Miranda's Father

Prospero’s Redemption:

A cherubin thou wast that did preserve me

As I began to prepare to play Prospero, I first had to figure out his motivation. Revenge for how he was treated by his brother did not seem sufficient or even that interesting, since he does not spend a lot of time in the play on the Royals. Prospero spends a lot of time with Ariel and there is potential for conflict there; we did explore the complexity of that relationship, but it could not be the driving force. It was as Miranda’s father I could root the performance. As part of a Shakespeare course I took a couple of decades ago, I had written an essay about an early passage from the celebrated Act 1, Scene 2 and re-reading it confirmed to me that this was the right choice. Here is the updated version of that old paper.

Miranda's Father

In the confines of the island, Prospero acts not just as a father and a teacher to Miranda, but also as a guide to adulthood. We hear from Miranda before we hear from Prospero: in one single speech, we learn that she is fully aware of his powers over stormy seas, has a compassionate heart for those who are in trouble, and is not afraid to question her father. The name ‘Miranda’ evoking wonderment was invented by Shakespeare- his other invented word ‘amazement’ appears multiple times in this play. In the exchange that follows, we learn how Prospero and Miranda came to be on the island following the betrayal by Prospero’s brother Antonio. Aside from the details of the story, it is instructive to observe the nature of the exchange itself.

As Prospero recounts his tale, he periodically interrupts himself to ask Miranda if she is paying attention: “dost thou attend me?”, “I pray thee mark me”, going so far as to admonish her “Thou attend’st not”. This can be read in two ways: Prospero is insecure of how his daughter would react to the story about her beginnings, or he is so used to the role of being her teacher he uses these admonishments casually. The two readings are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, we see Prospero constantly switching between his role as a father and as a teacher throughout the exchange. Consider this exchange that reveals a teacher’s evident delight at a student’s pertinent questioning.

Miranda Wherefore did they not

That hour destroy us?

Prospero Well demanded, wench;

My tale provokes that question.

[Scene 1.2 138-140]

The teacher becomes a father a few moments later when the daughter needs to be validated.

Miranda Alack, what trouble

Was I then to you!

Prospero O, a cherubin

Thou wast that did preserve me.

[Scene 1.2 151-153]

The shuttling between these two roles is not easy for Prospero. His language skills and his rhythms are not as confident as they later become with Ariel and Caliban in the same scene. He does not allow himself to become angry at Miranda; even when he mocks anger to prevent an easy romance between Miranda and Ferdinand, he only threatens to chide her. When he mocks anger at Ariel, he is not afraid to use harsh words, calling Ariel a “malignant thing” and threatening to lock them up in the tree from which they were freed. The exchange between Prospero and Ariel has comic undertones, and Prospero’s threats are not serious. When Prospero uses similar words with Caliban, they take a more ominous form. Prospero is most confident in dealing with Caliban, and he means his threats. Prospero cannot easily assert authority over his daughter as he does over Caliban, nor can he can relax into jocularity as he does with Ariel.

It is at this point instructive to compare Prospero with Polonius from Hamlet (we will talk about Shakespearean fathers in general later). In the absence of a mother, Polonius is Ophelia’s guide to adulthood. When we first meet the family (Hamlet, Scene 1.3), Polonius is providing worldly wisdom to both his son Laertes, and his daughter Ophelia. He urges Ophelia to be cautious of Lord Hamlet’s advances. Ophelia, about the same age as Miranda, follows her father’s orders to “repel his (Hamlet’s) letters and denied his access”. Polonius treats his daughter as though she were a child. Once he suspects that Hamlet’s madness maybe a result of his love/lust for Ophelia, he leverages that information to gain the king’s trust and goes as far as to pimp his daughter to figure out Hamlet’s state of mind. Even if that is too harsh a reading, it is clear that Polonius is not particularly cognizant of his daughter’s feelings, nor does he anticipate any of her reactions, leading to her tragic future. Prospero, when placed in a similar situation, acts as a trusty guide to Miranda’s adulthood.

