Characterization on The Tempest by William Shakespeare

Characterization on Comedy Drama

The Tempest

By: William Shakespeare

            1. Character of Prospero

Number	Methods of Characterization	Details in the Story	Motives	Explanation
1.	Appearance	1. [Act 1, Scene 2, Line 20-25] PROSPERO “'Tis time I should inform thee farther. Lend thy hand And pluck my magic garment from me.” MIRANDA helps PROSPERO remove his mantle “So, Lie there, my art…”	1. Prospero wears magic cloak.	1. Prospero is talking with his daughter, Miranda. He asks Miranda to help him remove his cloak. It turns out to be not just a normal cloak, but ones with magic. Prospero himself can do magic.
2.	Actions	1. [Act 1, Scene 2, Line 50-80] PROSPERO “Twelve year since, Miranda, twelve year since, Thy father was the Duke of Milan and A prince of power.” MIRANDA “Sir, are not you my father?” PROSPERO “Thy mother was a piece of virtue and She said thou wast my daughter. And thy father Was Duke of Milan, and thou his only heir And princess no worse issued.” PROSPERO “My brother and thy uncle, called Antonio— I pray thee, mark me (that a brother should Be so perfidious!)—he whom next thyself Of all the world I loved and to him put The manage of my state, as at that time Through all the signories it was the first, 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. Thy false uncle— Dost thou attend me?	1. Prospero tells his daughter that he was once a Duke of Milan dethroned by his own brother.	1. Prospero tells his daughter about his former identity that he was once a Duke of Milan. He used to have power as a prince. When he was a Duke of Milan, he was famous as the number one duke with dignity and great education. His brother dethroned him because he let loose control of his government. Prospero should not blame only his brother but also himself. If he was responsible and did his job properly, such chance like that would not happened.
		2. [Act 1, Scene 2, Line 240-300] PROSPERO “Oh, was she now? I’ll have to tell the story again every month, since you seem to forget it. This damned witch Sycorax was kicked out of Algiers for various witching crimes too terrible for humans to hear about. But for one reason they refused to execute her. Isn’t that true?”	2. Ariel asks Prospero’s promise about his freedom, but he reminds him of the past favor he had done for him and threatening him so that he is afraid of Prospero.	2. After reporting his task to Prospero, Ariel demands his freedom which Prospero has promised her. Yet, Prospero accuses Ariel for forgetting his good past favor he did for setting Ariel free from Prison his former master had put him. Prospero also threatens Ariel to lock him up again in prison for another 12 years. Ariel is terrified. Prospero has 2 kinds of personality, kind to only his daughter and evil to others.
		3. [Act 1, Scene 2, Line 320-325] PROSPERO “Come forth, I say! There’s other business for thee. Come, thou tortoise! When?” PROSPERO (to CALIBAN) “Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil himself Upon thy wicked dam, come forth!”	3. Prospero calls Caliban to appear before him.	3. Prospero and Miranda calls Caliban to appear in front of them. The way Prospero calls Caliban is really rude. It looks like Prospero looked down on Caliban.
3.	Words spoken by character	1. [Act 1, Scene 2, Line 150-160] MIRANDA “Alack, what trouble Was I then to you!” PROSPERO “Oh, a cherubim Thou wast that did preserve me. Thou didst smile Infusèd with a fortitude from heaven, When I have decked the sea with drops full salt, Under my burthen groaned; which raised in me An undergoing stomach to bear up Against what should ensue.”	1. Miranda, his daughter, was a source of encouragement for Prospero in difficult times.	1. When Prospero was forcibly dropped from his position, exiled to the sea, little Miranda kept his spirit in that difficult period, and they survived. Miranda is precious for Prospero. He loves his daughter so much.
