- Development , change, transformation in prospy
- Progress, movement away from being entrapped in the understandable bitterness and
rage of the past → reconciliation
- How it’s possible to achieve a degree of reconciliation and not necessarily full
reconciliation (there is no proper repentance from Antonio) → you cannot create a
conscience where there is none → good wombs have borne bad sons
- Those who have the potential for alteration and change will change → Alonso, Prospy →
there must be a proper acknowledgement of the wrongs → they have to be aware of
what they are guilty of for “a clear life ensuing”
- Virtuous governance → how do you move from fallible human to a good leader still with
those faults
- Oppressive and misuse of power → is he guilty of it (Caliban, Ariel, nobles)
Prospy offers to the others a possibility for reconciliation and forgiveness and change
- Which will be accepted or not
Prospero’s change
- Scholar to scholar magician → dangerous
- Arts that have the potential to become forbidden arts
- His change is to acknowledge the danger of his power
- There is the potential for him to become faustian → there is a faustian potential for
Prospy → potential for hubristic misuse of power → when he discards that his
commitment is to become a wise but HUMAN ruler → embracing full humanity
- Pospy’s growth to wisdom → his key speeches
- It’s not despairing for him to acknowledge the fallibility and brevity of human life
- His acknowledgement of his link with Caliban → he has responsibility for Caliban’s
development but there is also a “Caliban” in each of us → they both feel betrayed by
each other → like a broken familial relationship → very difficult to heal
- He has to discard his magic for true self acknowledgement
Look at Prospero’s great speeches in DETAIL
How do we put all the others in (Miranda, Ferdinand, Ariel)
- Miranda and Ferdinand:
- P uses his powers benevolently in their match
- He essentially speeds up courtship → forces F to prove his love under brutal
circumstances
- Uses his magic powers to impose the test of proving love
- Then uses his magic to display the ideal of what their marriage should be
- The dance between the reapers and nymphs
- Earth and spirituality combine in the dance
- Magnificent vision of what marriage should be
- Cupid isn’t wanted (sexual) → humanity of Prospero