Prospero’s plan to regain his dukedom involves the marriage between his daughter, Miranda and the heir apparent of Naples, Ferdinand. The marriage will ensure protection from Naples, and prevent the dukedom from passing on to his nefarious brother after his death. With the help of his spirit Ariel, Prospero arranges for the opportune meeting between Miranda and Ferdinand. He is at first overjoyed to see the two enraptured with each other [“It goes on, I see, as my soul prompts it”] and even moves up the time of Ariel’s release. But, time is essential for rapture to progress to love, else it becomes entrenched in lust.

Prospero They are both in either’s powers. But this swift business

I must uneasy make, lest too light winning

Make the prize light.

[Scene 1.2 454-456]

Prospero’s ability to think through his daughter’s feelings enables him to hinder the progress of their romance sufficiently for the romance to blossom. Ferdinand’s intoxication with Miranda may have enabled Prospero to control Ferdinand and through him, his father.

Prospero The Duke of Milan

And his more braver daughter could control thee

If now ‘twere fit to do’t.

[Scene 1.2 442-444]

If Miranda and Ferdinand were married before their initial wonderment with each other wore off, their marital future would be uncertain. By slyly encouraging their love to grow, Prospero secures both his dukedom and his daughter’s future happiness.

Juliet from Romeo and Juliet and Miranda share a fascinating parallel in that they fall in love with the first man/boy they see outside of their immediate family. Romeo and Juliet do not have a chance to let their lust grow into love due to the encouragement of Father Laurence, who sees their romance as a way to end the Montague-Capulet feud. It is not just the fathers who do disservice to their daughters, but also the father figures. Of course, Juliet’s real father Capulet is quite a shallow monster only interested in marrying her off to the bland Count Paris.

Once Prospero ensures that Miranda and Ferdinand have moved past wonderment and love breeds between them, he embraces their love and throws them a fertility masque (“some vanity of my art”). But, before the celebration, he demands of Ferdinand a promise that he will not violate Miranda’s virginity before the wedding night. The exchange between Prospero and Ferdinand is brutally frank, and Prospero makes Ferdinand repeat his promise before the masque can begin. It would be easy, nay even simplistic, to attribute this exchange to the overbearing overprotective nature of a typical Shakespearean father afraid of his daughter’s sexuality. Two factors imply otherwise. First, Prospero is aware that Caliban tried to rape his daughter and this undoubtedly has left its mark. If Ferdinand made his moves before their relationship takes root, Miranda’s previous trauma might doom their relationship. Second, the clinical nature of his demands removes any hint of incestuous feelings [the fear of female sexuality is something that must be addressed more completely]. This is in contrast to the figure closest to Prospero in Shakespeare- Vincentio, the Duke of Vienna.

The Duke of Vienna is the God-like figure who controls the events in Measure for Measure.* The Duke’s major task is to clean the city of Vienna of prostitution, without dirtying his own hands. One of his other tasks is to reinduct Isabella, an about to be confirmed nun, back into society. Isabella has a terrifying fear of male sexuality, the origins of which are only hinted at and never made explicit. The Duke of Vienna plays a father figure to Isabella throughout the play, and in the drawn out and cruel climactic act, forces Isabella to face the consequences of her beliefs. After draining her emotionally, he proposes marriage in a manner that does not allow her a voice, making the incest explicit. The Duke is the father figure who has power over Isabella, and he uses that power sexually. Prospero, as the figure closest to Vincentio in the Shakespearean oeuvre, is in this respect, diametrically opposite in behavior.

[*There are other curious parallels between The Tempest and Measure for Measure. Both Prospero and Vincentio are Dukes who do not fulfill their responsibilities. When it becomes too much, they let others do their dirty work for them- Prospero uses Ariel to do his mischief while he can appear above it all, and Vincentio uses Angelo to clean up the city without dirtying his own hands. The most curious parallel happens during the climactic events. Vincentio proposes marriage to Isabella and does not allow her to answer his proposal- he assumes she will acquiesce. Prospero forgives Antonio after reclaiming his dukedom, but does not allow his brother to ask for forgiveness- he acts as if Antonio is unrepentant.]