4.	Thoughts	1.[Act 1, Scene 2, Line 410-415] PROSPERO (aside) It goes on, I see, As my soul prompts it.	1. He think his plan going perfect.	1. Prospero sets up a meeting between him, Ferdinand, and Miranda. Ariel is being used to make this happen. Prospero is undoubtedly cunning.
		2. [Act 1, Scene 2, Line 430-440] PROSPERO (aside) The Duke of Milan And his more braver daughter could control thee If now ’twere fit to do ’t! At the first sight They have changed eyes. Delicate Ariel, I’ll set thee free for this.	2. Prospero is talking to himslef that the real Duke of Milan is him.	2. Ferdinand greets Prospero and Miranda as Duke of Milan after his father’s death. It makes Prospero curses inside that he is the real Duke of Milan. He seems to have revenge and plans to do it. Vengeful Prospero has become.
		3. [Act 1, Scene 2, Line 445-450] PROSPERO “Soft, sir! One word more.” (aside) They are both in either’s powers, but this swift business I must uneasy make lest too light winning Make the prize light.”	3. Prospero plans something.	3. Prospero can sense that Ferdinand and Miranda are falling in love. But he plans to not make things easy for them. He is scheming.
		4. [Act 1, Scene 2, Line 495-500] PROSPERO (aside) It works! (to FERDINAND)    ”Come on.” (aside) Thou hast done well, fine Ariel! (to FERDINAND)    ”Follow me.” (to ARIEL) “Hark what thou else shalt do me.”	4. Prospero is satisfied with his plan and the success of Ariel.	4. Prospero plans to not make things easy between Ferdinad and Miranda for the sake of them. And the plan is going well. Ariel can carry out his orders well. In short, Prospero is a cunning fox.
5.	Other characters’ responses	1. [Act 4, Scene 1, Line 14-31] PROSPERO “Then as my gift and thine own acquisition Worthily purchased, take my daughter. But If thou dost break her virgin knot before All sanctimonious ceremonies may With full and holy rite be ministered, No sweet aspersion shall the heavens let fall To make this contract grow, but barren hate, Sour-eyed disdain, and discord shall bestrew The union of your bed with weeds so loathly That you shall hate it both. Therefore take heed, As Hymen’s lamps shall light you.” FERDINAND “As I hope For quiet days, fair issue, and long life, With such love as ’tis now, the murkiest den, The most opportune place, the strong’st suggestion, Our worser genius can shall never melt Mine honor into lust to take away The edge of that day’s celebration When I shall think, or Phoebus' steeds are foundered, Or night kept chained below.”	1. Prospero gives advices to Ferdinand, his to be son-in-law, and Ferdinand promises to obey.	1. Prospero is finally letting Ferdinand to marry Miranda, his beloved daughter. Advices are given as a good father of the the bride to Ferdinand, his future son-in-law. Ferdinand promised to fulfill Prospero's request and even swear to it. Prospero is a loving father. He wants the best for his daughter. Ferdinand who falls in love so hard with Miranda thinks so, that he shall treasure her as well.
		2. [Act 4, Scene 1, Line 155-156] PROSPERO 155Come with a thought. I thank thee, Ariel. Come. Enter ARIEL ARIEL Thy thoughts I cleave to. What’s thy pleasure?	2. Prospero summons Ariel, and she shows up right away.	2. Every time Prospero calls for Ariel, he will appear in no time asking Prospero on his order.
6.	Writer’s direct comments	1. -	1. -	1. -

            2. Character of Miranda

Number	Methods of Characterization	Details in the Story	Motives	Explanation
1.	Appearance	1. [Act 1, Scene 2, Line 416-422] FERDINAND (seeing MIRANDA)  “Most sure, the goddess On whom these airs attend! Vouchsafe my prayer May know if you remain upon this island, And that you will some good instruction give How I may bear me here. My prime request, Which I do last pronounce, is—O you wonder!— If you be maid or no.”	1. Ferdinand is amazed at Miranda’s beauty.	1. Ferdinand meets Miranda and Prospero for the first time. He is amazed at Miranda’s beauty, even asking her whether she is a goddess or a maiden.
2.	Actions	1. [Act 1, Scene 2, Line 1-13] MIRANDA “If by your art, my dearest father, you have Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them. The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch, But that the sea, mounting to th' welkin’s cheek, Dashes the fire out. Oh, I have suffered With those that I saw suffer. A brave vessel Who had, no doubt, some noble creature in her Dashed all to pieces. Oh, the cry did knock Against my very heart! Poor souls, they perished. Had I been any god of power, I would Have sunk the sea within the earth or ere It should the good ship so have swallowed and The fraughting souls within her.”	1. Miranda prays she could stop a ship sinking from a storm.	1. Miranda knows that a ship is sunk due to storm. Imagining those people crying, she feels sympathy. She prays that she had a power to prevent that ship from sinking.
		2. [Act 1, Scene 2, Line 355-370] MIRANDA “Abhorrèd slave, Which any print of goodness wilt not take, Being capable of all ill! I pitied thee, Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour One thing or other. When thou didst not, savage, Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like A thing most brutish, I endowed thy purposes With words that made them known. But thy vile race, Though thou didst learn, had that in ’t which good natures Could not abide to be with. Therefore wast thou Deservedly confined into this rock, Who hadst deserved more than a prison.”	2. Miranda shows her hatred to Caliban by using harsh words.	2. Miranda is a good girl, but when she is in front of Caliban, she is different. She hates Caliban for bad things he has done to her. Miranda hates bad person and shows her hatred clearly.
3.	Words spoken by character	1. [Act 1, Scene 2, Line 135-155] PROSPERO “Well demanded, wench. My tale provokes that question. Dear, they durst not, So dear the love my people bore me, nor set A mark so bloody on the business, but With colors fairer painted their foul ends. In few, they hurried us aboard a bark, Bore us some leagues to sea, where they prepared A rotten carcass of a butt, not rigged, Nor tackle, sail, nor mast. The very rats Instinctively had quit it. There they hoist us 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!”	1. Knowing her father was going through hard things when she was little, Miranda feels bad.	1. Prospero tells past memory when he was dethroned and expelled. Miranda was too young that time to understand things that happened, and she could only cry. Prospero was oscillating in the ocean with unworthy ships and crying children. He managed to pull over to a foreign island and they survived. Hearing all that from his father, Miranda feels bad because she was just a burden at the time for his father. Sympathy fills in her.
		2. [Act 1, Scene 2, Line 480-485] MIRANDA “Then my love is humble. I don’t feel any urge to see a more handsome man than this one.”	2. Miranda likes Ferdinand sincerely.	3 From the first sight, Miranda has fallen in love with Ferdinand. She says her love is sincere to his father. Miranda is a simple girl, she loves a man simply and earnestly.
4.	Thoughts	1. [Act 1, Scene 2, Line 440-445] MIRANDA (aside) Why speaks my father so ungently? This Is the third man that e'er I saw, the first That e'er I sighed for. Pity move my father To be inclined my way!	1. Miranda prays that his father would act nicely to Ferdinand.	1. Prospero is very rude to Ferdinand. Miranda immediately likes Ferdinand at first sight. But his father does not help her at all, so she prays inside hoping his father would act nice to him.
5.	Other characters’ responses	1. [Act 1, Scene 2, Line 150-160] MIRANDA “Alack, what trouble Was I then to you!” PROSPERO “Oh, a cherubim Thou wast that did preserve me. Thou didst smile Infusèd with a fortitude from heaven, When I have decked the sea with drops full salt, Under my burthen groaned; which raised in me An undergoing stomach to bear up Against what should ensue.”	1. Miranda feels bad for being a burden at Prospero’s hard time, but Prospero assures her that she is his source of encouragement at that moment.	1. When Prospero was forcibly dropped from his position, exiled to the sea, little Miranda kept his spirit in that difficult period, and they survived. Hearing his father hard moment, she feels sad she could not do something but cry, but Prospero assures her that everything was fine.
6.	Writer’s direct comments	1. -	1. -	1. -

