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The Tempest Miranda Essay

Decent Essays

Moving on to The Tempest, Miranda’s role can be seen as submissive one but as the readers continues to go more in-depth; textual evidence suggests that her role is actually quite the opposite. For many readers Miranda’s primary role was to help Prospero by marrying Ferdinand, so that he can get his revenge. When they arrived on the island, Prospero has already started his master plan. Using what he has learned in his library he became “... thy schoolmaster, made thee more profit/ Than other princesses can that have more time/ For vainer hours and tutors not so careful” (Shakespeare, 1.1.172-174). Similar to how Alison was educated to become the “ideal woman,” Prospero does the same thing to Miranda because these lessons were all in the effort …show more content…

One example, is the interaction between Caliban and Miranda. Miranda disregards her gender roles and spoke harsh towards Caliban, who was a male figure and a prince. She rejects all his advances and she has all the reasons to do so as well. In “Seduction and Service in The Tempest,” Melissa E. Sanchez shows the reader a different prospect to why Miranda chooses Ferdinand and how he is her escape to tyrannical rule. Caliban didn’t go and ask Miranda’s to marry him, he went and tried to rape her. Even after Prospero confronts him Caliban justify his actions by …show more content…

Just like how the Wife at the beginning of the marriage seduces her husband and then use that to control them. Although the play ends before Miranda’s marry life, the readers can easily predicts how she would be treated. If she was to choose to be with Caliban, Miranda doesn’t get anything from that. Caliban offers her no stability, no freedom, no wealth and definitely no status. As a women during that period she is extremely vulnerable and why her choosing of Ferdinand is really the best outcome for her. That is how she will survive in a society where women holds a limited amount of power, her ability to survive just like Alison makes her a proto-feminist. From the two literary pieces the “Wife of Bath’s Prologue” and The Tempest, the readers learn a different side of how women were able to survive during the middles ages and renaissance. By using their wits, these two female characters were able to create stability for themselves even when social limits their resources. The Wife and Miranda represents the struggles that women had to go through, but they can also act as a role model for those that wants to gain back their basic human

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