A Study of the Magus – Analysing Prospero in
The Tempest
To comprehend the profundity of Prospero, one must first apprehend the artist who conjured him. William Shakespeare (1564-1616), in the twilight of his career during the Jacobean era, penned The Tempest around 1611. Often regarded as his last solo work, the play emerges from a context of developing colonial exploration, the sophisticated court masque, and perhaps the author’s own meditations on artistic legacy and retirement. The figure of Prospero—the deposed Duke turned island magician who controls, judges, and forgives—is frequently read as a richly metaphorical self-portrait of the playwright, the ultimate “artificer” who controls his characters and plots before relinquishing his creative power. For the student, this biographical lens is not incidental but central to unlocking the play’s metatheatrical depths and its complex treatment of authority, art, and renunciation.
The Sovereign of the Isle: Prospero’s Central Role and Key Themes
Prospero is the axial figure around which the entire world of The Tempest revolves. He is the play’s architect, its moral compass, and its most ambiguous psychological study. He embodies a constellation of interconnected roles and themes essential for A Level scrutiny:
The Magus and Artificer: His "rough magic" symbolises artistic creation itself—the playwright’s power to conjure storms, spectres, and dramatic resolution.
The Wronged Duke and Revenger: His backstory of usurpation fuels his initial desire for retributive justice, placing him within a tragic tradition.
The Colonial Governor: His relationship with Caliban and Ariel interrogates Renaissance ideologies of mastery, education, and "civilising" imperialism.
The Protective Father: His love for Miranda is genuine but often expressed through authoritarian control and manipulation.
The Moral Philosopher: His journey from vengefulness to forgiveness explores Christian-humanist ideals of mercy and reconciliation.
The Meta-theatrical Director: He self-consciously stages events, observes from the wings, and ultimately delivers the epilogue, blurring character and creator.
This newsletter will trace the intricate evolution of this multifaceted character through a detailed act-by-scene analysis.
Act-wise & Scene-wise Analysis of Prospero’s Character
Act I: The Expository Machiavel – Establishing Power and Purpose
Scene 2 (The entirety): This mammoth scene is the cornerstone of Prospero’s characterisation. He appears first as a didactic father, calming Miranda and initiating her (and the audience) into his history. His narrative of betrayal in Milan is a masterful piece of exposition, but note its potential partiality—it establishes his victimhood and moral high ground. His tone shifts markedly with his other "subjects":
With Ariel: He is the exacting taskmaster. His promises of freedom are laced with reminders of past suffering (“Dost thou forget / From what a torment I did free thee?”), revealing a relationship built on debt, coercion, and conditional loyalty. He displays impeccable, manipulative control.
With Caliban: Here, he is the colonial disciplinarian. Their exchange is a vicious cycle of mutual resentment. Prospero’s justification for tyranny—Caliban’s attempted violation of Miranda—is potent, yet his failure to educate (“I endowed thy purposes / With words that made them known”) speaks to a deep-seated, possibly racist, pessimism about “nature.”
With Ferdinand: His feigned severity (“I’ll manacle thy neck and feet together”) is a calculated performance. His asides (“It goes on, I see, / As my soul prompts it”) reveal his true, orchestrating intent. He engineers the love match as part of his grand design, demonstrating his puppeteer-like control over human emotion.
Analyse Prospero’s use of different linguistic registers (narrative, threatening, imperious) to manage different relationships. Consider how his account of Milan may be a constructed narrative to justify his actions.
Act II: The Unseen Puppeteer – Power from a Distance
Prospero does not appear physically in Act II, yet his presence is omnipresent through his proxy, Ariel. This absence is deeply revealing.
His omnipotence and surveillance are confirmed by Ariel’s report of the shipwrecked nobles and his intervention to thwart Sebastian and Antonio’s conspiracy. Prospero’s power operates as a form of divine providence or panoptical control. The parallel between Antonio’s past treachery and Sebastian’s present plot reinforces Prospero’s moral framework—he is observing a repetition of sin, which his magic will punish and correct.
Discuss the dramatic significance of Prospero’s absence. How does it elevate his stature to a god-like observer and reinforce themes of fate and control?
Act III: The Artist as Spectator and Judge
Scene 1: Prospero’s visible but hidden observation of Ferdinand and Miranda’s love scene is key. His silence here is more telling than his earlier interventions. His aside (“Fair encounter / Of two most rare affections! Heavens rain grace / On that which breeds between ‘em!”) shows his paternal satisfaction and approval. The stern test is revealed as a façade; his project of political restoration through dynastic marriage is on course.
Scene 3: Here, Prospero’s art reaches a sinister zenith. As the invisible stage-manager of punishment, he crafts the harpy’s banquet, a spectacular moral allegory designed to inflict psychic, not physical, torment. Ariel’s accusatory speech is Prospero’s voice, channeling his rage and demanding repentance. This is not forgiveness but judgement through theatre, targeting the “three men of sin.” It shows Prospero’s vengeful streak and his belief in the corrective power of traumatic illusion.
Contrast Prospero’s treatment of the lovers (benign manipulation) with his treatment of the nobles (harsh psychological theatre). What does this reveal about his sense of justice?
Act IV: The Vulnerable Artist – The Masque and its Fracture
Scene 1: This scene contains the apogee and sudden collapse of Prospero’s artistic control. The betrothal masque (Ceres, Iris, Juno) is a gift, a Neo-platonic ideal of harmony, chastity, and natural order—a vision of the future he desires. Its abrupt dismissal (“I had forgot that foul conspiracy”) is a crucial moment of humanising vulnerability. The famous “Our revels now are ended” speech transcends the immediate plot; it is a meta-theatrical meditation on transience, the illusion of art, and, by extension, his own life and power. His anger at Caliban’s plot is thus also an anger at the intrusion of base reality upon perfect art.