            3. Character of Ariel

Number	Methods of Characterization	Details in the Story	Motives	Explanation
1.	Appearance	1. 1. [Act 1, Scene 2, Line 190-200] PROSPERO “Spirit, did you carry out the storm just as I ordered?”	1. Ariel is a spirit.	1. Ariel is a spirit who will obey Prospero.
2.	Actions	1. [Act 1, Scene 2, Line 190-210] PROSPERO “Spirit, did you carry out the storm just as I ordered?” ARIEL “Down to the last detail. I boarded the king’s ship, and in every corner of it, from the deck to the cabins, I made everyone astonished and terrified. Sometimes I appeared in many places at once. On the top sail and main mast I flamed in different spots, then I came together into a single flame. I flashed about faster than lightning. The fire and deafening cracks seemed to overwhelm even the god of the sea himself, making him tremble underwater.	1. Ariel reports that he has done Prospero’s order perfectly.	1. Ariel meet Prospero to report about the duty he gave. Ariel has done all to details.
3.	Words spoken by character	1. [Act 1, Scene 2, Line 190-195] ARIEL “All hail, great master! Grave sir, hail! I come To answer thy best pleasure, be ’t to fly, To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride On the curled clouds. To thy strong bidding, task Ariel and all his quality.	1. Ariel obeys Prospero’s orders.	1. Ariel greets his master, Prospero. He reports his duty has done.
4.	Thoughts	1. [Act 3, Scene 2, Line 110-115] ARIEL (aside) This will I tell my master.	1. Ariel will report to Prospero about Caliban’s plan on killing Prospero with Trinculo and Stephano.	1. Caliban, Trinculo, and Stephano plans on killing Prospero so that they can take control of the island. Ariel in his invisible form is listening to that. He will report it to his master, Prospero. Ariel is working hard to make good impression on Prospero.
5.	Other characters’ responses	1. [Act 5, Scene 1, Line 230-255] ARIEL (aside to PROSPERO) “Sir, all this service Have I done since I went.” PROSPERO (aside to ARIEL) ”My tricksy spirit!” ARIEL (aside to PROSPERO) “Was ’t well done?” PROSPERO (aside to ARIEL) “Bravely, my diligence. Thou shalt be free.”	1. Prospero is satisfied with Ariel’s work.	1. Prospero sends Ariel to his cell to fetch the clothes he once wore as Duke of Milan. Ariel goes and returns immediately to help his master to put on the garments. Prospero promises to grant freedom to his loyal helper-spirit and sends him to fetch the Boatswain and mariners from the wrecked ship. Ariel goes.
6.	Writer’s direct comments	1. -	1. -	1. -

