miranda Flashcards
compassionate
Miranda is a compassionate, dutiful daughter, and her only harsh words in the play are directed at Caliban, who tried to rape her at one time.
“I have suffered
With those that I saw suffer”
isolated
Miranda is amazed when she sees other humans, and immediately falls in love with Ferdinand, even though he is only the third man she has met
“O brave new world
That has such people in’t!”
miranda and caliban
“poisonous slave,”
Miranda believes Caliban owes her a debt of gratitude for trying to civilize him.
Miranda and ferdinand
“I am your wife, if you will marry me; if not, I’ll die your maid”
her naivete
“How beauteous mankind is”
Miranda’s words reflect her naiveté—some of the men she admires are morally corrupt. Prospero’s comment “Tis new to thee,” implies that Miranda will learn that people aren’t really so “beauteous” at all.
inexperienced
“Miranda is inexperienced but not naive” - Frank Kermode
Adaptations in the romantic mode
focus on the relationship between Ferdinand and Miranda and the issues of reconciliation, repentance and forgiveness.
Claribel a version of Miranda
both have arranged marriages, that are dynastically important
both daughters used as a “commodity” - Richard Jacobs
only female
the absent women’s’ identities are forged their the language the male characters use to describe them
motherless
Coppelia Kahn - the lack of mothers is a significant factor in many of Shakespeare’s plays
Miranda’s mother
was a “piece of virtue, and/ She said thou was my daughter” - highlights male anxieties about the power that comes with a woman’s ability to bear a child
Calibans attempted rape
“people else this isle with Calibans” - not Mirandas - male superiority
Miranda is presented as passive
when Caliban offers her as a fertile prize, “she will become thy bed” - “she is an object onto which domineering male conflicts attempt to play out” - Lilla Grindlay
brought up
far away from the restrictive social attitudes of the time
talent for harsh invective
learnt from her father - “Abhorred slave” - not the sort of language expected from the daughter of a Duke
rebellious streak
disobeys her father as she is motivated by the positive force to love for ferdinand, rather than being deterred by his threats of violence
superficial obedience
Miranda’s apparent freedom
is illusory
Prospero “choreographs every aspect of her life” - Mike Brett
“a nonpareil”
true in literal terms, as she is the only female character on stage
as the only woman
she becomes, by default, the focus of male sexual attention
it’s Caliban’s attempted rape of her that sparks the animosity between master and slave
Caliban’s attempted rape
could be seen as him trying to overturn the hierarchy that makes her his teacher, and therefore his superior
Caliban is aware of
the political value of Miranda’s sexual appeal in an all-male society - offers her to Stephano as his queen, which then motivates him to kill Prospero
used as a bargaining tool
by marrying her to the Prince of Naples, Prospero doubles his own political influence
“my rich gift” - this reinforces the perception of Miranda as something to be “bartered over and traded between men” - Mike Brett
image of female perfection
“so perfect and so peerless”, “goddess”, “cherubin”
idea that she is an angelic or ethereal creature
miranda is the symbol of
“female perfection and male oppression” - Mike Brett
she is a
“pawn in a patriarchal society” - Mike Brett
subservient
“I’ll be your servant” - shows the archaic attitudes to women
may appear romantic in the context of their courtship but shows how she is conditioned to accept male authority - prevailing attitude of the time
her innocence of gender
difference leads her to believe that lifting logs “would become me / As well as it does you” - A Findlay
she is crucial to Prospero’s plan
as she is a walking emblem of chastity - Lenininger
2010 Julie Taymor film
adaption depicts Prospero as a woman accused of witchcraft - this highlights the significance of women in the play, despite there usually being only one onstage female character
Miranda in Herrin’s interpretation
roles her eyes when Prospero threatens Ferdinand about breaking her “virgin knot”
similarly, Orgel suggests that she’s keen for conjugal pleasures
