The Attitudes towards Prospero Prospero can be interpreted in a number of different ways.

In the context of performance, Prospero was traditionally portrayed as a benign old man who wished to restore harmony and achieve reconciliation. But in modern criticism and productions, he has been portrayed as deeply troubled, harsh and demanding. The conception of the whole play has similarly changed from a harmless fairytale to an ambiguous, socially critical drama (such as a critique of colonialism). Some critiques believe that Prospero represents an actor-manager. He is like a theatre director. He stages the opening tempest, he ensures that Alonso and Gonzalo sleep, so provoking the murder attempt by Antonio and Sebastian; he is the unseen observer of his daughter and his enemies; and he produces the banquet and the masque. The play is full of theatrical language and allusions, but Prospero, like the other characters he directs, is a character in a play. It has been made clear that Prospero is a magus and scholar who learned to practice magic. But the play shows he finds it difficult to control human nature, other peoples and his own. The relationship between Prospero, Ariel and Caliban is one of slave owner and master. Prospero controls Caliban harshly with cramps and pinches. He also exercises stern control over Ariel with mingles affection and irritation, using a blend of praise and threats. The play is much concerned with imprisonment, freedom, but a more complete understanding of this issue comes from considering Calibans, and Ariels viewpoints, for example Caliban claims, This islands mine. Another political criticism is that Prosperos self-centred pursuit of study made him neglect his civic duties, and led to his overthrow as Duke of Milan. Much of the play reflects similar political struggle for power, for example, Sebastians murderous desire to become King of Naples and Stephanos attempt to become ruler of the island. Feminist and political criticisms would include Prospero plans for his daughter to marry the man of his choice, Ferdinand, and so to achieve a union between Milan and Naples. But his obsession with sexual purity and political reconciliation is challenged by other aspects of the play, (Caliban and Stephanos desire for Miranda, Antonios ominous silence at the end). Another traditional criticism is that Prospero can be viewed as an avenger. It seems that Prospero seeks revenge on Alonso, Antonio and Sebastian for bringing about his overthrow and banishment. But, moved by Ariels pity for their plight he pardons them. This suggests the play is about mercy, The rarer action is/In virtue, than in vengeance. But it is possible he intended forgiveness from the start because he prevents the murder of Alonso. The development of Prospero as a man can be seen throughout the play from a powerful magician and potential revenger to a vulnerable and merciful human being. Almost at the end of the play, Prospero renounces all his magical powers. In the Epilogue he admits to his weakness, Now m charms are all oerthrown, /And what strength I haves mine own. But the play is about much more than Prosperos transformation. Other characters reveal very different aspects of human personality, behaviour and desires. Many critics have argued that Shakespeare wrote the part of Prospero as a self-portrait, particularly in his Our revels now are ended speech and in the renunciation of his magic art. But most critics see this as fanciful, umprovable speculation. The critic Dover Wilson saw him as a terrible old man, almost as tyrannical and irascible as Lear at the opening of his play. In striking contrast, the modern critic R S White compares him to a modern computer buff, manipulating his little world with the expertise of somebody playing a series of interactive media games. Merely to list some ways Prospero has been interpreted is to understand the complex and contradictory character Shakespeare has created for example: noble ruler, tyrant, colonialist, necromancer (dealing with black magic), an exiled, embittered, manipulative wizard, a benevolent god-like, justified ruler of the island and obsessed with control are just the few. One of the best interpretations in traditional criticism is that of Frank Kermode (1968). He sees The Tempest as a pastoral play centrally concerned with the theme of Nature and Art. Here Art means all the ways in which human beings, in pursuit of a moral, civilised life, try to improve on Nature. Kermode sees Prosperos art as a beneficent magic designed to achieve that goal: Prospero is, therefore, the representative of Art as Caliban is of Nature. Prospero uses his learning to control for good purposes, unlike Sycorax who uses her powers to achieve evil ends. Postcolonial

criticism has grown increasingly in the play since the 1980s. The impact of European colonisation on the New World of the Americas is the experience used by postcolonial critics to expose the brutality which lies behind Prosperos apparent denial that Caliban was, and is, no more than an animal. Such critics have pointed out that much traditional criticism assumed, often without discussion, Prosperos right to take ownership if the island. Some argue that the play is complicit in the mythology of benevolent colonialism: that the benefits Prospero brings justifies his seizure of the island and enslavement of Caliban. Just as the colonising Europeans of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries felt that what they took to their superior knowledge, sophistication and religion justified their colonisation (typically by superior force), so too does Prospero. The ambivalences and ambiguities of The Tempest, and its intense and fraught family relationships, have prompted much attention from critics who adopt a psychoanalytic approach to Shakespeares plays. The Freudian notion of dream work (dreams reveal unconscious wishes) has been employed both as an analogy for artistic creation and fantasy and to argue that Prospero imposes his memory of past events on Ariel and Caliban. The concept of wishful fulfilment has led some critics to argue that Prosperos wishes are imperfectly fulfilled, and he ends the play alone, sexually and socially.