Fathers and Daughters in Shakespeare

We must, at this point, take a slight detour and look at Shakespearean fathers in general. One of the ways I approached Prospero is that he would have studied all of Shakespeare’s work and absorbed their lessons. He would have studied the Shakespearean fathers in some detail and vowed not to repeat their mistakes. In a play replete with echoes of all of his major works, this is not too theoretical as an approach.

In Shakespeare’s oeuvre, The Tempest is both a major work that stands on its own, and a work that informs our understanding of his oeuvre and is further informed by it. Stephen Greenblatt has referred to The Tempest as ‘an echo chamber of Shakespearean motifs’, and it is tempting to see this play as a summation of Shakespeare’s work (and thus Prospero, as a stand-in for Shakespeare himself). This is at best a gross oversimplification of the play, and may limit our understanding if we draw the allegory too closely. However, it does offer a point of departure for an analysis of some of the themes that pervade Shakespeare’s work: especially the duties of a ruler, the role of man in society, the rules of a society, the maintenance and breakdown of order in an enclosed situation away from society, and the role of a father in the orderly progression of society.

Fathers in Shakespeare are unreliable figures, especially when it comes to their daughters. When they don’t actively harbor incestuous feelings (see discussion about Pericles, Prince of Tyre below), they tend to treat their daughters as properties to be disposed of as they see fit. While the King of France manages to find a good match for Catherine in Henry V, it is more of a political arrangement. Baptista (The Taming of the Shrew) bemoans his inability to control his shrewish daughter Katherina unlike the seemingly pliant Bianca. In Much Ado About Nothing, Leonato wishes Beatrice to be his daughter so he could force her to love Benedick, just as he can command Hero to marry Claudio. A father’s influence over his daughter’s choices may even extend beyond the grave, as Portia finds out in The Merchant of Venice. The best a daughter may hope from their fathers is neutrality so the heroine can find her own path, as Rosalind (As You Like It) and Helena (All’s Well That Ends Well) discover. Rosalind and Helena are plucky heroines who control most of the events in their plays, their fathers and father figures mostly on the narrative sidelines.

The cruelty of fathers is made abject when their daughters dare to disobey them. While Shylock only cries out “O, my ducats, O, my daughter” after Jessica leaves him (The Merchant of Venice), Brabantio is astonishingly cruel after Desdemona runs off to marry Othello by cursing her and warning Othello that she will be as untrue as a wife as she was as a daughter

Brabantio Look to her Moor, if thou hast eyes to see.

She has deceived her father, and may thee.

[Othello, Scene 1.3, 649-50]

In A Midsummer’s Night Dream, Egeus goes so far as to invoke an ancient law to kill his daughter Helena rather than allow her to marry against his wishes. Even the best of daughters Lavinia, is eventually killed by Titus Andronicus when she stained the honor of his house by getting raped and mutilated.

The sentiments of a typical Shakespearean father might be best expressed by King Lear in his diatribe to Cordelia: “Better thou hadst not been born than not to have pleased me better”. Yet, it is in and with King Lear one sees a sea change in Shakespearean fathers. There are four important father-daughter pairs after Lear, and in each of them, the daughter becomes the vehicle for the father’s redemption, whether the father deserves it or not. Cymbeline and Leontes (The Winter’s Tale) both behave abominably towards their daughters, with the former banishing her and the latter leaving her to die in the woods. Cymbeline’s daughter Imogen, long considered one of the finest portrayals of an English heroine, undergoes numerous trials and eventually brings the whole family together. Perdita, abandoned to die and rescued by shepherds, stands for unspoiled nature ultimately redeeming court-corrupted Leontes and bringing the whole family together with her mother Hermoine. Typical of late romances, Cymbeline and Leontes are offered grace even when they don’t deserve it and have not earned it.

Pericles, Prince of Tyre offers two father-daughter pairs at two extremes. The play starts with Antiochus, the King offering his daughter in marriage to whoever solves his riddle; the answer to the riddle is that he is having incestuous relations with his daughter. Pericles faces a dilemma: failure to solve the riddle would be death, success would be an allegation that would also mean death. His trials start there and the entire play is a series of misadventures until the end where he finds his daughter Marianna in a reconciliation scene that manages to outdo even the stunning Lear-Cordelia reconciliation scene. The play that started with a perversion of the father-daughter relationship ends with a father reunited with a faithful and virginal daughter.

