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Prospero's Abuse Of Power

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From the play’s inception, it is clear to the audience that Prospero rules the island and its subjects. Despite being a foreigner to the land, Prospero claims the island as his own and enslaves the lone inhabitant, Caliban, while also asserting his rule over the spirit, Ariel. Furthermore, Prospero’s daughter, Miranda, remains subservient to her father. Despite his seemingly malicious intentions, Shakespeare hesitates from going as far as making Prospero a tyrannical dictator. Instead, Shakespeare portrays Prospero as a benevolent, but cold, ruler who is not willing to kill anyone to accomplish his desires, and justifies his harsh treatment of Caliban by disclosing the details of the fallout between Prospero and Caliban. Through Prospero’s …show more content…

With the power that Prospero possessed, he could have easily killed anyone allowing him to reclaim his rightful throne with ease. However, Prospero doesn’t kill anyone, nor does he go as far to destroy the ship in which they arrived. Prospero uses his power just enough to reclaim his throne and get off the island, but does not abuse it as a tyrant would. When Miranda notices the storm that Prospero has created, she becomes anxious and approaches Prospero to ask him to stop. Prospero assures her that, “I have with such provision in mine art/ So safely ordered that there is no soul—/ No, not so much perdition as an hair, / Betid to any creature in the vessel” (1.2.28-31). While his intentions may be seemingly malicious, Prospero ensures that the entirety of the royal party on the ship is safe and unharmed. He seems unwilling to comprise his moral integrity even for something as important as his throne. Furthermore, his actions are justified since these same individuals unlawfully took his power from him in Milan. Also, Prospero’s reference to his magical power as an “art” is important as the word “art” usually has a positive connotation. Instead of seeing his magic as a weapon or tool, he views it as art that requires skill and careful precision to use. Unlike a weapon, art does not hurt anyone, and Prospero uses it as such. …show more content…

Both the men who overthrew Prospero and Caliban have committed crimes which have diminished their moral authority. Only Prospero, the victim, can claim any true power to rule since he has moral superiority. Not even Caliban who is native to the island can claim power over Prospero because, he does not diminish his moral authority by killing anyone and ensures that all of the other characters return home safely. Prospero never unjustly treats anyone poorly. Prospero simply has a vision that he works to have realized through the use magic. Prospero is careful to only use his power to accomplish that vision without excessively hurting people. Once he has accomplishes his goal, he realizes that, if he is not careful, such power could lead him down a path of darkness. Once he releases everyone from the island, he vows to never practice magic again, saying, “But this rough magic/I here abjure...I 'll break my staff,/ Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,/ And deeper than ever did plummet sound/ I 'll drown my book” (5.1.50-57). In this passage Prospero breaks his staff and buries his magic book to prevent the power from corrupting him. This passage is significant because it shows just how strong Prospero is morally. People who don’t possess the same moral integrity of Prospero would

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Eventually, the Red Death, which Prospero had tried so desperately to evade, approached and killed him, so “now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revelers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each is the despairing posture of his fall” (88). Because the castellated abbeys can be considered a part of Prospero’s mind, then this clearly shows that denying the existence of a problem will not magically resolve it, and could instead cause bigger and even more pressing issues. Poe is proving that even if a problem does not directly affect someone, it should still be acknowledged, confronted, and dealt with in one way or another.

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In contrast, The peasants mean nothing to him because they’re not worth of any value. The ignorance comes from Prospero’s delusional views of the world. As said before, Prospero doesn’t do anything because he looks the world through a different perspective. It ties in with his selfishness because since the Red Death has not affected him and instead ignores the harsh reality and lives in his own fantasy. “The prince had provided all the appliances of pleasure.

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In addition to Caliban, Prospero's yearning for vengeance also creates internal issues for himself. After Ferdinand and Miranda announce their marriage, Prospero claims his "rejoicing / At nothing can be more," because he must "perform / Much business appertaining," (Shakespeare, 95-99). Usually, a father focuses more on his daughter getting married, however Prospero can only focus on his plans for vengeance. Some believe that the characters internal struggles were caused by the wrongdoers, and not a lack of forgiveness; however, at the end of the play, after Prospero becomes a more virtuous character, his conflicts with his brother and Caliban are resolved, clearly showing that their focus on vengeance is what caused the internal struggles.

