Prospero's Daughter

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The Tempest is believed to be the last play Shakespeare wrote alone. [1] [2] [3] In this play there are two candidate soliloquies by Prospero which critics have taken to be Shakespeare's own "retirement speech". Prospero is the rightful Duke of Milan, whose usurping brother, Antonio, had put him (with his three-year-old daughter, Miranda) to sea on a "rotten carcass" of a boat to die, twelve years before the play begins. Prospero and Miranda had survived and found exile on a small island. He has learned sorcery from books, and uses it while on the island to protect Miranda and control the other characters. Peter Gardner, no longer using his skill as a physician, flourishes as a botanist, experimenting on the island’s flora. Afraid of being recognized, he cannot receive recognition or a return for his new found interest. Therefore, he lives off Carlos’s money. The daughter of Prospero, Miranda was brought to the island at an early age and has never seen any men other than her father and Caliban, though she dimly remembers being cared for by female servants as an infant. Because she has been sealed off from the world for so long, Miranda’s perceptions of other people tend to be naïve and non-judgmental. She is compassionate, generous, and loyal to her father.

Leninger, Lorrie Jerrell. "The Miranda Trap: Sexism and Racism in Shakespeare's Tempest." Trans. Array The Women's Part: Feminist Criticism of Shakespeare. Carolyn Ruth Swift Lenz, Gayle Greene and Carol Thomas Neely. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1980. Print. On Chacachacare, Peter experiments chiefly on the wild Caribbean flora–and on the dark-skinned orphan Carlos, whose home he steals. Though Peter considers the boy no better than a savage, he nonetheless schools the child alongside his daughter. But as Carlos and Virginia grow up under the same roof, they become deeply and covertly attached to one another. So, Ariel saved everybody. Including Ferdinand, Alonso’s son, who is lured towards Prospero and Miranda! The kids fall instantly in love! In the comic book series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill, Prospero appears as a founding member of the first such grouping in 1610, alongside his familiars Caliban and Ariel.King of Naples and father of Ferdinand. Alonso aided Antonio in unseating Prospero as Duke of Milan twelve years before. As he appears in the play, however, he is acutely aware of the consequences of all his actions. He blames his decision to marry his daughter to the Prince of Tunis on the apparent death of his son. In addition, after the magical banquet, he regrets his role in the usurping of Prospero. Antonio

Gardner considers the locals to be nothing more than savages. He assumes ownership of the home of a servant boy named Carlos, seeing in him a suitable subject for his amoral medical work. Nonetheless, he educates the boy alongside Virginia. As Virginia and Carlos come of age together, they form a covert relationship that violates the outdated mores of colonial rule. While The Tempest is frequently analysed from postcolonial angles as a reaction to European colonialism in the early modern era, Miranda does not make an appearance in the majority of such analyses. As the play's only female character, Miranda functions mostly as a representation of women instead of a representation of a colonised group. Lorie Leininger, discussed in the previous section, argues that Miranda is part of a group subjugated by colonialism due to her gender, but as far as direct connections to European colonisation overseas, Miranda does not connect directly to the majority of postcolonial analyses. [14]

a b c Jacobs, M W (30 March 2015). "Shakespeare's Parting Words". HuffPost . Retrieved 16 June 2017. Rev. Dr. Krauth. A New Variorum Edition of Shakespeare: The tempest. IX. Ed. Furness, Horace Howard. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1892. 73–74. Print. The novels and television series The Expanse use several Shakespearean allusions, including " Caliban" in reference to monstrous human-alien hybrids, and correspondingly "Prospero Station", a research facility that was developing and controlling them. Critics also argue that Miranda's feminine presence is essential to the central theme of the play. [8] Miranda's influence is what dulls the worst of her father's anger; Prospero cites her as being his reason for living after their initial banishment and he informs her that everything he does is "in care" of her. Michael Neill argues that Miranda's function on the Island is that of a Christ-figure—that she is the indicator of a given character's moral status within the social hierarchy of the island and that she also serves to protect the ethical code of the Island's inhabitants and visitors. Caliban, whom she rejects, is shown to be a monstrous figure, while Ferdinand—whom she embraces—is saved by her presence, her sympathy lightening the "baseness" of his given task. Critic Melissa Sanchez analyses Miranda in a similar light, discussing her as a representation of an "angelic—but passive—soul "caught in the conflict between enlightenment and base desire (represented by Prospero and Caliban). [9]

Nostbakken, Faith. Understanding The Tempest. 1st. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004. Print. Her decision to pursue a relationship with Ferdinand is also interpreted by critics as an indication that her marriage to him is more than a simple political match. Miranda makes a very clear decision to seek out Ferdinand and offer her assistance, all the while worrying that her father will discover them. She is also the one to abandon traditional concepts of Elizabethan modesty by ardently stating her love for Ferdinand, proclaiming that "I am your wife, if you will marry me; / If not, I'll die your maid". [7]Her last appearance is in the play's final scene. After Prospero reveals himself to the assembled crowd he reveals the happy couple engaged in a game of chess. Miranda is teasing Ferdinand for cheating but admits that even if he is dishonest, she's more than happy to believe it for the love she bears for him. Miranda (moon), one of the moons of Uranus is named after her, in keeping with other Uranian moons named after characters from Shakespeare and Pope. [20] In popular culture [ edit ] When she is finally introduced to the assembled crowd she reacts with wonder, proclaiming the play's most famous lines: