Prospero in William Shakespeare's The Tempest

Prospero in William Shakespeare's The Tempest

In act 1 we learn that Prospero is a very complex character with many

different aspects to his presentation. The first and probably the most

obvious aspect to his character is that of the magician.

Some critics argue that the 4 main characters on the Island can be

said to represent different attributes to humanity: Caliban represents

instinct, Miranda represents love, Ariel represents spirit and

Prospero represents power. Prospero's incredible magical powers

contribute to this interpretation of his character. His character is

also interpreted as being like a puppet-master. I think this is an

appropriate image of Prospero as he uses his incredible powers to rule

over people, influencing and controlling them with his magic for his

own personal purposes.

He controls Caliban with threats and acts of physical violence saying:

" Tonight thou shalt have cramps, side stitches that shall pen thy

breath up."

This shows Prospero's puppet-master side using his incredible power to

control people and making them afraid of them. The author also uses

the rule of three to show the extent of Prospero's threats towards

Caliban.

He also controls Miranda, this time though he does not resort to

physical pain or violence he puts a spell on her instead.

He says, " Thou art inclined to sleep"

This again shows his incredible power he possesses as a magician being

able to control people's actions easily as a puppet-master would his

puppets. I believe he does this to show off and feed his ego. Also he

does this to suit his personal interests.

In this way Prospero often abuses his power. A ...

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...r. I

believe Prospero is very human in some ways. His human attributes

mainly being seen in the aspects "The man" and also "The father" this

is probably Prospero's weakest side. It shows him to be foolish and

weak. But away from his human side Prospero is seen to be extremely

powerful. This side of his character is seen in the aspects "The

magician" and also "Thee master of slaves."

Despite having many negative aspects I believe that Prospero is not

completely negative. When it comes to the aspect of "The father" I

believe he is just overprotective.

Also as "The man" I believe that he is just very human and made

mistakes.

All together I believe that Shakespeare has managed to create an

extremely real character in Prospero. He is not entirely perfect but

tries hard in everything he does but makes mistakes.