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This is because the character cannot overcome his stress. This trait allows the readers to make a connection to a real life example, where they are trying to discard something that is annoying them. Prospero is constantly under pressure because he thinks that he can outwit death, but knows deep inside his heart that it will find him one day. The Gothic conventions successfully captures each character’s way of conceiving

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Prospero played a key role in his own downfall. He, for example, failed to manage his authority. He admits enabling his brother 's treason happened because he gave him a lot of powers and neglected his own duties as the head of state as he concentrates on

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“A Tempest” is as a derivative of Shakespeare ’s play “The Tempest” by Aime Cesaire. Cesaire makes a number of alterations in his adaptation of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”. These alterations have been made in order to outline the change in time eras between the two playwrights’ time of existence and to illustrate the great social change that occurred in these periods, mainly colonialism by the West, the subsequent theme of the quest for freedom as well as the theme of power that resonates throughout the play. This essay aims at exploring the similarities and to draw attention to the alterations made by Cesaire in “A Tempest” and the subsequent effects of these alterations on the audience.

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Both characters are considered as rebellious savages that are controlled, Caliban by Prospero and John by the World State. The Tempest can be interpreted as a play about colonialism because when Prospero arrived at the island, he imposed his own rules and put Caliban under slavery, just as Europeans when they took possession of the lands of Americans and enslaved them. From this point of view, Prospero and the World State are very similar because they both use their power to control over people and to preserve their own stability (Prospero using his magic and the World State using soma).

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Kermode states, "Caliban is the bestial man [with] no sense of right and wrong, and therefore sees no difference between good and evil. His state is less guilty”. While he should have taken measures to prevent such an occurrence from ever happening again, Prospero goes further to ensure that Caliban pay dearly for his actions. He threatens continually to "rack [him] with old cramps", and confines him "in this hard rock" away from what is rightfully his island. For Caliban, Prospero has no mercy or forgiveness.

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When we first meet Prospero we are also introduced to his 15 year old daughter Miranda. In Act 1 Scene II we are presented with aspects of violence as Prospero retells his past to Miranda and in doing so he explains how they got to this current situation and how “that situation involves treason and murder” (Nostbakken, 3) In doing so he retells Miranda how “his Brother Antonio persuaded Alonso the king of Naples, to assist him in overthrowing Prospero and taking his dukedom of Milan” (3). It is clear that Prospero, although throughout the play is the one causing the psychological violence, in this case he is the victim. In this scene it is evident that Prospero suffered from both psychological and physical violence bestowed upon him by his brother Antonio.

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In the play, nature will be predetermined as either good or bad and depending on which, the characters will reflect their nature accordingly through their actions and dialogue. Miranda, Prospero’s daughter, was predetermined as naturally good by Prospero when he says “Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and she said thou wast

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He’s but a sot as I am, nor hath / One spirit to command…”(3.2.85-88). All of these occurrences are empowered by Prospero’s collection of books, which enable him to speak the language of sorcery unlike any of the other character and endow him with otherworldly abilities. He uses these powers solely to carry out his plan of escape from the island by bringing Ferdinand and Miranda together. After his plans are successful, he renounces magic and becomes the same as any of the other members of the nobility, showing that magic was the defining characteristic of his might.

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The Tempest can often be seen as a play about colonialism primarily because Prospero came to the island that belonged to Sycorax, Caliban's mother. Prospero subdued her, ruled the land and placed himself as its new ruler. He had full control over everything on the island. Caliban actually loved Prospero at first and was fine with an autonomy but not slavery as he lamented: This island’s mine by Sycorax my mother, Which thou tak’st from me.

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The various ways Shakespeare dramatizes and explores power, allows us to obtain a richer impression of the theme of power in The Tempest. Government and authority both carry out important functions in the play. It is the subject of government that initiates the events in the play and it is also the foundation of the progression throughout the play. Prospero is the fundamental piece in the play concerning governance because he used to be the Duke of Milan, but loses his title to his brother Antonio when he devotes too much of his time learning magic rather than ruling his people and seeing his obligations through: “The government I cast upon my brother, [a]nd to my state grew stranger, being transported [a]nd rapt in secret studies,” (p.10). This is also the cause of Prospero and his infant

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In comparison, the inconsistency between diction depicts the power dynamics observed in the play. Shakespeare often uses Prospero’s servant, Ariel and slave, Caliban to portray the differences in the hierarchy of the play. As observed by the audience Prospero often uses threats and insults to communicate and assign task to Caliban, hence “...tonight thou shalt have cramps, side stitches that shall pen thy breath up. ”(I.ii.325-326) Prospero threatens Caliban with pain after his refusal to do work, because he feels as if the isle belongs to him due to the fact that it was inhabited by his mother first.

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