Tempest Essay, Research Paper

Jason Sego English III The Tempest The Tempest is a play within a play. The main character, Prospero is the person that directs the play throughout most of the book. He is the person that even though he had his dukedom taken away he ended up being in total power over the island. By the end of his story he shows how he realizes that he doesn’t really even need power at all. He realizes that if he has too much power over people that they can’t choose for themselves. Prospero was the promised heir to be the duke of Milan, but his brother Antonio had sent Propero and his daughter, Miranda, who at the time was only three years old when they were sent away. They sent them away on a small raft out into the Mediterranean Sea to die. Antonio saw this as a promised death to his brother, but little did Antonio know that Alonso had given Prospero and his daughter some things to survive. Prospero had white magic, which he had mainly obtained from Ariel who was forever indebted to Prospero for him saving Ariel’s life. When Prospero came to an island he, his daughter, and Ariel had encountered a half man half something else, who called himself Caliban. Prospero felt responsible for him and took him under his wing and taught him how to read and speak their language so that they could communicate. After a while had gone by, Prosero had seen a boat off in the distance and caused it to wreck. At the time he did not know that his brother was on that boat along with the King of Naples and many others were on the boat. He had Ariel go to see the people that were there after the people had come ashore. Many of the people had come ashore on different parts of the island. When Ferdinand, Alonso’s son, had come ashore Prospero greeted him with his daughter. At the time Prospero knew about everyone else that was on the island, but Ferdinand did not know about his father still being alive. Since he thought this he considered himself now as the King of Naples. Prospero continued to keep this a secret to Ferdinand through out the play. Ferdinand and Miranda fell in love at first sight. Prospero talked with them to, and when they decided they were to be married Prospero told them that they had to remain chaste and if they broke this, their sex for the rest of their marriage would be terrible. Right in this section Prospero is showing the power that he has and that it will be inflicted if the promise is broken. On the other side of the island were Sebastian, Antonio, and Alonso. Sebastian was the brother of Alonso and felt that since they were on an island Sebastian could kill Alonso and just take over and be the king of Naples. They did not the whereabouts of Ferdinand, so they figured that he was dead. Through out this first couple of scenes Prospero is setting up the paly for the way he wants it to be led. He has these groups of people that were once together now on totally different sides of an island figuring the other party is dead. He also at first portrays that he wants to get revenge on his brother. When reading in act I scene two there are some real key quotes that are in the dialogue of Prospero and his daughter. From lines eighty-eight through one hundred and eighteen Prospero talks about how his brother took away his right to be the Duke of Milan. Now that the King of Naples was there he felt that since these two were enemies that possibly Antonio would been taken care of by Alonso. Prospero later finds out though because he has Ariel go and listen to everyones conversations but not be seen that Antonio and Sebastian plan on killing Alonso. Even though this was about to take place Ariel felt that he should wake up Alonso before Sebastian had killed him. Ariel in this case has used his magic to save a man’s life. Where as Prospero has still been too worried about getting revenge on everyone. He has such great power through out the whole play but he still does not use it. He could have killed Antonio from the very beginning if he wanted to but it seems like he wanted him to go through suffering before he killed him. Prospero puts Antonio and Sebastian into a state of mind where they don’t even know what is going on. The two of them are just there acting out their parts in the play as Prospero wanted them to.

Caliban in the story became Prospero’s servant. Prospero justifies Caliban by being his servant by saying that he raised him to be what he is. Even though Prospero might have taught him how to read and helped him to become civilized doesn’t mean that he should carry things around for Prospero and do whatever Prospero says. To add onto this when Caliban meets up with the two drunks, Trinculo and Stephano, he automatically starts to promise to do whatever they say because they have whine. If Caliban was taught so well and liked Prospero, how come after trying whine once he all of a sudden will do whatever they say just so he can have some whine. He says that they must be “Gods,” because only “Gods,” would have some special thing you can drink that would cause you to feel that way. The two drunkards want to go kill Prospero so that they can be in control of the island. Prospero obviously hears of this from Ariel so he has them walking through a swampy like muck area that smells like crap through a lot of the play. When it comes to the final ending of the play, Ariel and Prospero’s dialogue in lines seven through nineteen in act five, Ariel tells Prospero that if he were human that he would forgive the people for what they have done. That he has put the people that have done him wrong through enough torture. At this point Pospero feels that he should be forgiving and realize that people make mistakes in their live. Prospero then has everyone come together into the end of the play by using his powers to do so. Alonso and Gonzalo awake from a sleep that Prospero had put them in. Ferdinand is there when he awakes and finds out that his father is still alive after all. Alonso is happy to see that the Naples and Milan could come together as allies through the marriage of his son and Miranda. At this time Prospero has Sebastian and Antonio come out of their trance that he put them in. He forgives his brother for what he has done and takes back his dukedom right there in front of everyone. He also allows Sebastian and Antonio to know that he knew that they planned on assassinating the King of Naples. He feels that that he should not say anything because treason is execution on the spot and he forgave them of what they had done. Caliban brought in Stephano and Trinculo, he tells Prospero what a fool he was for thinking these two drunkards were “Gods,” and that he will never go against his master again. Prospero now that he feels that he has total control over everyone he feels that they can go home. He wants to dilenquish his powers by not only leaving the island, by letting Ariel go. So he promises that they will be able to catch up with the fleet and make it back to Naples. When it comes to the end of the play everyone is in their right positions again and everyone is happy. It seems like Prospero was just trying to make a point with this whole play that he made up as he went along. Don’t try to do wrong to people because it will come back to haunt you in the end, and you might not have someone as forgiving as him.