Monday, September 13, 2010

Prospero, the Conjuror, the Real Duke of Milan, and a Guilt Abusing Old Codger

       Wow, what an intriguing first act of The Tempest; and even early on we can notice the similarities between Shakespeare's  fantasy classic and Orwell's science fiction masterpiece. Two works of two very distinct natures with a similarity important in both. That is of course, the obscuring of history to appear in the right. As in 1984 it was the Party and their need to always be correct, to appear to always be in a state of absolute perfection; it is the case in The Tempest. History is altered by the scorned Duke of Milan so that he may use it as a persuader to justify his actions to all those whom he controls.
       We first get a taste of this in his discussion with his daughter, Miranda. She is both sickened and saddened for she has"...suffered with those that..." she "..saw suffer." at the hands of her father and the "supposed" cruelty in which he stirred a storm and a sank a vessel thereof. Even though she tells how "... the cry did knock against my very heart!" Yet, how does her father justify this action? But with nothing less than a horribly sad story. He tells of his brother who, as he says, "...whom next thyself of all the world I loved and to him put the manage of my state..." and of how his "perfidious" brother would "...should presently extirpate me and mine out of the dukedom..." of Milan and did. He then goes on to explain how after arriving on the island by "providence divine," how he, with no doubt a purposefully placed attempt to extract from guilt from her describes how he "...made thee more profit than other princesses.." And only after he has a control over her emotions, and having made her mourn their bitter history, does he reveal the reason for his actions.
       In a similar way, does he control the actions of both Ariel and Caliban. Even though Ariel has"..done thee worthy service, told thee no lies, made thee no mistakings, served without or grudge or grumblings." He is in a supposed debt to Prospero for him so kindly "...that made gape the pine..." from whence he was trapped "...and let thee out." And is the case of Caliban the deformed slave of Prospero "... born of an old hag..." and as Prospero says "... I have used thee, filth as thou art, with human care, and lodged thee in mine own cell..." There is a definitive pattern to Prosperos persuasions, that he was never once in the wrong in anything that he had done or any any action he has committed. He tries to rely on the sympathy of the audience in question. The question now is, how long can he control these very desperate peoples with this technique and what will come next?


 

1 comment:

  1. Awesome job Addison. I really like how you started the post directly with the comparison of 1984 and the Tempest. It was really well done and it flowed extremely well. Your use of quotes was suberb; however, I think you should have used a bit less quotes and possibly elaborated upon the quotes instead of just somewhat summarizing the events within the act. That's just my 2 cents! But regardless, the quotes were amazingly done. They flowed well and did give the sense that there is something to Prospero that is a bit "off." Once again great post! Looking forward to more!

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