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“To view the action of The Tempest as depicting Prospero’s ascent up a Neoplatonic
ladder is to ignore the host of ambivalence and qualifications that are continually
expressed about both his central figure and his art.” —Stephen Orgel, Oxford’s World
Classics’ The Tempest, Introduction p.23.
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Explore the darker side of Prospero’s character and magic with connection to Iago from
Shakespeare’s Othello.
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Prospero Reconsidered: Diabolical and Occult Connections Between Prospero from The
Tempest and Iago from Othello
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In Shakespeare’s Philosophical Patterns, W.C. Curry (1959) spoke glowingly of

Prospero, calling him “…evidently a theurgist of high rank” (188), a theurgist being a

practitioner of good “white” magic, and opposite of the evil, demon-conjuring goetic

magician. Curry is but one of many scholars who positively view Prospero’s character. To

them, Prospero’s “art”, in contrast to goetia, is derived from his studies—his books—thus

making his magic acceptable, and even holy. Yet, despite theurgy’s differences from goetia,

the Jacobean society of Shakespeare’s time still viewed it with great suspicion; both Church

and State condemned it, with King James I (1597) equating the theurgist with the goetic

magician in Daemonologie.

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Both Prospero’s magical orchestrations and the role he played in The Tempest echo

those of a similar manipulator from Othello, Iago. While Othello contains no overt

manifestations of the supernatural, the play subtly references magic and witchcraft. Iago is

noted by Kaula (1967) to be strongly associated with witchcraft and demons as conveyed

through imagery and verbal overtone. The manner in which Iago manipulates characters in

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Othello is eerily similar to a sorcerer’s charms. Though not operating with actual spells and

potions, Iago still mesmerises his victims to his influence with his quasi-magical wit, as

exemplified by his manipulation of an initially angry and reluctant Rodorigo in Act 1.3 to

squander his wealth and leave the comfort of Venice through the hypnotic repetitions of “Put

money in thy purse”.

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Implications are evident in the text of the play and in the parallels with the “devilish”

manipulations of Iago, a clear villain in Shakespeare’s Othello, of a more sinister and

diabolical character in Prospero that reflect Jacobean societal views towards his magic.

Unless one views Prospero in the way that Jacobean audiences would have perceived him—

as a type of doomed, evil sorcerer—the volte-face that Prospero performs in forgiving his

enemies, abjuring his “rough magic” and repenting would lose its original meaning and

impact.

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The dark tendencies that Prospero’s speech shares with Iago’s are noteworthy. As

Corfield (1985) notes, Prospero’s diction in Act 5.1 exposes his “dark side” with his

borrowing from Ovid’s Metamorphoses the wicked enchantress Medea’s incantation of “Ye

elves…” (38), his use of apocalyptic diction such as “bedimmed the noontide sun” (46-47),

“roaring war” (49), and “dread rattling thunder” (49), and with his admission in “graves at

my command/have waked the sleepers” (53-54) of dabbling in necromancy. Similarly, Iago’s

imagery also bears dark diabolical connotations. For instance, Iago momentously self-

identifies himself as a deceiver by declaring in Act 1.1 “I am not what I am” (67), a phrase
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that is also a direct negative of a biblical reference to God that firmly establishing his role as

villainous, even demonic. His naming of his slander in “I’ll pour this pestilence into his

ear” (2.3, 343) as “pestilence” also evokes demonic connotations, with pestilence

traditionally recognised as an instrument of demons.

Much of Prospero’s machinations were accomplished through his spirit familiar,

Ariel. Though Ariel’s role in the play is arguably benevolent, Ariel’s nature is simultaneously

presented as demonic. Sir Walter Raleigh in The History of the World (1614, 398) writes that

theurgists are deluded in believing that they control celestial spirits simply because “…good

Spirits or Angels cannot be constrained; and the rest be devils...” Notably, despite Ariel’s

loyalty and affection for Prospero, their relationship is rooted in coercion as seen in “If thou

more murmur’st, I will rend an oak/And peg thee in his knotty entrails…” (1.2, 344-345).

