Prospero's Daughter

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In this retelling of William Shakespeare's play "The Tempest", Elizabeth Nunez not only pays homage to the writer, but manages to captivate her readers with good old fashion storytelling. Prospero is the rightful Duke of Milan, whose usurping brother, Antonio, had put him (with his three-year-old daughter, Miranda) to sea on a "rotten carcass" of a boat to die, twelve years before the play begins. Prospero and Miranda had survived and found exile on a small island. He has learned sorcery from books, and uses it while on the island to protect Miranda and control the other characters. Miranda is the daughter of Prospero, another of the main characters of The Tempest. She was banished to the Island along with her father at age three, and in the subsequent twelve years has lived with her father and their slave, Caliban, as her only company. She is openly compassionate and unaware of the evils of the world that surrounds her, learning of her father's fate only as the play begins.

King of Naples and father of Ferdinand. Alonso aided Antonio in unseating Prospero as Duke of Milan twelve years before. As he appears in the play, however, he is acutely aware of the consequences of all his actions. He blames his decision to marry his daughter to the Prince of Tunis on the apparent death of his son. In addition, after the magical banquet, he regrets his role in the usurping of Prospero. Antonio The daughter of Prospero, Miranda was brought to the island at an early age and has never seen any men other than her father and Caliban, though she dimly remembers being cared for by female servants as an infant. Because she has been sealed off from the world for so long, Miranda’s perceptions of other people tend to be naïve and non-judgmental. She is compassionate, generous, and loyal to her father.When Peter Gardner’s ruthless medical genius leads him to experiment on his unwitting patients—often at the expense of their lives—he flees England, seeking an environ where his experiments might continue without scrutiny. He arrives with his three-year-old-daughter, Virginia, in Chacachacare, an isolated island off the coast of Trinidad, in the early 1960s. However, others feel that Miranda's speech here is correctly attributed. As the play progresses, Caliban refers to Miranda as his "mistress", [17] saying that it was Miranda who explained to him what the moon and stars are. [18]

Alonso is the King of Naples. He helped Antonio to get rid of Prospero and take his brother’s place as Duke of Milan. He has two children, a daughter called Claribel and a son, Ferdinand. His fleet of ships is returning to Naples from Tunis but they are caught in a huge storm. Travelling with him is his son, his brother and other nobles. They are all washed up on the island after the storm, although Alonso thinks Ferdinand has drowned. When Alonso finally meets Prospero, he apologises and makes him Duke of Milan again. When he is reunited with Ferdinand and finds out about his engagement to Prospero’s daughter Miranda, he is delighted. I don't know why people say it's a good love story, it's not. Sure there is romance in the story but it's hardly worth mentioning. Paul arranged for Gardner’s move to Chacachacare, an island northwest of Trinidad, home of a once thriving leper colony. Gardner and his three-year-old daughter, Virginia, are given housing in the physician’s quarters on the island. It’s the perfect hideout. On the island, Prospero becomes master of the monster Caliban (the son of Sycorax, a malevolent witch) and forces Caliban into submission by punishing him with magic if he does not obey. Meanwhile, the Duke Antonio and King Alonso are wandering about with their servants, Sebastian and Gonzalo. There’s a bit of a mid-snooze assassination attempt, but Ariel wakes them up.

Gardner considers the locals to be nothing more than savages. He assumes ownership of the home of a servant boy named Carlos, seeing in him a suitable subject for his amoral medical work. Nonetheless, he educates the boy alongside Virginia. As Virginia and Carlos come of age together, they form a covert relationship that violates the outdated mores of colonial rule. When she is finally introduced to the assembled crowd she reacts with wonder, proclaiming the play's most famous lines:

In Act I, Scene II, the lines spoken by Miranda to Caliban rebuking him for his ill-treatment of Prospero are frequently reassigned to Prospero. Editors and critics of the play felt that the speech was probably wrongly attributed to her either as a printing error or because actors preferred that no character would remain silent too long on stage. [15]Critic Jessica Slights creates claims that although many declare that Miranda only reflects the image of an obedient and subservient woman; she argues Miranda's character is independent. Miranda's upbringing shapes her character and the view of the world around her. She is not confined to social constructs as she did not grow up within a conventional society. This leads Miranda to view the world without preconceived ideas. Prospero is the main guardian in her life, but she developed personality traits such as kind-heartedness that are, as many describe, distinct in comparison to Prospero’s. In addition, she challenged the rules of traditional courtship when she pursued Ferdinand. Clare Savage, a protagonist of Michelle Cliff's novel No Telephone to Heaven, is frequently seen to be a modernised Miranda. [21] Miranda is featured in the 2019 novella Miranda in Milan, which imagines the events after The Tempest. Nostbakken, Faith. Understanding The Tempest. 1st. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004. Print.