Tempest Essay Research Paper Jason Sego

Tempest Essay, Research Paper Jason Sego English III The Tempest The Tempest is a play within a play. The main character, Prospero is the person that directs the play throughout most of the book. He is the person that even though he had his dukedom taken away he ended up being in total power over the island. By the end of his story he shows how he realizes that he doesn’t really even need power at all. He realizes that if he has too much power over people that they can’t choose for themselves. Prospero was the promised heir to be the duke of Milan, but his brother Antonio had sent Propero and his daughter, Miranda, who at the time was only three years old when they were sent away. They sent them away on a small raft out into the Mediterranean Sea to die. Antonio saw this

as a promised death to his brother, but little did Antonio know that Alonso had given Prospero and his daughter some things to survive. Prospero had white magic, which he had mainly obtained from Ariel who was forever indebted to Prospero for him saving Ariel’s life. When Prospero came to an island he, his daughter, and Ariel had encountered a half man half something else, who called himself Caliban. Prospero felt responsible for him and took him under his wing and taught him how to read and speak their language so that they could communicate. After a while had gone by, Prosero had seen a boat off in the distance and caused it to wreck. At the time he did not know that his brother was on that boat along with the King of Naples and many others were on the boat. He had Ariel go

to see the people that were there after the people had come ashore. Many of the people had come ashore on different parts of the island. When Ferdinand, Alonso’s son, had come ashore Prospero greeted him with his daughter. At the time Prospero knew about everyone else that was on the island, but Ferdinand did not know about his father still being alive. Since he thought this he considered himself now as the King of Naples. Prospero continued to keep this a secret to Ferdinand through out the play. Ferdinand and Miranda fell in love at first sight. Prospero talked with them to, and when they decided they were to be married Prospero told them that they had to remain chaste and if they broke this, their sex for the rest of their marriage would be terrible. Right in this section

Prospero is showing the power that he has and that it will be inflicted if the promise is broken. On the other side of the island were Sebastian, Antonio, and Alonso. Sebastian was the brother of Alonso and felt that since they were on an island Sebastian could kill Alonso and just take over and be the king of Naples. They did not the whereabouts of Ferdinand, so they figured that he was dead. Through out this first couple of scenes Prospero is setting up the paly for the way he wants it to be led. He has these groups of people that were once together now on totally different sides of an island figuring the other party is dead. He also at first portrays that he wants to get revenge on his brother. When reading in act I scene two there are some real key quotes that are in the

dialogue of Prospero and his daughter. From lines eighty-eight through one hundred and eighteen Prospero talks about how his brother took away his right to be the Duke of Milan. Now that the King of Naples was there he felt that since these two were enemies that possibly Antonio would been taken care of by Alonso. Prospero later finds out though because he has Ariel go and listen to everyones conversations but not be seen that Antonio and Sebastian plan on killing Alonso. Even though this was about to take place Ariel felt that he should wake up Alonso before Sebastian had killed him. Ariel in this case has used his magic to save a man’s life. Where as Prospero has still been too worried about getting revenge on everyone. He has such great power through out the whole play but