Prospero

A wronged ruler who becomes an island master

Prospero is the rightful Duke of Milan, Miranda’s father and a learned magician. Twelve years before the play begins, his brother Antonio took his dukedom with the help of Alonso, King of Naples. Prospero and the young Miranda were set adrift in an unsafe boat. Gonzalo supplied food, water and books, helping them survive and reach the island.

When his enemies pass nearby, Prospero orders Ariel to create the tempest. This gives him an opportunity to recover his position and confront those who betrayed him. Shakespeare makes his power morally complicated: Prospero ensures that nobody dies in the storm, but deliberately causes fear, separation and suffering. Being a victim of injustice does not automatically make him a just ruler.

His development therefore involves two connected questions: will he use his power for revenge or forgiveness, and can he learn to release the people he controls?

His account of Milan: sympathy and self-justification

In Act 1 Scene 2, Prospero tells Miranda their history. His long speeches provide the audience with essential information, but also allow him to shape the first account of Antonio’s betrayal. He repeatedly interrupts his story to demand attention: “I pray thee, mark me.” Here, “mark” means listen carefully. The courteous “pray” softens an instruction, yet its repetition suggests his need to control both Miranda’s attention and her understanding of the past.

In the same scene, Prospero explains his earlier priorities: “Me, poor man, my library / Was dukedom large enough”. The metaphor makes his library a substitute kingdom: intellectual study satisfied him more than government. “Poor man” encourages pity for the betrayed brother, but his admission also reveals a failure of responsibility. He entrusted government to Antonio while withdrawing into his studies. Antonio chose to betray him; nevertheless, Prospero’s neglect helped create the opportunity.

Books connect his past and present. In Milan, they distracted him from political rule; on the island, they help him command spirits and recover power. By the ending, giving up his magical book can suggest a new willingness to live within the responsibilities and limits of ordinary human government.

A loving father who controls Miranda

Prospero presents his actions as being for Miranda’s benefit. In Act 1 Scene 2, he tells her, “I have done nothing but in care of thee,” and reassures her that the shipwreck has caused no physical harm. He has raised and educated her, and remembers her childhood smile as a source of strength during their exile. These details support a reading of him as a devoted father.

Yet his care comes with control. He decides when Miranda may learn her own history, ends her questions and makes her sleep. He also engineers her meeting with Ferdinand, pretends to oppose their attraction and imposes labour on Ferdinand to test his love. The audience understands his plan through his asides, while the young couple initially experience his behaviour as hostility. This creates dramatic irony: we know more about his intentions than they do.

In Act 3 Scene 1, Prospero watches their courtship unseen and expresses genuine joy at their affection. Their marriage can make Miranda happy while also joining Milan and Naples politically. His paternal and political motives need not be separate.

Jacobean society was patriarchal: fathers had considerable authority over daughters and marriage arrangements. In Act 4 Scene 1, Prospero calls Miranda “my rich gift” when approving the marriage. This can express how precious she is to him, but its language also treats her as something he may transfer to another man. Shakespeare allows care and possessiveness to exist together.

Ariel: gratitude enforced through fear

Prospero rescued Ariel from the tree in which Sycorax had imprisoned him. This gives Ariel a reason for gratitude, and Prospero often praises his skill. However, when Ariel asks for his promised liberty in Act 1 Scene 2, Prospero threatens him: “If thou more murmur’st, I will rend an oak”.

“Murmur” reduces a reasonable request to troublesome complaining. The conditional “If” makes obedience the condition for avoiding punishment, while “rend”, meaning tear apart, displays Prospero’s violent power. He threatens to imprison Ariel inside the oak for twelve winters, repeating the kind of suffering from which he once rescued him. The contrast undermines any simple division between Prospero as a good magician and Sycorax as a cruel one.

Nevertheless, his relationship with Ariel develops. By Act 5 Scene 1, Prospero listens to Ariel’s concern for the prisoners and eventually fulfils his promise of freedom. A generous reading sees a master learning to value his servant’s judgement; a critical reading stresses that freedom has depended on satisfying the master’s demands. Ariel’s own responses are explored further in the Ariel lesson.

Caliban: protection, punishment and possession

Prospero’s treatment of Caliban is harsher. In Act 1 Scene 2, he declares: “Thou most lying slave, / Whom stripes may move, not kindness!” “Stripes” means blows or lashes. The antithesis between “stripes” and “kindness” presents violence as the only effective way to govern Caliban. Calling him a “slave” reduces him to his subordinate position rather than recognising him as an equal person.

Prospero explains that he originally sheltered Caliban, but confined him after Caliban attempted to violate Miranda. Caliban’s response confirms the threat rather than expressing remorse. This gives Prospero a serious protective motive. Later, Caliban’s plot to murder him adds another reason for his fear and anger. However, protection does not settle whether repeated threats, insults and magical torture are proportionate or just.

A postcolonial reading considers Prospero as a European who takes control of an island and exploits its inhabitant’s labour. Caliban claims that the island belonged to him through his mother and describes sharing its resources with Prospero before losing his freedom. This creates an uncomfortable parallel: Prospero condemns the seizure of his own dukedom while ruling land that Caliban claims has been taken from him.

The play emerged during England’s early colonial ventures, making questions of possession and supposedly ‘civilising’ others relevant. But Prospero arrives as an exile seeking survival, not as someone who originally planned a conquest. A convincing interpretation weighs both his circumstances and the domination he subsequently exercises.

The limits of his command

Prospero usually speaks in blank verse: unrhymed lines built around the five-beat rhythm of iambic pentameter. This formal verse supports his learned, authoritative identity, while long speeches of explanation and command give him a dominant place in conversations. Yet Shakespeare offers relatively little sustained private self-examination. His asides often reveal that a plan is working rather than fully explaining his feelings. The audience must therefore judge motives through his words, actions and relationships.