Against this background, Prospero stands out as a better patriarch in general, and a better father in specific. Even when Miranda becomes an important chess piece in Prospero’s game, he never loses sight of his role as her father and guide to adult life. One could attribute this to Prospero’s realization, never quite stated and only expressed in asides, that Miranda is his redemption.

Prospero’s Redemption

The factor that distinguishes the relationship between Prospero and Miranda from all other father-daughter relationships in Shakespeare is Prospero’s recognition that Miranda preserves his essential humanity. Prospero has already failed his first daughter, the Dukedom of Milan. Consider this part of the exchange between him and Miranda:

Prospero And Prospero the prime duke- being so reputed

In dignity, and for the liberal arts

Without a parallel- those being all my study,

The government I cast upon my brother,

And to my state grew stranger, being transported

And rapt in secret studies.

[Scene 1.2 72-77]

Prospero speaks about himself in third person, trying at first to build himself up in comparison to his brother. But he slips and accepts that he is partly to blame for the state slipping into his brother’s hands. The slip-up in accepting responsibility may have been due to his surprise at Miranda’s remembrance of her women attendants; Prospero is no longer as confident in his speeches as he is at the beginning of the scene and regains his confidence and composure only much later. His recognition of his own culpability* may be one reason why lets off his brother so easily at the end of the play.

[*Prospero further accepts that his neglect of wordly ends may have awakened Antonio’s evil nature, and the imagery of wakening/birth is repeated later in the same scene, and in the famous “Ye elves of hills” speech.]

Prospero finds in Miranda a chance to redeem his earlier mistakes. As he recounts the tale of his banishment, he recounts a specific instance where Miranda provided him with the courage to endure his banishment. Consider the whole of this exchange:

Prospero: To cry to th’ sea that roared to us, to sigh

To th’ winds, whose pity, sighing back again,

Did us but loving wrong.

Miranda Alack, what trouble

Was I then to you!

Prospero O, a cherubin

Thou wast that did preserve me. Thou didst smile,

Infused with a fortitude from heaven,

When I have decked the sea with drops full salt,

Under my burden groaned, which raised in me

An undergoing stomach, to bear up

Against what should ensue.

[Scene 1.2 149-158]

Prospero describes the hellish conditions of the sea voyage, a description that speaks of a milder tempest than the theatrical tempest set in motion by Prospero at the beginning of the play. In the midst of that tempest, Miranda’s smile provided Prospero with the necessary strength. The imagery that Prospero uses resembles that of giving birth: Miranda’s smile birthed in him a humanistic response that he had forgotten in his pursuit of the liberal arts. Without Miranda, Prospero would have given himself over completely to the liberal arts and removed himself from the human race. The realities of raising an infant, providing her with physical and mental nourishment provide grounding for Prospero away from his utopian idealism*. Prospero’s initial disdain for realism, and refusal to deal with reality led to his banishment. Miranda provides Prospero with a way to accept and deal with reality- she is ultimately the motivation for his breaking the staff and throwing off the cloak.

[*Shakespeare provides us with a clear picture of Prospero’s unrealistic visions in the form of Gonzalo’s pastoral dream in Scene 2.1. It is an impractical dream that Antonio and Sebastian ruthlessly mock. The parallels between Gonzalo and Prospero are reinforced by providing Gonzalo with a student, just as Miranda is Prospero’s student.]

There exists a strong parallel between Miranda’s smile waking up Prospero and Cordelia’s bliss evoking a similar response in King Lear.

Lear: You do me wrong to take me out o’th’ grave

Thou art a soul in bliss, but I am bound

Upon a wheel of fire, that mine own tears

Do scald like molten lead.

