Prospero Tempest

The fact that Miranda says that Prospero, ‘left me to a bootless inquisition’, showing that Prospero has complete power over her life as he is the only person who can actually tell her who she is. ‘Bootless’, shows that Miranda finds the knowledge completely useless. This shows that Prospero has complete control over what he wants Miranda to know, and is being autocratic in having this power. Prospero manipulates the characters in to doing what he wants. His main method is the use of magic.

Prospero conjures the tempest which eventually brings Ferdinand, Miranda’s future lover, to the island.

He has done this so that he can regain his kingdom by using Ferdinand as a link to the Dukedom. By using Miranda and Ferdinand in this way, Prospero is treating them like slaves, which is similar to how he treats Ariel and Caliban. By gaining complete control this way, Prospero is being autocratic, as he has used neither for nor fair means to gain this control.

Prospero longs for his dukedom back, and in my opinion has the right to try and regain power. Prospero’s main reason for losing control was that he had to much trust in his brother, Antonio.

The fact that Prospero conjured the tempest and brought Antonio to the island, shows that he is obviously hell bent on revenge. This gives the opinion that Prospero’s view on just is ‘an eye for an eye’. Although this seems ‘equal’, as though Prospero wants to overthrow Antonio like Antonio overthrew Prospero, we know that Prospero’s view of justice is unbalanced as he in turn, overthrew Caliban.

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Again, this shows that Prospero is not an egalitarian. The fact that he has used magic to try and regain his kingdom can also prove this. Antonio did not use magic but used Prospero to gain the dukedom.

The Tempest Prospero

If Prospero was an egalitarian, he would try to use Antonio to get his dukedom back fairly. All of these points can argue that Prospero is neither an egalitarian, nor a power obsessed tyrant. Prospero may use unethical means such as imprisonment to gain power; however a true tyrant uses force and death to gain control, something Prospero did not use. He manipulates people through magic and mental knowledge to get what he wants. By using magic to gain control this gives Prospero an unfair advantage as he is the only possessor of this power. By using this advantage Prospero is definitely not an egalitarian.

Towards the end of the story, it is more apparent that Prospero is more autocratic in his ruling. At the end of ‘The Tempest’, Prospero forgives everyone on the island. This obviously shows Prospero to be kinder than we may have thought prior to the event. By forgiving everyone, this rules out whether Prospero is an egalitarian or a tyrant. A tyrant would never forgive an enemy, so therefore Prospero cannot be a tyrant. If he was a tyrant, Prospero would have killed his enemies. An egalitarian would always try to balance the scales of justice.

By forgiving, Prospero has given up seeking revenge and cannot be an egalitarian. A true egalitarian would have equalled the injustice put upon him. From these points, it is my opinion that Prospero can be described as an autocrat. He controls with complete power without the use of fear, murder or equality, so is therefore an autocrat. I believe that this term describes Prospero accurately. He does have complete control over the island and all the character and can therefore be described as an autocrat. Prospero says to Miranda, ‘so safely ordered, that there is no soul’.

Prospero tries to protect Miranda by saying that some situations are more acceptable than they really are. These are his thought and he is trying to make Miranda believe what he thinks. This shows a domineering side to Prospero as he likes everyone to abide by what he believes. He is obviously domineering towards Caliban and Ariel as well. He imprisons them both so that he can have complete control over them. Finally, he is domineering toward all the character he brings to the island as he uses his magic to gain complete control over them.

This shows that he is obviously power obsessed and likes to have a complete hold over everyone. Overall, the points explore tend to disprove that Prospero is an egalitarian or a power obsessed tyrant. What I do believe is that Prospero is an autocrat obsessed with keeping everyone under his control. Gary Cummins Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE The Tempest section. Download this essay Print Save Here’s what a teacher thought of this essay 4 star(s)