Prospero
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Prospero is the protagonist in The Tempest, a play by William Shakespeare.
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[edit] The Tempest
Prospero was the rightful Duke of Milan, who (with his infant daughter, Miranda) was put to sea on "a rotten carcass of a butt (boat)" to die by his usurping brother, Antonio, twelve years before the play begins. Prospero and Miranda survived, and found exile on a small island. He had learned sorcery (referred to as his "Art" in the play), and uses it while on the island to protect Miranda and control the other characters. On the island, he became the master of the monster Caliban (the son of Sycorax, a malevolent witch), and Ariel, an elemental who has become enslaved by Prospero after he is freed from his prison inside a tree.
By chance, Antonio sails near this island and Prospero conjures the eponymous tempest which forces him (and others) ashore. Prospero regains his dukedom from Antonio through the events of the play.
Because of his powers, some hold that Prospero represents Shakespeare, James I or God (an all controlling force).[citation needed]
However, 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 smacked too much of diabolical works; he will drown his books for the same reason that Doctor Faust, in an earlier play by Christopher Marlowe, futilely promised to burn his books.
[edit] Prospero's speech
The final soliloquy and epilogue in The Tempest is considered to be one of the most memorable speeches in Shakespearean literature. In it, Prospero describes his loss (magic) and his imprisonment of Caliban and Ariel. He relates his imprisonment of them to that of his own bondage, which can only be undone by the applause of the audience. Many feel that since The Tempest was Shakespeare's last play (though he did write one more, with some assistance), Prospero's feelings echo Shakespeare's own.
[edit] Epilogue
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 youth from crimes would pardon'd be,
Let your indulgence set me free.
[edit] In popular culture
- In the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comic by Alan Moore, Prospero appears as a founding member of the first League of Extraordinary Gentlemen in 1610, along side his minions Ariel and Caliban, as well as Robert Owe-much, Amber St. Clair, Orlando, Christian from The Pilgrim's Progress and Don Quixote, and plays a minor part in The Black Dossier as it is revealed that he is the one who sent Mina and Allan after the Dossier, and he also has the closing monologue of the third volume
- In The Sandman, the title character has William Shakespear write The Tempest. And it is presumed Prospero is based on Dream.
- Loreena McKennitt sings a slightly altered version of the epilogue speech on her 1994 album The Mask and Mirror.
- In The Reptile Room, one of the entries in A Series of Unfortunate Events, there is a ship called the Prospero, which is an allusion to this character.
- In the comic series Fables, Prospero is one of Fabletown's magic users.
- In Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Emergence, the episode starts out with Data playing Prospero. Captain Picard teaches Data about the role. The episode draws strongly from The Tempest, especially from Prospero's character, as it is one of the final episodes of the series.
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