William Shakespear's Tempest

Explain how you would direct a production of Act 1 Scene 2 of the Tempest. What do we learn about the character of Prospero from the play and from this scene in particular?

William Shakespeare wrote The Tempest in 1610, it was one of the last plays he wrote before his death in 1616. It has been said that Prospero’s character is mirrored around William Shakespeare, Shakespeare based Prospero on himself.

The Tempest is about a usurped duke, Prospero, who is set adrift on a small boat with his daughter Miranda by his evil brother Antonio. Prospero and his daughter end up on an enchanted island where Prospero begins to learn magic, using his magic he frees Ariel from a tree and enslaves Caliban, a hero and villainous task.

Twelve years later, Prospero see’s a royal boat passing the island carrying Antonio, Alonso, the king of Naples who helped usurp Prospero. Sebastian, Alonso’s brother and Gonzalo, the kindly courtier who gave Prospero food, water, clothes and the vital magic books. Prospero summons a tempest, with the help of Ariel, and wrecks the ship onto the island, separating them into four different groups. This deed makes Prospero quite the villain as there were many innocent sailors aboard the boat that had done nothing against him.

This part of the play is very much like a game of chess, and Prospero is the player. Prospero manipulates how all the characters move to benefit himself, Ferdinand miraculously meets Miranda and falls in love. Prospero could accept their love but instead he forces Ferdinand to do hard labour to “prove” his love for her, he does this even when Miranda begs him not too. This part of the play shows the inequality between men and women, in Shakespeare’s time women had no rights. They weren’t aloud to act in plays or aloud to have any rights of their own, in Elizabethan times women were “owned” by their fathers or their husbands.

Stephano and Trinculo meet Caliban and begin to plot the murder of Prospero; Prospero however doesn’t see this is a major threat to his life as he doesn’t act to stop them until they’re outside of his cave. When he does act all he does is summon a group of hounds to chase them away, with all the options he had at his disposal he chose one of the less violent options. This makes him a hero rather then a villain, choosing a “nicer” option to deal with a threat to his life.

All of the nobles are placed in a group together; Alonso is mourning his “dead” son, although the audience knows that Ferdinand is alive. It could be seen that Prospero is making Alonso mourn the loss of something dear to him just as Prospero lost his dukedom. Although it would seem that Prospero would want to extract his revenge on the nobles he does do some heroism towards them such as when Ariel awakes Alonso and Gonzalo just before they are murdered by Antonio and Sebastian. Another heroic deed is when he forgives them all at the end, even his evil brother Antonio who set him and his daughter, Miranda, adrift in the sea.

Although Prospero wasn’t just a hero in this scene, he did summon a harpy to accuse the nobles of their wrong deeds, not the must subtle of ways to do it.

Prospero is a mixture of both, a hero and a villain, in the play. Prospero causes many villainous and heroic actions which determines the end result of everyone coming together. His first act is one of villainy, Prospero summons a tempest to wreck a ship carrying his enemies but also carrying many innocent sailors.

His last act however is one of heroism, with Ariel convincing him, ...

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Although Prospero wasn’t just a hero in this scene, he did summon a harpy to accuse the nobles of their wrong deeds, not the must subtle of ways to do it.

His last act however is one of heroism, with Ariel convincing him, Prospero forgives everyone that wronged him. Even his evil brother Antonio, who usurped him as rightful duke of Milan and set him and his daughter adrift in the sea. Alonso, the king of Naples that aided Antonio in usurping him and helped him to set Prospero adrift. And even Caliban, the wicked foul creature from the island that attempted to rape Miranda, and take Prospero’s life.

Prospero is always seen caring for Miranda, although she is his daughter he is always reassuring her that his intentions are decent and not vengeful. “Lie there, my art. Wipe thou thine eyes. Have comfort. The direful spectacle of the wrack which touched the very virtue of compassion in thee, I have with such provision in mine art so safely ordered that there is no soul, no, no so much perdition as an hair betid to any creature in the vessel which thou heard’st cry, which thou sawst sink. Sit down. For thou must now know farther.” When Prospero is talking to Miranda we see a completely new side to him that we don’t see with anyone else, suddenly Prospero comes caring and compassionate instead of the strict, powerful man he seems to be with everyone else. This could be because Miranda is his only daughter and he does not want to lose her as he lost his wife.

When Prospero frees Ariel from the tree this seems to be a very heroic deed, however, although this seems like a heroic deed it appears that Ariel has become Prospero’s servant or even slave. Although Ariel is a very willing servant, Ariel is a servant to Prospero nether the less. “Dost thou forget from what a torment I id free thee? If thou more murmur’st, I will rend an oak and peg thee in his knotty entrails till thou hast howled away twelve winters.” This side of Prospero shows how cruel and forceful he can be, however, it is not always like this with Ariel as he does tend to show a more passionate side to him rather then to Caliban.

There is a sense of colonialism in The Tempest. In Elizabethan times, countries such as England were finding new places and claiming them as there own. This is similar to what Prospero has done with the enchanted island. Caliban, who was on the island before Prospero, accuses Prospero of stealing the island from him. This could be seen as a true fact as Caliban now acts as Prospero’s slave, this is very similar to what happened when the British found America. We began taking the natives and using them as our slaves, we also began to taught them our own language as we found their native language brutish, this is increasingly similar to what Prospero has done with Caliban.

