Prospero

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Prospero
The Tempest character
Prospero and Miranda by William Maw Egley
Created byWilliam Shakespeare

Prospero (

The Tempest
. Prospero is the rightful
sorcery
from books, and uses it while on the island to protect Miranda and control the other characters.

Before the play has begun, Prospero has freed the magical spirit Ariel from entrapment within "a cloven pine". Ariel is beholden to Prospero after he is freed from his imprisonment inside the pine tree. Prospero then takes Ariel as a slave. Prospero's sorcery is sufficiently powerful to control Ariel and other spirits, as well as to alter weather and even raise the dead: "Graves at my command have waked their sleepers, oped, and let 'em forth, by my so potent Art." - Act V, scene 1.

On the island, Prospero becomes master of the monster

Caliban (the son of Sycorax
, a malevolent witch) and forces Caliban into submission by punishing him with magic if he does not obey.

At the end of the play, Prospero intends to drown his books and renounce magic. In the view of the audience, this may have been required to make the ending unambiguously happy, as magic was associated with diabolical works.

Prospero's speech

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".

One speech is the "Cloud-capp'd towers...".[1][2]

           Our revels now are ended: These our actors—,
           As I foretold you—, were all spirits and
           Are melted into air, into thin air;
           And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
           The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
           The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
           Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve
           And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
           Leave not a rack behind: we are such stuff
           As dreams are made on, and our little life
           Is rounded with a sleep. — The Tempest, Act 4, Scene 1

[1][2]

The final soliloquy and epilogue is the other candidate.[3]

           Now my charms are all o'erthrown,
           And what strength I have's mine own,
           Which is most faint: now, 'tis true,
           I must be here confined by you,
           Or sent to Naples. Let me not,
           Since I have my dukedom got
           And pardon'd the deceiver, dwell
           In this bare island by your spell;
           But release me from my bands
           With the help of your good hands:
           Gentle breath of yours my sails
           Must fill, or else my project fails,
           Which was to please. Now I want
           Spirits to enforce, art to enchant,
           And my ending is despair,
           Unless I be relieved by prayer,
           Which pierces so that it assaults
           Mercy itself and frees all faults.
           As you from crimes would pardon'd be,
           Let your indulgence set me free.

Portrayals

Stage

Portrayals of Prospero in Royal Shakespeare Company productions include:

Portrayals of Prospero at the

Old Vic
include:

Portrayals of Prospero for the

New York Shakespeare Festival
include:

Portrayals of Prospero for the Globe Theatre include:

Portrayals of Prospero for the

Stratford Shakespeare Festival
include:

Other stage portrayals of Prospero include:

Film and television

Prospero-esque characters have included:

  • Paul Mazursky's film Tempest (1982) starring John Cassavetes as "Philip Dimitrius", who is an exile of his own cynical discontent, ego and self-betrayal and who abandons America for a utopian "kingdom" on a secluded Greek isle.
  • The 1998 TV movie The Tempest, set in a Mississippi bayou during the American Civil War, based on Shakespeare's play and starring Peter Fonda as "Gideon Prosper", a Prospero-esque plantation owner who has learned voodoo from his slaves.

Audio

Audio portrayals of Prospero include:

In popular culture

References

  1. ^ a b c Shakespeare, William (1913). "Act 4, Scene 1". In Horne, David (ed.). The Tempest (Revised hardcover ed.). New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 72. ...it was probably Shakespeare's last effort.
  2. ^ a b c Jacobs, M W (30 March 2015). "Shakespeare's Parting Words". HuffPost. Retrieved 16 June 2017.
  3. ^ a b Shakespeare, William; Guthrie,Tyrone (1958). "The Tempest". In Alexander, Peter (ed.). The Comedies. New York: The Heritage Press. p. 4. Shakespeare himself was at the end of his career, and it is hardly possible not to see,...in Prospero's resignation of his magic a reflection of Shakespeare's own farewell to his art.
  4. ^ Eder, Richard (28 May 1979). "Stage: New Approach to the Tempest' on Coast". The New York Times.
  5. ^ "The Tempest". 5 March 2003.
  6. ^ "Review: 'The Tempest' at the Old Globe: Kate Burton casts a benevolent spell as Prospera - Los Angeles Times". Los Angeles Times. 26 June 2018.
  7. ^ "The Tempest".
  8. ^ "Radio Recall - MWOTRC".
  9. ^ "On The Vanishing of Ethan Carter's Ending (EXTREME SPOILERS)". Retrieved 7 October 2015.
  10. ^ "Prospero Burns publisher summary". Archived from the original on 13 October 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  11. ^ McCrory, Tom. Melon Cauliflower (PDF). RadioNZ. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 June 2013.
  12. ^ "Miś Fantazy". vod.tvp.pl. Retrieved 22 December 2016.

External links