This is the heart of any Prospero essay. Analyse the masque as a symbol of his idealised vision, and its dissolution as a moment of profound philosophical and dramatic self-awareness, linking directly to Shakespeare’s own art.
Act V: The Renunciant – From Magic to Mercy
Scene 1: Prospero’s ultimate transformation. Dressed in his ducal robes, he completes his arc.
The Soliloquy of Renunciation: His elegy for his “rough magic” (“I have bedimm’d / The noontide sun…”) is both a celebration and a farewell. Breaking the staff and drowning the book are acts of wilful de-powering, a choice to return to humanity and responsible governance.
The Confrontation: Facing his enemies, he shifts from revenger to moral arbiter and merciful victor. He forgives Alonso (“Let us not burthen our remembrances with / A heaviness that’s gone”), warns Sebastian and Antonio with chilling clarity, and spares them. The forgiveness of Antonio—notably silent—remains deliberately ambiguous, a masterstroke of psychological realism.
The Releases: Freeing Ariel (“Be free, and fare thou well!”) is an emotional release from his magical self. His handling of Caliban (“This thing of darkness I / Acknowledge mine”) is a stark, possibly grudging, acceptance of responsibility for his creation/slave.
The Epilogue: The final blurring. Now stripped of magic, Prospero stands as an actor, pleading with the audience for applause and prayers to set him free. This completes the metatheatrical circle, making Prospero’s quest for freedom a mirror of the actor’s/playwright’s reliance on the audience’s grace.
Evaluate the sincerity and completeness of Prospero’s forgiveness. Is his renunciation of power convincing? Analyse the epilogue as the final, crucial piece of his character puzzle.
Important Exam Questions with Modal Answers
Question 1: “Prospero is a vindictive tyrant, not a benevolent ruler.” To what extent do you agree with this view of his character?
Modal Answer: While Prospero exhibits tyrannical tendencies, particularly in his treatment of Caliban and his psychologically cruel punishment of the nobles, to label him solely a vindictive tyrant is reductive. He is a complex, evolving figure whose initial desire for vengeance is ultimately superseded by a conscious choice for mercy and order. His tyranny is evident: he enslaves Ariel through conditional promises, subjects Caliban to dehumanising brutality, and manipulates Miranda and Ferdinand. His “project” is undeniably self-serving—restoration and dynastic security.
However, Shakespeare complicates this picture. Prospero’s backstory justifies his anger, and his magic is often used protectively (saving the ship, guiding the lovers). His ultimate actions in Act V are deliberately non-tyrannical: he renounces the absolute power of magic, forgives his enemies, and prepares to return to Milan’s constitutional rule, where his “every third thought shall be the grave.” His forgiveness, though staged, is a political and moral necessity that breaks the cycle of revenge. Therefore, he is better understood as a flawed governor who learns that true sovereignty lies not in occult coercion but in clemency and the responsible relinquishment of power.
Question 2: How does Shakespeare use the relationship between Prospero and Ariel to explore themes of power, freedom, and creativity?
Modal Answer: The Prospero-Ariel dynamic is the principal vehicle for exploring the ethics of creative and political mastery. Ariel, an “airy spirit,” represents the ethereal tool of Prospero’s art—his magic, his imagination, his ability to stage-manage reality. Their relationship is a contract: service for promised liberty. Prospero’s constant reminders of Ariel’s past torment (“the dark deep and loathsome den”) reveal power maintained through debt and psychological coercion, mirroring a ruler’s manipulation of subjects.
The theme of freedom is central. Ariel’s exquisite yearning for liberty (“Do you love me, master? No?”) underscores the intrinsic desire for autonomy that even the most efficient servitude cannot extinguish. Prospero’s final grant of freedom (“Be free!”) is thus a pivotal moment of renunciation; it signifies Prospero releasing his own artistic power, his “so potent art.” Creatively, their separation symbolises the end of the play—the artist setting his imagination free. Through them, Shakespeare suggests that true creative and political power is demonstrated not in perpetual control, but in the gracious act of release.
Question 3: In what ways can Prospero be seen as a representation of Shakespeare himself, and how does this metatheatrical reading deepen our understanding of the play?
Modal Answer: Prospero functions as a profound metatheatrical surrogate for the playwright, a reading that illuminates The Tempest as a meditation on the art of theatre itself. Prospero is the ultimate director-playwright: he conjures the opening storm (the play’s dramatic hook), manipulates characters into his plot, stages elaborate spectacles (the masque, the harpy), and resolves the complex narrative. His “magic” is analogous to theatrical illusion.
His famous “Our revels now are ended” speech explicitly links the island’s illusions to the transience of the “great globe itself,” a likely reference to the Globe Theatre. His abjuration of magic in Act V parallels Shakespeare’s own artistic retirement, the “drowning” of his book a symbolic farewell to his craft. The epilogue, where Prospero stands stripped of power, begging for applause, completes this: the character dissolves into the actor, reliant on the audience’s “indulgence” for his freedom. This reading deepens our understanding by framing the play’s themes of control, forgiveness, and release as reflections on the playwright’s power over his fictional world and his ultimate dependence on the audience’s judgement. It transforms The Tempest from a mere romance into a self-conscious commentary on the nature of artistic creation.
