel and Caliban. By gaining complete control this way, Prospero is being autocratic, as he has used neither for nor fair means to gain this control.
Prospero longs for his dukedom back, and in my opinion has the right to try and regain power. Prospero's main reason for losing control was that he had to much trust in his brother, Antonio. The fact that Prospero conjured the tempest and brought Antonio to the island, shows that he is obviously hell bent on revenge. This gives the opinion that Prospero's view on just is 'an eye for an eye'. Although this seems 'equal', as though Prospero wants to overthrow Antonio like Antonio overthrew Prospero, we know that Prospero's view of justice is unbalanced as he in turn, overthrew Caliban. Again, this shows that Prospero is not an egalitarian. The fact that he has used magic to try and regain his kingdom can also prove this. Antonio did not use magic but used Prospero to gain the dukedom. If Prospero was an egalitarian, he would try to use Antonio to get his dukedom back fairly.
All of these points can argue that Prospero is neither an egalitarian, nor a power obsessed tyrant. Prospero may use unethical means such as imprisonment to gain power; however a true tyrant uses force and death to gain control, something Prospero did not use. He manipulates people through magic and mental knowledge to get what he wants. By using magic to gain control this gives Prospero an unfair advantage as he is the only possessor of this power. By using this advantage Prospero is definitely not an egalitarian.
Towards the end of the story, it is more apparent that Prospero is more autocratic in his ruling. At the end of 'The Tempest', Prospero forgives everyone on the island. This obviously shows Prospero to be kinder than we may have thought prior to the event. By forgiving everyone, this rules out whether Prospero is an egalitarian or a tyrant. A tyrant would never forgive an enemy, so therefore Prospero cannot be a tyrant. If he was a tyrant, Prospero would have killed his enemies. An egalitarian would always try to balance the scales of justice. By forgiving, Prospero has given up seeking revenge and cannot be an egalitarian. A true egalitarian would have equalled the injustice put upon him.
From these points, it is my opinion that Prospero can be described as an autocrat. He controls with complete power without the use of fear, murder or equality, so is therefore an autocrat. I believe that this term describes Prospero accurately. He does have complete control over the island and all the character and can therefore be described as an autocrat. Prospero says to Miranda, 'so safely ordered, that there is no soul'. Prospero tries to protect Miranda by saying that some situations are more acceptable than they really are. These are his thought and he is trying to make Miranda believe what he thinks. This shows a domineering side to Prospero as he likes everyone to abide by what he believes. He is obviously domineering towards Caliban and Ariel as well. He imprisons them both so that he can have complete control over them. Finally, he is domineering toward all the character he brings to the island as he uses his magic to gain complete control over them. This shows that he is obviously power obsessed and likes to have a complete hold over everyone.
Overall, the points explore tend to disprove that Prospero is an egalitarian or a power obsessed tyrant. What I do believe is that Prospero is an autocrat obsessed with keeping everyone under his control.
Gary Cummins
