Some might find Prospero an entirely selfish character willing to use his daughter if it means his elevation in status. While this may be true this does not mean that he does not care. It is also true that if my father treated me the way Prospero treats Miranda I probably would have run away at fourteen and not looked back for a long time, especially if it was just the two of us. But then, it has to be taken into account that life on the island was all she had ever known and where was she supposed to go? “Oh look! A bit of water that looks warm and calm I will go there!” That would have been a laugh when she was washed back to shore the next morning. Prospero is selfishly motivated and I believe that he loves himself more than anyone else because he was cast out. He focused on the wrongs done him until all he could think about was how people had treated him badly.
I was going to use The Tempest to explain how it demonstrates that Shakespeare was an optimist. This is not going to work in the way I intended it to work. I was going to use the redemptive qualities at the end to show how Shakespeare is an optimist because the play ended with everyone getting along but forgiveness and redemption are not what I would call it. A more appropriate way of saying it would be to say that Prospero was a grown man throwing a tantrum and taking it out on the only people within his grasp, Caliban, Ariel and even, at times, Miranda. In the end he can find happiness because he has finally forced people to give him his way and because things worked out according to his plan.
But this does not mean that the work cannot demonstrate how Shakespeare was an optimist. When Prospero says, “The rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance” he is quickly and simply offering insight into human character. Even though the play is filled with selfish people all conspiring against each other and Shakespeare understands that this is human instinct; self-preservation and looking out for number one. However, he also understands that this does not have to be the way things are. It is true that Prospero’s power is usurped, not because he is a bad Duke, but because someone else wants the power. That lust for power seems never ending as Antonio and Sebastian decide to over throw Alonzo and Gonzalo in their weakness from travel.
These selfish acts are driven by greed and vengeance against those in more powerful positions. However, this play is more of a plea for virtue rather than vengeance. The fact that everything is righted in the end is an indication of this. Those with nefarious intentions do not get what they were seeking and Prospero ends up back in his former position, and with his leaving Ariel is free. Caliban finds a form of freedom in his making friends with Stephano and Trinculo, the acceptance he finds with them offers a type of freedom. Miranda obtains a happiness she had never known existed with Ferdinand. And finally all the characters in the play are able to return to their homes with the restoration of peace and order.