            4. Character of Caliban

Number	Methods of Characterization	Details in the Story	Motives	Explanation
1.	Appearance	1. [Act 2, Scene 2, Line 20-25] Trinculo (sees CALIBAN) “What have we here? A man or a fish? Dead or alive? A fish. He smells like a fish, a very ancient and fish-like smell, a kind of not-of-the-newest poor-john. A strange fish! Were I in England now, as once I was, and had but this fish painted, not a holiday fool there but would give a piece of silver. There would this monster make a man. Any strange beast there makes a man. When they will not give a doit to relieve a lame beggar, they will lay out ten to see a dead Indian. Legged like a man and his fins like arms! Warm, o' my troth. I do now let loose my opinion, hold it no longer: this is no fish, but an islander that hath lately suffered by a thunderbolt.	1. Trinculo sees Caliban as man-monster.	1. Trinculo cannot decide whether Caliban is a “man or a fish” He thinks of a time when he traveled to England and witnessed freak-shows there. Caliban, he thinks, would bring him a lot of money in England. Thunder sounds again and Trinculo decides that the best shelter in sight is beneath Caliban’s cloak, and so he joins the man-monster there.
2.	Actions	1. [Act 3, Scene 2, Line 55-100] CALIBAN “Yea, yea, my lord. I’ll yield him thee asleep, Where thou mayst knock a nail into his head.” CALIBAN “Beat him enough. After a little time, I’ll beat him too.” CALIBAN “Why, as I told thee, ’tis a custom with him, I' th' afternoon to sleep. There thou mayst brain him, Having first seized his books; or with a log Batter his skull; or paunch him with a stake; Or cut his weasand with thy knife. Remember First to possess his books, for without them He’s but a sot, as I am, nor hath not One spirit to command. They all do hate him As rootedly as I. Burn but his books. He has brave utensils—for so he calls them— Which when he has a house, he’ll deck withal. And that most deeply to consider is The beauty of his daughter. He himself Calls her a nonpareil. I never saw a woman, But only Sycorax my dam and she. But she as far surpasseth Sycorax As great’st does least.”	1. Caliban makes a plan with Stephano and Trinculo on killing Prosero.	1. Caliban plots against Prospero. The key, Caliban tells his friends, is to take Prospero’s magic books. Once they have done this, they can kill Prospero and take his daughter. Stephano will become king of the island and Miranda will be his queen. Trinculo tells Stephano that he thinks this plan is a good idea, and Stephano apologizes for the previous quarreling. Caliban assures them that Prospero will be asleep within the half hour.
3.	Words spoken by character	1. [Act 1, Scene 2, Line 325-330] CALIBAN “As wicked dew as e'er my mother brushed With raven’s feather from unwholesome fen Drop on you both! A southwest blow on ye And blister you all o'er!”	1. Caliban curses Prospero and Miranda.	1. Caliban appears at Prospero’s call and begins cursing by chiding Prospero for imprisoning him on the island that once belonged to him alone. He reminds Prospero that he showed him around when he first arrived. Caliban, though, cleverly notes that he knows how to curse only because Prospero and Miranda taught him to speak. Caliban hates Prospero and Miranda, so much so he curses on them.
4.	Thoughts	1. [Act 1, Scene 2, Line 375-380] CALIBAN ”No, pray thee.” (aside) I must obey. His art is of such power, It would control my dam’s god, Setebos, And make a vassal of him.	1. Caliban surrenders knowing Prospero has greater magic.	1. Prospero orders Caliban to collect woods, but he rejects. It makes Prospero threatening Caliban to torture him with magic skill. Caliban surrenders knowing Prospero has greater magic.
		2. [Act 2, Scene 2, Line 45-50] CALIBAN (aside) These be fine things, an if they be not sprites. That’s a brave god and bears celestial liquor. I will kneel to him.	2. Caliban finds Stephano and Trinculo as good men, and he likes them.	2. Stephano and Trinculo are at Caliban’s house. They come out of nowhere, and shock Caliban who is mistaken them as Prospero’s evil spirit. An alcohol is given to Caliban by Stephano, and he likes both the alcohol and those two strangers.
5.	Other characters’ responses	1. [Act 1, Scene 2, Line 325-335] CALIBAN “As wicked dew as e'er my mother brushed With raven’s feather from unwholesome fen Drop on you both! A southwest blow on ye And blister you all o'er!” PROSPERO “For this, be sure, tonight thou shalt have cramps, Side-stitches that shall pen thy breath up. Urchins Shall, forth at vast of night that they may work, All exercise on thee. Thou shalt be pinched As thick as honeycomb, each pinch more stinging Than bees that made 'em.”	1. Caliban curses to Prospero, and he responds by threatening Caliban.	1. Caliban appears at Prospero’s call and begins cursing. Prospero promises to punish him by giving him cramps at night. Every time Caliban rebels or curses, Prospero will threaten him with magic.
6.	Writer’s direct comments	1. -	1. -	1. -

Author:

Arum Ratnaning Ratri

2211416050

English Literature, 2016

Universitas Negeri Semarang

For subject:

Drama Analysis (407)