Prospero controls the characters: Ariel, Caliban, and Miranda all through the use of rhetoric.
To control Ariel, he constantly reminds her of the "torture [he] freed [her] from". He gains her complete obedience by constantly reminding her of that fact that he had rescued her. Whenever Ariel shows that she may be straying from complete obedience, he reminds her of how he saved her and thus renews her greatfulness towards him. Prospero is very similiar to the figure head "Big Brother" in the novel 1984. Just as Prospero has saved Ariel from her suffering, Big Brother rescues the citizens of Oceania from their past. In addition, he uses threats such as threataning to "rend an oak . And peg [her] in his knotty entrails till [she] hast howled away twelve winters". By making threats such as this, he uses fear as a way to keep control over Ariel. This is very similiar to how the thought police and ministry of love in 1984 use fear to keep their citizens "loyal".
To control Caliban, he issues many threats. Initially when Caliban and Prospero met, they were very kind to each other and shared knowledge. But, Prospero took advantage of this and made Caliban his slave of sort. To keep Caliban under his control, Prospero gives many threats and uses fear to control him. For example, when Caliban would not come out, he threatened to torture Caliban for his Disobedience.
To control Miranda, he creates tales that we do not know are true or not. For example, he tells her the story about howw he was once a great man and the Duke of Milan, but was driven out of Milan by his greedy brother. Miranda believes this all to be true and reveres Prospero although in reality, what she is hearing could all be lies since she is only hearing one side of the story. This is similiar to 1984 in the fact that the citizens were only told one side of a story and because of this, many people began to love Big Brother just as Miranda loves Prospero.
Through these different ways, Prospero is able to control Ariel, Caliban, and Miranda.
Wow great post! I really liked how you tied in your examples with the manipulativeness of the government in 1984. Your use of quotes to show us how Prospero retained control over Ariel was very well done and were explained very nicely. Also I do like how you stated that the tales that Prospero told Miranda in the beginning of the play may not necessarily be true, it really puts a mixed understanding of Prospero to the reader since he could either be good or bad. Overall awesome job! Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeletevery well written
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