Miranda / Role of Women Flashcards
Ferdinand enquiring about Miranda’s virginity
“if you be maid or no?” ; “o, if a virgin… I’ll make you queen of Naples”
Ferdinand is persistant about Miranda’s virginity. Women’s chastity held a great threat to the patriarchal society of the 17th century due to the male passing down inheritance, and so it was crucial that men needed to be sure their son was really their own. not a bastard. crucial to maintain a mans reputation with a faithful wife.
Shakespeare has shown this fear in Orthello when Iago tourments Othello about his Venetian wife (venice associated with cunning and immorality) Iago plays on: “In venice they do let god see the pranks they dare not show their husbands: their best conscience is not the leave undone, but keep unknown.”
Othello and virtuous women
Shakespeare has shown this fear in Orthello when Iago tourments Othello about his Venetian wife (venice associated with cunning and immorality) Iago plays on: “In venice they do let god see the pranks they dare not show their husbands: their best conscience is not the leave undone, but keep unknown.”
Miranda: “i prattle something
“i prattle something too wildly, and my father’s precepts i therein do forget” - Prospero has clearly taught Miranda of the conventional view that women should be sparing in their speech. Thomas Becon wrote in early 1600’s “ there is nothing that doth so much commend, advance… garnish a maid as silence”
jewel in my dower
“but by my modesty, the jewel in my dower” - objectifying her virginity as a “jewel” suggests Miranda is fully aware of the standard Renaissance prescriptions for feminine virtue
“i am your wife
“i am your wife, if you will marry me” - Miranda reveals her innocence and ignorance to society. The effect of this blunt statement for a contemporary audience would further emphasise her swaying from conventional female ‘modesty’.
Thou didst seek to
“thou didst seek to violate the honour of my child” - Caliban threats Prospero’s heritage through the attempted violation of Miranda. Threat to her chastity.
CRITIC “miranda is the catalyst
Nancy Meckler: “Miranda is the catalys of the story. had it been possible for her to have remained a child in a child’s body the tempest would have been unnecessary”.
This threat is shown through her three “suitours”. Caliban hopes to “people this isle with Caliban”, Caliban to stephano: “she will become thy bed” - thus Miranda must leave the island and enter society. Shakespeare as peversly echoed the traditional rival suitors expected at court to compete for a woman’s hand. he is subverting the conventions of courtly romance by threatening Miranda’s “honour”.
“she will become
“she will become thy bed”
Caliban promises Miranda to Stephano
“i dare not offer
“i dare not offer what i desire to give” - the dramatic effect of this line would shock a jacobean audience due to the sexual undertones of the language. Yet they may take comfort in the fact that Prospero is watching his “worm”, and approves of his daughters actions. The tone of this lines delivery is also crucial as to whether we should view Miranda as being rebellious or wholly ignorant and innocent
Barron
curse their marriage with “baron hate”. Importance of chastity. obsession with virginity
This damn’d
“this damn’d witch Sycorax” ; “this blue-eyes hag was hither brought with child” - Blue eyed was a symbol for pregnancy. Sycorax is deemed as being evil due to her defying society through her witchcraft (usually associated with women). The reference to her pregnancy suggests the male fear of women being chaists as it is beyond their control (thus Prospero’s use of curse - without his magic he is unable to control Miranda’s chastity). The patriarchal society is dependant on the fertility of women.
“are you not my…
Miranda asks “are you not my father?” Prospero lightheartedly replies “she said thou wast my daughter” - yet, although a joke, this line highlights the important theme of Chastity as Prospero does not actually know for sure - his “only heir” depends on his wife’s faithfulness.
I have like’d several
“i have like’d several women… O you, so perfect and so peerless”
Does he find no “defect” in Miranda because she has not yet been corrupted by society? Has never yet been exploited by the patriarchal society? She is the idealisation of the perfect woman, but will she remain so?
Miranda as a heroin
Miranda an “extreemly feeble heroin” (Ann Thompson)
Abhorrid slave… i pitied
“abhorrid slave… I pitied thee, took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour one thing or another. When thou dist not, savage… would gabble like a think most brutish” - Miranda here interjects with passionate hatred for Caliban. she demonstrates her strong-minded and capable side, in contrast to her previous seemingly placid nature. many 17-18th century editors gave this speech to Prospero, due to it being unlike the virtious Miranda to use such words. Yet Miranda echoes her fathers words (“thou poisonous slave”), so it is only natural that Miranda would be influenced, since she has the influence of no other. Furthermore, she had a “tutor” though prospero who “made thee more profit than other princes”, making Miranda capable of such an education of Caliban.