If I were to direct Act 1 Scene 2 to show whether or not Prospero was a hero or a villain, I would have in the first part, when he is talking with Miranda about the tempest he caused, Prospero dressed in a magnificent robe, with his staff in hand. This is to show his power and dominance over Miranda, it also shows that he is a powerful magician. Miranda would be in a simple white, lace dress, this is to show how simple her lifestyle is and the fact she doesn’t own magnificent dress’s, this would also make her seem more innocent compared to her father. She is sitting on a rock looking out to sea, almost in tears, with a look of despair.

“I have done nothing but in care for thee, of thee my dear one -thee my daughter, who art ignorant of what thou art, not knowing of whence I am, nor that I am more better then Prospero, master of a full poor cell and thy no greater father.”

The type of language Prospero uses shows his caring side to Miranda and it is only Miranda that he ever shows it too; otherwise he is known as the usurped duke and powerful wizard.

Prospero would say this with strict but calming voice; he wants to calm Miranda down but at the same time reassure her about what’s happened.

When Prospero and Ariel are talking about Ariel’s freedom, I would have Ariel pleading with Prospero to set him free. Ariel would be low down, on his knees, to show that Prospero has a higher status. Prospero would be shocked at Ariel’s pleading; he would shout and raise his voice to show Ariel that he was his master. Prospero would tower over Ariel to prove his power.

“Dost thou forget from what a torment I id free thee? If thou more murmur’st, I will rend an oak and peg thee in his knotty entrails till thou hast howled away twelve winters.” He will tower over Ariel towards the end.

When Caliban is first introduced the lights in the theatre would dim and a single, slightly dimmed, blue spotlight would reveal to the audience a small cave. Prospero would shout into the cave Caliban’s name with venom and disgust, when Caliban appears, Prospero would back away as if a foul stench had reached him and look elsewhere, clearly showing his disgust towards Caliban.

Caliban would emerge from the cave covered in dirt and thick hair with a single, ragged piece of cloth covering his essentials. Caliban would be hunched over slightly when he moves but would still be nimble on his feet. He would get right up close to Prospero, as if taunting him, and try to touch him as an annoyance. Prospero would proceed to push and hit Caliban away whilst Caliban laughed gleefully.

“For this be sure, tonight thou shalt have cramps, side stitches that shall pen thy breath up. Urchins shall forth at vast of night that they may work, all exercise on thee. Thou shalt be pinched as thick as honeycomb, each pinch more stinging then bees that made em.”

Prospero would thunder within the theatre, Calibans fear would be made obvious as he cowers and huddles in a ball, Suddenly his attitude would change and he’d straighten up a little bit and begin cursing Prospero for enslaving him and stealing his island. Caliban would stride upstage towards Prospero preparing to strike him, Prospero would simple raise his staff above him and cause Caliban to cower back downstage.

Shakespeare uses the choice of language to show the difference between all the characters.

When Ariel speaks, it often rhymes and can flow straight out of the mouth, almost like a song. Shakespeare may have used this type of language and wording for Ariel to show how dainty but at the same time witty the spirit is.

With Calibans language, it is often foul and full of curses. It is also seen that Caliban struggles with the language and keeps to using simple words, quite like a small child who is learning a native language. This makes Caliban seem like even more of a monster to the audience as he is unable to even speak the proper language.

Prospero’s use of language is that of power and authority over the other characters.

“They are both in either’s powers, but this swift business I must uneasy make lest, too light winning make the prize light.”

Prospero might speak this way because of the power he once held whilst the duke of Milan or the fact he is now a powerful wizard.

There are many different themes in this play, one is revenge. It could be seen that during the whole play, except the ending, that Prospero is out for revenge. First he summons the tempest to bring his enemies to him, then he summons the harpy to accuse his enemies of the wrongs they did to him. Finally he brings all his enemies together and with the aid of Ariel decides to forgive them. This could mean that the theme of the play is forgiveness because in the end it is better to forgive and forget then to hold a grudge.

Magic is another theme considering that the whole play is based around the use of magic. Also the characters that are able to use magic, Ariel and Prospero, are the ones that manipulate the rest of the characters, meaning they were the ones with all the power in the play.

Prospero uses his magic for both heroic and villainous reasons to get what he wants. He uses his magic to make Miranda sleep when he doesn’t want to answer any more of her questions.

He summons the harpy to accuse his enemies of their wrong deeds. But was this the right thing to do?

Prospero has Ariel summon the tempest to wreck the boat carrying his most hated enemies regardless of the fact that there were innocent sailors aboard the boat.

Prospero also has Ariel lead his enemies around the island towards him with the use of magical songs and music.

It is difficult whether to decide if Prospero’s actions were right or wrong to bring about the final conclusion in the play. Although Prospero could have been kinder to his enemies, should he of? Considering his enemies sent him and his daughter adrift in the sea in a shabby little boat, wasn’t he entitled to at least revenge?

He was wrong to summon the tempest and put innocent lives at risk. He was wrong to enslave Caliban and Ariel when he was the foreigner on the island.

However in the end Prospero does do the right thing and forgive all of his enemies. He also freed Ariel from the hollow oak tree, ending Ariel’s suffering. And lest not forget the love between Miranda and Ferdinand, for if Prospero hadn’t of summoned the tempest they would never have found each other.

In conclusion it is difficult to decipher whether or not Prospero is a hero or a villain. If anything he is a strong mixture of both, the actions he chose to make were both villainous and heroic. If we look back to how Prospero ended up on the island, is he not entitled to be a bit “mean” to the people who set him and his daughter adrift in the sea? The most important part though is the conclusion of the play. Prospero forgives all of his enemies proving that it is better to forgive those that have wronged you, forget that they ever wronged you and don’t hold a grudge against them so that you are able to move along with your life.

Kyran-Storm Curry