Tempest, one of the Shakespeare’s magnum opuses, deals with magic, colonization, conspiracy, forgiveness, supernatural being, love, etc. Of these, love plays a key role to develop this tragic-comedy from the beginning to the end. The play “The Tempest” has a range of characters and events with different types of love; these show how the characters really act in the play. The question about love shows the relationship between characters, like father and daughter, brother and brother, friend and friend; this leads Prospero to give his speech and forgive his people. Without having love in the play, it would not bring the characters alive and cause Prospero to forgive his people. Love goes around all the characters and brings them together. I will answer this question with references and tell how the love of the characters causes people to come together under one banner.
To start with, Act 1 Scene 2 is the point where the real suspense lies, which moves us — the readers to go forward to the last of the play. It also gives the background of the tragedy and then comedy that befalls on the lives of Prospero and Miranda. Obviously, Prospero was a very affectionate brother of Antonio. But his love seems to be excessive and blind. He does not think to test or train Antonio before giving such a big responsibility of governing a dukedom. He was much engaged in magic study and did not have enough time to give to his land and people. His love for magic was much more than his love for his duties and subjects. Prospero says very clearly:
‘thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated
To closeness and the bettering of my mind
With that which, but by being so retired,
O’er-prized all popular rate’
Act 1 Scene 2
At the same time, Prospero’s love for his wife is exposed through his speech:
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“Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and
she said thou wast my daughter”.
Act 1 Scene 2
This quote talks about the love between Prospero and his wife. Prospero is saying that Miranda’s mother was a virtue to him and that she inspired him a lot and that the virtue of her mother was also in Miranda and that is why he shows a lot of affection and love for his only daughter.
The love between Prospero and his brother, Antonio is perhaps another major reason for the tragedy of Prospero and Miranda. All brothers never get along well. In this play, Prospero does show love and affection to Antonio, but Antonio doesn’t like to see his brother above him or more superior to him. Prospero wanted to rule in peace and harmony, but with his greedy, selfish and glory-seeking brother Antonio by his side he could not do that, thus leading him to destroy Prospero and take over. Prospero’s love for his brother was not really powerful like a normal brotherly love. This love has been around his kingdom more which is a kind of pride. He loved pride more than he loves his own brother, which I think is one of the causes for his brother to take over his kingdom and be the false Duke of Milan. This is greed, greed for power, one of the seven deadly sins.
Elsewhere the relationship and love between Gonzalo and his Master was quite different, for one they didn’t hold any grudges and got on quite well unlike the two brothers. Gonzalo is a peaceful and wise man who doesn’t want to harm anyone and he respects all, especially the ones he serves and respects. The master cares for his servants and tries his best to prevent harm coming to him, so Gonzalo respects and has a lot of love for his master. This love proceeds further in the play, and we will find that this relationship doesn’t exist that much in other characters. Gonzalo has never said anything bad and neither does he want to; he is like one of those wise monks you could say who gives good advice to all, and is well respected by the public. At this stage, the love of Gonzalo to his master can never be belittled as it cannot be denied that he took risk to give the staff to Prospero. It also says that hatred or conspiracy whatever strength it has got does not matter, loves win in the long run.
The love of Antonio, Prospero’s brother, was very different; you could also say that his love was fake and unreal. The reason is that his brother was really powerful and mighty duke of Milan, and Antonio being power-hungry was jealous of him. This is why the only reason he would show love to him was because of his fame and power which he wanted so badly. This causes him to overthrow him and take over as the false duke of Milan. Antonio knew that he couldn’t get Prospero off his thrown by himself so that he needed the help of others like the King of Naples, who gladly helped him. At this point we, the audience, knew that the love for his Brother was fading away more quickly than we had expected.
Prospero was very powerful; he was loved by all, hated by few. The people that really loved him and showed the true meaning of love to him were; Miranda, Gonzalo, Ariel etc. But I think that the people who had the most impact on Prospero and played a big role in life apart from Miranda, was the public. When I say the public, I mean the people Prospero ruled over when he was duke of Milan; everyone loved him; everyone thought he was really just Duke and thought that he really knew how to rule, until the time came when Prospero started going in depth into his magic and books. He started to distance himself from the kingdom, but the people still used to have a lot of love for him. Without the Duke, Milan would be merely a simple city. All children used to grow up knowing the name of Prospero, and when he had left his kingdom the people must have been in a state of shock knowing that the real Duke was Prospero and then Antonio his own brother, has now taken over.