Act 4 Scene 1 briefly exposes his vulnerability. He interrupts the masque when he remembers Caliban’s murder plot, then tells Ferdinand: “Bear with my weakness; my old brain is troubled.” Unlike his threats to servants, this asks another person for patience. “Weakness” and “old” reveal an ageing human being beneath the apparently commanding magician.

Structurally, the abrupt collapse of the celebration disrupts his image of complete control. Although he directs spirits and spectacular performances, he can forget, become distressed and struggle to calm himself. His reflection “We are such stuff / As dreams are made on”, spoken to Ferdinand in Act 4 Scene 1, connects this interrupted performance with the fragility of human life. The dream imagery is explored in the Act 4 lesson; for Prospero’s character, the important connection is that even his impressive power cannot remove human limits. This helps prepare for his eventual surrender of magic.

From controlling others to governing himself

The Act 5 lesson explores the reconciliation in detail. For Prospero’s development, its central change is his decision to restrain anger rather than continue punishment. After Ariel describes the prisoners’ suffering, Prospero declares in Act 5 Scene 1 that “the rarer action is / In virtue than in vengeance”. The contrast makes mercy, rather than retaliation, the greater achievement: his test becomes self-command.

This may be a genuine change prompted by Ariel, or forgiveness may complete an existing plan to restore his dukedom and secure Miranda’s future. His earlier anger supports the first reading; his careful planning and political gains support the second. The ending can combine moral growth with practical advantage. Forgiveness remains difficult, since Prospero still condemns Antonio, who gives no explicit speech of repentance.

In Act 5 Scene 1, Prospero moves from describing “my so potent art” to declaring “this rough magic / I here abjure”. “Potent” means powerful; “abjure” means formally renounce. Giving up what made him dominant suggests a willingness to accept limits, although he still uses magic to complete his work before surrendering it.

The historical context sharpens this choice. James I opposed witchcraft, and the English law enacted in 1604 made invoking evil spirits or dealing with familiar spirits punishable by death. Prospero’s command of spirits could therefore unsettle a Jacobean audience, despite his presentation of himself as learned and purposeful. His renunciation can suggest ethical restraint as well as a return to an acceptable social order.

Does the ending make him a better master?

Prospero’s words about Caliban in Act 5 Scene 1, “this thing of darkness I / Acknowledge mine.”, leave his development open to judgement. “Mine” can continue his claim of ownership, while “thing” remains dehumanising. Alternatively, “Acknowledge” can suggest accepting responsibility for Caliban and recognising darkness connected with his own rule. Growth does not necessarily mean complete transformation.

In the Epilogue, Prospero’s final appeal, “Let your indulgence set me free.”, reverses his position: the master who controlled others’ liberty now asks the audience for release. Its short rhyming couplets replace his usual blank verse with an appeal for applause and forgiveness. The Act 5 lesson examines this theatrical ending more closely.

A balanced judgement is that Prospero becomes more willing to limit his power and show mercy, but Shakespeare does not erase his controlling behaviour. His growth matters precisely because forgiveness and release require him to surrender something he has valued.

Turning evidence into an essay paragraph

A quotation becomes useful when it supports a claim about Shakespeare’s presentation. Select a revealing word or contrast, explain its significance in that moment, and connect it to the character’s development. For a question about whether Prospero is a good master, a paragraph might read:

Shakespeare presents Prospero’s authority as morally contradictory. In Act 1 Scene 2, he threatens Ariel, “If thou more murmur’st, I will rend an oak”. The violent verb “rend” displays his power, while “murmur’st” dismisses Ariel’s request for liberty as disobedience. Although Prospero rescued Ariel from Sycorax’s imprisonment, he now threatens to repeat that suffering, making his claim to benevolent mastery questionable. Prospero brings a hierarchical model of authority from Milan to the island, but Shakespeare tests whether the protection he offers can justify the obedience he demands. His rescue of Ariel gives him a responsibility towards the spirit, not simply an unlimited right to command him. His eventual release of Ariel in Act 5 Scene 1 suggests that he learns to restrain this power. Shakespeare therefore makes a good master not simply someone who can command obedience, but someone willing to relinquish control.

Character journey

Wronged duke → controlling magician → forgiving ruler → dependent petitioner.

• Antonio usurps him; withdrawal into study helped create the opportunity.
• He protects Miranda but controls her knowledge and courtship.
• He rescues Ariel yet threatens renewed imprisonment.
• Caliban’s attempted assault explains his protective anger; enslavement and punishment invite criticism.
• The ending shows greater restraint, not an uncomplicated transformation.

Evidence anchors

All spoken by Prospero:

• Act 1 Scene 2: “I pray thee, mark me.” — control of attention and narrative.
• Act 1 Scene 2: “Me, poor man, my library / Was dukedom large enough” — learning, self-pity and neglected government.
• Act 1 Scene 2: “If thou more murmur’st, I will rend an oak” — coercive mastery of Ariel.
• Act 1 Scene 2: “Thou most lying slave, / Whom stripes may move, not kindness!” — violence presented as necessary.
• Act 4 Scene 1: “Bear with my weakness; my old brain is troubled.” — vulnerability beneath command.
• Act 5 Scene 1: “my so potent art” → “this rough magic / I here abjure” — power voluntarily renounced.
• Act 5 Scene 1: “the rarer action is / In virtue than in vengeance” — mercy and self-command.
• Act 5 Scene 1: “this thing of darkness I / Acknowledge mine.” — ownership or acceptance of responsibility.
• Epilogue: “Let your indulgence set me free.” — reversal of power.