Ariel’s actions also evoke demonic acts such as the creation of the tempest and illusory

banquet, the torment of the “men of sin”, and leading the hunt of the three fools. In particular,

the tempest that Ariel conjures is conveyed in the imagery of words such as “dreadful

thunderclaps” (1.2, 233), “sulphurous roaring” (1.2, 235), and “fever of the mad” (1.2, 242)

suggesting a demonic association clearly delineated by Ferdinand who screamed “…all the

devils in hell are here” (1.2 248). With the Witchcraft Act of 1604 condemning as a conjurer

any who “…consult, covenant with…employ… any evil and wicked Spirit”, a Jacobean

audience would have been aware of the negative implications of Prospero being Ariel’s

master.

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Iago, not having a magical familiar to facilitate his schemes, worked instead with the

“poison” of “dangerous conceits” (3.3, 362) that gradually “act[ed] upon the blood, burn[ing]

like mines of sulphur” (3.3, 364-365). This motif of poison connects Iago to witchcraft.

Poison is both a classical metaphor for witchcraft and a symbol for Invidia or malice, a sin

that Iago embodies. Its connection to witchcraft is drawn from poison’s spell-like corruption

that subtly takes hold of its victim and gradually infects from within (Kaula, 1967). Iago is

further connected to witchcraft in his specific poisoning of Othello’s love for Desdemona.

King James (1597) asserted in Daemonologie that witches have the power to “make men or

women loue [sic] or hate [one another]”. This characteristic of witchcraft is explored

extensively in Iago’s role of transmogrifying Othello’s love for Desdemona first to insecurity,

and then to jealousy and hate. Other than working with “poison”, Iago himself grew so

consumed by jealousy’s “poisonous mineral” (2.1, 302) that it “gnaw[ed] [his] inwards” (2.1,

302); corrupting his soul with malice such that, as he notes, “…nothing [but Othello’s

downfall] can… content his soul” (2.1, 303).

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Prospero’s identification as an evil sorcerer is further explored in his use of a magic

circle. Though modern interpretations of the circle would have seen it as a symbol of

reconciliation, a “…significant visual symbol of inclusiveness” (Bevington, Welsh &

Greenwald, 2006), Shakespeare’s contemporary audience would have seen it differently.

Europe in the Late Medieval and Early Modern period expressly frowned upon the use of a

magic circle (Boecherer, 2007). While heavily associated with necromancy, the magic circle

is also a locus of demonic activity as explained in Kieckhefer’s (1998) translation and

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research into the 15th Century manuscript The Munich Handbook of Necromancy. In The

Tempest, stage directions in Act 5.1 that explicitly call for Prospero to draw a magic circle

that his foes would enter and “stand charmed” to his power strongly associates his character

to that of a conjurer and necromancer. Though a Jacobean audience would have found

Prospero’s magic unsettlingly ambiguous in previous acts, they would have immediately

recognised it as diabolical in his clear use of the magic circle.

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Parallel to that, the result of Iago’s “poisoning” of Othello’s mind is fascinatingly

diabolical. In Christian lore, demonic possession is distinguished by a marked change of

personality due to the demon replacing it with its own. An analogous “possession” is seen in

the contamination of a low bestial theme in Othello’s normal diction; his lofty-poetic imagery

such as “…antres vast and deserts idle” (1.3, 154) at one point degenerates to calling

Desdemona “a cistern for foul toads to knot and gender in” (4.2, 61-62). Notably, the low

theme that gradually intrudes in Othello’s diction is remarkably identical to the menagerie-

like theme of Iago’s diction; with the change “in personality” occurring after Iago

successfully corrupts Othello, thus gaining an ascendency over his soul such that, as Morozov

(1966) notes, Othello begins to think in Iago’s images in a manner reminiscent of demonic

possession.

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Prospero and Iago share the role of manipulator, both employing their own brand of

“magic” to drive events in their favour. While Prospero through Ariel assumes a near-divine

role in his manipulation of both his foes and daughter, Iago takes on the role of a trapper, and
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not always a human one. For example, he once assumed the persona of a spider: “With as

little a web as this will I ensnare as great a fly as Cassio” (2.1, 179-180). This web becomes

“the net that…enmesh[ed] them all” (2.3, 348-349), binding the other characters in Othello to

his control so securely that he directs them like a puppet-master. The similarities in Iago and

Prospero’s role as manipulators reach an unsettling resonance as Iago urging his poison

“Work on/My medicine work!” (4.1, 50-51) hits a note parallel to Prospero’s cold remark

“My high charms work… they are now in my power” (3.3, 99-101), underscoring the

menacing, diabolical quality that both characters share. However, while Iago is the villain of

Othello, Prospero is the hero of The Tempest, and it is this quality that eventually sets them

apart.

