Act 1, Scene 2 Flashcards
Miranda and Prospero’s relationship dynamic
Not typical, Miranda does submit to Prospero, Prospero wants to get across the exposition and Miranda acts as a mouthpiece of the audience.
Miranda uses emotional blackmail to challenge Prospero depicting her as a bold figure, she has inherited a sense of control from Prospero as she lacks a maternal figure to replicate women’s etiquette.
Miranda- “ O, I have suffer’d, With those that I saw suffer”
She is empathetic but aware of her father’s power.
She is immediately characterised as a sympathetic and a good-natured character, she seems to be emotionally driven which fits into the stereotype of women in the Elizabethan/ Jacobean society.
Miranda- “Had I been any god of power, I would Have sunk the sea within the earth or ere.”
Indicates Miranda’s weakness.
Hyperbolic- Miranda would eliminate everything to save the people aboard the ship, plays into the stereotype that women cannot be trusted with power as they are too emotionally driven to be logical.
Prospero- “Be collected; …. Tell your piteous heart, There’s no harm done.”
Emotional invalidation.
He created the storm.
Prospero- “1I have done nothing but take care of thee,
Of thee, my dear one, thee my daughter, who
2Art ignorant of what thou art.”
1-Emotional blackmail, cyclical that Miranda and Prospero utilise similar manipulation tactics to provoke a desired reaction.
2- Miranda’s lack of knowledge as Prospero reveals that Miranda doesn’t really know who she is, he wants to evoke a feeling of pity from Miranda. He has concealed her past and he introduces the idea of the unknown.
Prospero-“ And pluck my magic garment from me. So,
Lie there my art”
Disguise/ garment enables magical powers.
He retells the exposition and informs Miranda that he created the chaos through his magic.
Sets his powers aside which foreshadows events later in the play.
Prospero- “No, not so much perdition as an hair,
Betid to any creature in the vessel”
Unreliable recollection.
Anti-hero protagonist.
Perdition= eternal time in hell.
Prospero- “Obey and be attentive. Canst thou remember
A time before we came unto this cell?”
Imperative cementing the stereotype of the father-daughter dynamic. Commands her emotions.
She has to submit to her father as he is her guardian and the head of the household.
“Cell”, suggests entrapment which further symbolises the oppression of women and the lack of women’s rights in earlier societies, Prospero has confined her to the island limiting her right of movement which allows him to be completely in control 24/7.
Prospero- “What seest thou else
In the dark backward abysm of time?”
Cuts to the core of what the past is, projects his opinions of the past to her through his negative vocab.
Prospero- “Twelve year since,”
12 is associated with heavens and carries religious, mythological and magic symbolism representing perfection, establishing that Prospero has been scheming for so long and perhaps represents his egotistical personality as he believes his plan is now perfect because of the connotations of perfection to the number 12.
Prospero- “The ivy which had hid my princely trunk
And suck’d my vendure out on’t”
The metaphor depicts Antonio as a parasite who turned against Prospero.
Vendure-life.
Prospero- “My library
Was dukedom large enough”
Trying to be humble.
Recognises that he prioritised his studies over his social standing.
Miranda- “ Good wombs have borne bad sons”
The woman is blamed for male faults. Internalised sexism/misogyny. Calls into question the influence of parents and social status as even being in exile Miranda has these views expected of men in mainstream society. shows prosperos influence and Miranda’s social isolation.
Critique of humanity, corruption will always infiltrate a utopia.
Prospero- “ My tale provokes that question.
A mark so bloody on the business”
Miranda has questioned Prospero which depicts Miranda as a subversion to a Jacobean woman as she has inherited such traits from Prospero which also contributes to a lack of maternal influence she had been exposed to.
Recognises Miranda’s challenge and wants to maintain power, wants to draw attention back to himself and his bias narrative.
Prospero- “ I prize above my dukedom”
Unreliable narrator and still got what he wanted.
