Similarities Between The Tempest And One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

The most significant ramification of discovery is change. Change can be seen in Shakespeare’s play ‘The Tempest’ and Ken Kesey’s book ‘One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ as a result of discoveries both about the characters themselves and the others around them.
Change is often essential to a plot, so the discovery that leads characters towards it is vital and can be the most important thing in the entire story.
Prosperos discovery of mercy leads him to regain political power and leadership. It is likely that desire for revenge has lain dormant in Prospero and after 12 years of being secluded on the island, his enemies are now within his grasp and Prospero revels in it. His desire for justice was so great that he commands his spirits to torture

the nobles, even at the cost of an innocent, being tortured as well. Ariel asked about the “prisoners” and beckons Prospero to release them, claiming that the goodly Gonzalos “tears run down his beards like winters drops” and that Prosperos affections would become tender if he witnessed it. Prospero ponders over this and decides that he, “with (his) nobler reason”, will have mercy on them. He justifies this to himself through the fact that his former enemies have already suffered for their crimes against him. Through characterization and the underlying theme of repentance, Shakespeare is able to believably show Prosperos journey from being a bitter old man on an island, as can be seen from his first major monologue, to a merciful, politically powerful Duke of Milan.
McMurphy's discovery of power and leadership over the rest of the patients leads him to a loss in sanity, the only thing he had left. He starts out as a non-conformist who exercises his carnal nature and is a bastion of masculinity and power in a ward where all the other patients are powerless against Nurse Ratched. He eagerly challenges the Big Nurse and his behaviour becomes almost contagious to his fellow patients, invigorating them and giving them confidence to stop following the all-consuming dictatorship of Nurse Ratched. However, he ends as caricature of his former self: McMurphy sacrifices himself for the benefit of the group, and in doing so, he loses his free will. Chief shows the reader clearly that McMurphy is not acting on his own when he attacks Ratched, but as an extension of the will of the group. His discovery is shown through his characterization throughout the book and the change he inflicts on others is the largest impact towards the resolution of the story. He is the agent of discovery for the rest of the characters and almost parallels Prospero, he has the power to inflict change on himself and on all the other characters through his own discovery and discovery he shows to others.
Discovery can also teach characters to grow, gain confidence and independence as can be seen from the characters Miranda (the tempest) and Chief (Cuckoos nest), which is arguably the most important thing for a character.
Miranda’s discovery of love had caused her to also discover an independence from Prospero where she has the confidence to do what she believes will make her happiest.

When speaking of Ferdinand “the first that e’er (she) sighed for,” Miranda shows her love for him, by giving him her name, helping him with his duties and asks to be his bride, all actions which she believes Prospero will get angry at her for. She shows her independence from her father through being assertive over her desires to be near Ferdinand, going so far as to declare herself to be his maid if she cannot be his bride. The dialogue between the lovers is consistently full of praise to the other, which proves that it is through her discovery of love; Miranda is willing to go against her father in an effort to be with Ferdinand, showing her increasing maturity and

independence.
Chiefs discovery of sanity leads to the confidence to escape to freedom.

Chiefs begins in the book as a schizophrenic, paranoid inpatient who hallucinates about the Combine: mechanized matrix that enforces a control over humankind. Throughout the book, Chiefs paranoia of the Combine is shown to be getting smaller and in the latter half, Chief tells the reader that he knows "this time I had them beat," indicating that his sanity is nearly restored. This occurs through the interaction with McMurphy with whom he begins to communicate verbally. His discovery leads him to no longer see the fog that the Combine would emit on the ward. Chief's confidence is restored by McMurphy's ideas to help him. His salvation is completed when he performs a mercy killing on the lobotomized McMurphy and escapes from the

hospital.
However, the discovery leading to change can only cause change where one has the potential to change. The characters of Antonio and Sebastian are placed in parallel with the character of Caliban, where due to their inherent evil nature described by Miranda as “good wombs have borne bad sons” about the former two. Caliban’s nature which Prospero and Miranda have attempted to fix could not be changed through care and language due to him being “hag-born” and the alleged son of the devil himself. These characters lacked any character development throughout the play, are generally considered minor characters as they have far fewer meaningful lines (other than Calibans speech about the island) and serve as a contrast to the goodly character that grow and change as people throughout the course of the play.
There are many ways discovery can affect people, through positive change in their ideals in characters such as Prospero and Chief, an increase in independance in less mature characters such as Miranda. Discoveries may also lead to negative consequences such as McMurphy's insanity. Discovieries can also change previously fixed perceptions of others such as Prospero finding mercy for the evil and the patients realizing that Ratched is as human as they were with only a false image of power. Or discoveries may have no effect on a character as their nature itself resists it.