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The interchange of “spirit” (22) and “human” (23) in Act 5.1 outlines the essence of

Prospero’s error, reminding him of what is proper to man, and possible for spirits. Prospero’s

role is “human” and not “spirit”; his potential lies not in the mysteries, but in his ability to

empathise with fellow man and to seek “grace”, that is to know God. Upon realising this,

Prospero opts for the “rarer action… in virtue” (5.1, 31-32), showcasing the Augustinian

theory entrenched in Jacobean society that man attains happiness through piety. Choosing to

abjure his magic, Prospero resumes his former station in life by symbolically wearing his

ducal robes when he confronts and forgives his enemies in Christian spirit, an act that is still

slanted ambiguously with his usage of the magic circle and implicit threat to reveal Antonio

and Sebastian’s plot to Alonso in “At this time, I will tell no tales…” (5.1, 138-139). Yet in

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the end, Prospero begs for pardon and “indulgence” (379) to save him from “despair” (374);

a repentant prayer that ultimately redeems him in the eyes of Jacobean audience.

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On the other hand, the “poison” of Iago’s malice utterly consumes his soul that

Othello calls him a “demi-devil” (5.2, 339), and half expected him to have the cloven feet of

Lucifer. Perhaps the best metaphor encapsulating Iago’s baseness of spirit is the term

“slave” (Heilman, 1956). This term comes easily to the other characters towards the end with

Lodovico calling him “…a cursed slave” (5.2, 329). As Heilman (1956) notes, slave is a

capacious term that suggests a minimal human range, one that expresses most of Iago’s views

and habits especially in his unwillingness to empathise in a human fashion, reducing love to

lust, learning to bookishness and other fellow humans as animals to be trapped. It is this

poverty of the spirit that ultimately causes Iago to be blinded from “grace”. In Act 5.2, Iago

damns himself as he vows “never [to] speak [a] word” (342), and implicitly not even “to

pray” (343), thus remaining a “hellish villain” (413). There is no redemption for Iago; only a

criminal’s torment awaits him.

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Prospero and Iago may share a connection in the occult and diabolical. However, it is

clear that Prospero and Iago are differentiated in their recognition of a need for “grace”,

expressed by Prospero in his forgiveness of his enemies, while Iago who refuses to even

reveal his motives for his deception is faced with a villain’s downfall. Despite common

positive interpretations of Prospero, he is actually a flawed hero constantly teetering on the

edge of a tragic end, his hamartia being the blind regard he bears towards his magic that first
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caused him to lose his place in society and gradually diminished his humanity. By abjuring

his magic and praying for redemption, Prospero overcomes his fatal flaw, reintegrates with

the order of society and ultimately redeems himself in the eyes of Jacobean audience. To read

Prospero’s character in any other light would deflect the meaning of his volte-face and lessen

the impact of his redemptive journey.

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Topic: A review for the local newspaper of the film Othello (1995) directed by Oliver
Parker.
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The wide gulf of time that stand between Shakespeare’s time and the modern era

makes adapting the Bard’s plays for the big screen a challenging task, especially to suit

modern movie-goers. What passed then as sufficient visual embellishments wildly differs

from what we now inherently expect. Production values of Shakespeare's stage would be

stark by our standards. Set designs were almost non-existent, with only the occasional throne,

bed and rock showing up as props. There was no scenery, and before later plays like The

Tempest, there were no special effects; it was simply not possible. The Bard’s solution to such

a conundrum was simple. He wrote the finest poetry in the English tongue and made it flow

effortlessly from the characters in his play. Rhetoric was of paramount importance;

accordingly, soliloquies abound in Shakespeare’s Early and Middle plays.

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But now, a whole array of special effects awaits the prospective director. This in turn

only introduces a whole new set of problems, and one that lies in the very nature of the

medium. Films rely heavily on an explicit visual expression; almost nothing is left to self-

interpretation. Any adaptation would find itself treading a delicate balance, one with a

revitalised, enhanced experience on one side and a travestied farce masquerading as a

Shakespeare adaptation on the other. Director of Othello (1995) Oliver Parker chose to

address this delicate issue of balance in typical Hollywood fashion: he ignored it.