The play is left uninterested without the love between Ferdinand and Miranda. This love goes throughout the play and gets stronger and stronger. Prospero’s plan is for them to get married, and he gets Ferdinand to do some chores which makes Miranda really upset seeing the one she loves is getting to do chores which he could say “no” to. So she consults him and tries to help Ferdinand but he replies that he doesn’t want her to do anything which makes their love grow weaker. This love grows stronger through the play and it causes bonds to be made.
In Act 3 Scene 1, the presentation of love is different from that of Act 1 Scene 2. It seems that Shakespeare wants his readers to get rid of the traditional idea of love. He tries to turn our eyes from the common conflict of the court lives. Let us discuss it. In this Scene, there is love between Miranda and Ferdinand and it is stronger than ever because Miranda, who has never seen another man before in her life except Prospero – her father. Ferdinand who saw the beauty in Miranda wanted to start a relationship with her and this was the plan of Prospero who wanted his daughter to be fall in love with the only man she has ever seen. But love should be tested. He does not want to give bigger price anymore at the expense of false love. To him, love teaches us to sacrifice not to manipulate the weakness of the human being. Physical love can only cause destruction, bad relationship and enmity among brothers and people. However, as the play goes on we see the love between Miranda and Ferdinand grow stronger and stronger and we find that they are meeting each other secretly without anyone knowing. Miranda wants to tell Ferdinand how she feels about him as does Ferdinand but none has the courage to say it. This strong bond between them brings certain people together and forms a certain triangular love bond which is among Prospero, Miranda and Ferdinand.
Also unknown to Ferdinand and Miranda, Prospero watches Miranda consulting Ferdinand in his slavery. Miranda also offers to carry some logs for him but Ferdinand assures her that his work that he is doing for Prospero gives him pleasure because it is like working for Miranda herself. Then finally they confess their love to each other and they also promise each other that they will get married as soon as possible. Prospero, from where all of these started is pleased that such a deep love has formed between his daughter and the son of the King of Milan. As Ferdinand quotes:
“Most busilest when I do it” (Act 3 Scene 1)
This line implies that Ferdinand’s thoughts of Miranda are most frequent when he is busy working for her father. This shows that Ferdinand would do anything for his loved one and that he always wants to make her happy even if he is doing work that he doesn’t have to do. Prospero sees this and knows that their love is going stronger and that they have finally expressed their love for each other and promise to get married as soon as they can. Here, love gets its fulfilment. As audience we get a new idea of love because we do not see Ferdinand leaving Miranda or he does not run after the physical beauty of Miranda only. To face the difficulties like tempest in life is a must to win the heart of the beloved. Patience, suffering and love seem to be synonymous for a happy and perfect life. Here love has become a central idea of the whole play. In Act 4 Scene 1 we see the celebration of love proved successful in the previous Act.
Miranda and Ferdinand’s future has been determined by Prospero’s satisfaction. The virtue and honour of these young people transcend the actions of their fathers and, in this ceremony, lays the redemption of their families. The ceremony is sealed with a masque and, in keeping with the motif of reality and illusion, this masque draws on goddesses and on Greek and Roman mythology. The goddesses are selected for their connections to nature and represent the promise of fertility, heavenly harmony, and an eternal springtime of love. All these are the presentation of true love. As the goddess of the rainbow, Iris is the promise of spring rains leading to a bountiful harvest. As a messenger from Juno, she also represents the gods’ blessing on this betrothal. When Juno appears, her presence affirms the blessing of the heavens and since Juno is the goddess of marriage and childbirth, her presence is the promise of a happy union for the couple and a blessing of many children. Finally, Ceres’ appearance also promises nature’s blessing on this marriage. Together, the goddesses are the promise of celestial harmony, fruitful harvests, and eternal seasons without winter. Venus, with her emphasis on abandon and love is deliberately excluded, since the focus of the masque is on honourable marriage.
If we make a close analysis of the Scene, we will see that everything centres on love. Shakespeare has chosen the particular gods and goddess to make the love of Miranda and Ferdinand sublime.
The important character Ariel, a spirit, has been made more real than the gods and goddess. Ariel plays a very important role to make love. From the beginning to the end, he is used as a tool to assist Prospero who is oppressed by his own brother. Ariel on the other hand is oppressed by Sycorax and Prospero. Ariel remains as a neutral and innocent character all through the play. It has become a sympathetic and loving figure to the readers and audience.
In fine, it would not be unjust to say that the play is about love. Though there are a lot other themes in the play, the whole play becomes monotonous, partial and uninteresting without different types of love described above. Love is seen in every Acts and Scenes. We see a lot of characters suffering and taking pains for love. But they do not stop loving and sacrificing each other. This theme has given universality to the play Tempest.