[Scene 4.6 38-41]

Lear loses his kingdom and his sanity as a result of his own decisions. In the full descent of his madness, Cordelia awakens in him a glimmer of hope. Lear resists coming out of his madness, but the sweet care of Cordelia brings him back to sanity. He even looks forward to spending time with his daughter in prison, full of hope that he can atone for his sins. But, it is too late for Lear. The glimmer of hope that Cordelia brings makes her death even more devastating. Lear starts the play asking what his daughters could do for him. He dies at the end with the realization he failed in his duties as a father. Prospero in The Tempest assumes his responsibility as a father before the events of the play started- his realization of his duties occurs at the right time for Miranda’s growth. When we consider the parallels between Lear and Prospero, we realize that Shakespeare could not have arrived at Prospero without going through Lear. Prospero recognizes that fate has dealt him a second chance to redeem himself.

Miranda: What foul play had we that we came from thence?

Or blessed was’t we did?

Prospero: Both, both, my girl.

By foul play, as thou sayst, were we heaved thence,

But blessedly holp hither.

[Scene 1.2 60-63]

If Miranda simply represented Prospero’s second chance, she would be no more than a symbol. Miranda also represents the continuation of Prospero’s lineage- both physically and intellectually. After Prospero’s death, Milan would be absorbed into Naples (ironically, fulfilling Alonso’s plan) and pass on to Miranda’s progeny. Intellectually, Shakespeare gives us enough signs that Miranda would be more than Ferdinand’s equal. When the curtain is pulled back to reveal Miranda and Ferdinand at the climactic events, they are playing chess and Miranda playfully accuses Ferdinand of cheating in order to win. She also suggests that she may let him get away with it. Miranda can not only play the king’s game and play it well, she also has the diplomatic skill of knowing when to gloat and when to turn it into play.

We can recognize the central role played by Miranda in The Tempest when we compare her with Ariel and Caliban. If Ariel represents the unpredictable superhuman (fire and air), and Caliban represents the predictable ‘base’ subhuman (earth and water), Miranda is the balance between the two. Shakespeare also implicitly links Miranda to civilization, and Ariel and Caliban to disordered nature by how they deal with nature. For a play set on an island, The Tempest is remarkably bereft of descriptions of nature- only Caliban and Ariel describe nature. Caliban focuses on the bounty of nature while Ariel focuses on death and transformation of nature. Miranda plays chess!

If we consider Ariel, Miranda and Caliban to be Prospero’s intellectual children, the parallels become more obvious. Ariel is a grown up child ready to leave the house, and by granting their freedom, Prospero prepares himself to let Miranda leave the house. Caliban cannot be taught and will always stay behind, and that failure weighs heavily on Prospero’s mind. Caliban is a constant reminder of Prospero’s own past failures as a human, and this partly explains the viciousness with which he treats Caliban. If Caliban could never be a student, and Ariel is past being a student, Miranda is the active student, eager to learn and apply what she has learned. When Miranda chooses her mate, she will not choose a god or a demon, but a human. She has clearly rebuffed Caliban in his attempt to violate her honor. When she attempts to identify Ferdinand as a spirit, Prospero is quick to correct her that “it eats and sleeps, and hath such senses as we have”. When Prospero manipulates the romance of Ferdinand and Miranda, he makes sure that the romance does not stop at wonderment (superhuman, not involving actual physicality) or degenerate into lust (subhuman, involving only the base nature of the body).

Finally, we can accept the central nature of Miranda in The Tempest when we recognize that she is the only character who links the past, the present and the future of the events in the play. Miranda reveals an early childhood memory from “the dark backward and abysm of time”, a memory that jolts Prospero into revealing more than he should.

Miranda: ‘Tis far off

And rather like a dream than an assurance

That my remembrance warrants. Had I not

Four or five women once that tended me?

[Scene 1.2 44-47]

Miranda’s memory is filled with the loving care of women- an image that becomes even more significant when we consider that Miranda is the only female character in the entire play. During the course of the play, Miranda finds a true love that is allowed to develop gradually. Her plot line effectively ends with the masque of Ceres, a fertility ritual. The masque indicates her future in bearing children and we expect her to be both the physical and intellectual parent. Prospero’s story effectively ends with him leaving the island- there is no real hope that he will be a great ruler (“every third thought shall be my grave”). But his heritage lives far beyond the events of the play- through Miranda, his redemption.