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No amount of gorgeous cinematography by David Johnson or lush set designs can

change the fact that Parker’s high-handed decision to slice-and-dice the original play’s

dialogue resulted in an adaptation of Othello stripped of the evocative quality that

Shakespeare’s verse is so famed for. Despite technological advantages giving the film

adaptation a visual and auditory edge over a staged performance in Shakespeare’s time, that

advantage is squandered with Parker’s decision to broadly trim key speeches only to add

crowd-pandering scenes like the sex scene between Othello and Desdemona that are frankly

bewildering and does nothing to improve on the original work.

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The saving grace of the film is undoubtedly Kenneth Branagh’s Iago, whose

effortlessly cadenced, charismatic delivery of what remained of his butchered dialogue lends

immediate clarity to the Bard’s archaic words. His curiously shifting motives and odd

detachment to his Machiavellian plot only reinforced the true, inexplicable evil of Iago’s

“motiveless malignity”. And while Shakespeare rookie Laurence Fishburne playing the Moor

was largely overshadowed by veteran Branagh, the first actual black actor to play Othello on

the big screen does make up for it in the sheer presence of his Moor, one that is passionate,

noble and tragic almost from the very start. The choice of Irene Jacob to play Desdemona

though was rather perplexing. Despite projecting Desdemona’s innocent presence, Swiss-

born Jacob noticeably struggled to speak English, a basic prerequisite of any Shakespearean

actress. She was almost incomprehensible in her most crucial appearance: Desdemona’s

death scene.

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Yet the greatest challenge that any modern Othello adaptation face is undoubtedly the

complex state of modern race-relations. The modern audience would instinctively see Othello

as a story in which an insecure black man kills his white wife, as reactions to the movie in

light of the O.J. Simpson trials may attest. But Shakespeare had intended a lot more than just

that. Unless the adaptation manages to convey the essential message that the “green-eyed

monster” of jealousy is a human affliction that transcends race, it cannot be said to have been

true to the spirit of the original. In that respect, Parker’s Othello is an uneven adaptation that,

despite excellent performances by Branagh and Fishburne, does not do justice to the Bard’s

Othello.

Score: of

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Bibliography

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Bevington, D.M., Welsh, A.M., and Greenwald, M.L., 2006. Shakespeare: Script, Stage,

Screen. New York: Pearson.

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Boecherer, M.C., 2007. Staging The Supernatural. Ann Arbor: ProQuest LLC.

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Corfield, C., 1985. Why Does Prospero Abjure His “Rough Magic”?. Shakespeare Quarterly,

36(1), p. 31-48.

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Curry, W.C., 1959. Shakespeare’s Philosophical Patterns. 2nd ed. Baton Rouge: Louisiana

State University Press.

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Heilman, R.B., 1956. Magic In The Web. 2nd ed. Westport: Greenwood Press.

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James I, King of England, 1597. Daemonologie in forme of a dialogue. Reprinted in 1966.

New York: Barnes and Noble.

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Kaula, D, 1967. Othello Possessed: Notes on Shakespeare’s Use of Magic and Witchcraft.

Shakespeare Studies, 2, p. 112-127.

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Kieckhefer, R., 1998. Forbidden Rites: A Necromancer's Manual of the Fifteenth Century.

University Park, Pa: Pennsylvania State University Press.

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Morozov, M., 1966. The Individualization of Shakespeare’s Characters through Imagery. In:

K. Muir and P. Edwards, ed. 1977. Aspects of Othello. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, pp. 21-28.

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Othello, 1995. [Film] Directed by Oliver Parker. USA: Warner Bros.

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Pearson, D.W., 1974. “Unless I Be Reliev’d By Prayer”: The Tempest in Perspective.

Shakespeare Studies, 7, p. 253-279.

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Raleigh, W., 1614. The History of the World. Reprinted in 1972. Philadelphia: Temple

University Press.

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Shakespeare, W. 2009. Othello, (The RSC Shakespeare) Bate, J. and Rasmussen, E. eds. New

York: The Modern Library.

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Shakespeare, W. 2008. The Tempest, (The RSC Shakespeare) Bate, J. and Rasmussen, E. eds.

New York: The Modern Library.

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Shakespeare, W. 2008. The Tempest, (Oxford World’s Classics) Orgel, S. and Wells, S. eds.

New York: Oxford University Press.

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Yates, F., 2002. Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Traditions. [e-book] Abingdon: Routledge

Classics. Available through: Taylor and Francis Ebooks website<http://

www.tandfebooks.com/> [Accessed 4 September 2013].

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