Prospero- The Mastermind

Prospero- The Mastermind 

Prospero may come across as a loving father, but he definitely is a master con-artist. His original plan at the beginning of the play is to seek revenge on the men who sent his daughter and him away at sea. Antonio and Alonso are the two main characters that Prospero is seeking revenge on. Obviously, Prospero has negative feelings toward his brother Antonio because he took over his land, stripping Prospero and his daughter Miranda of all their rights and property. His original plan is to use Ariel- his sidekick spirit- in order to crash the ship that the men are on, and have them stranded and separated on the island. I think his ultimate goal was to reclaim his crown as the duke of Milan. How he was planning on doing this is not very clear, however he does seem to encourage the marriage of his daughter Miranda to Ferdinand, since Ferdinand is of royal blood. I think Prospero's plan does deviate somewhat because he starts to feel guilty for having Ariel cause a massive storm. In act 5, scene 1, Prospero is talking to Ariel and exclaims "Now does my project gather to a head. My charms crack not, my spirits obey, and time goes upright with his carriage." You can see, even toward the end of the play, that Prospero sees himself as being in charge of everything going on. I think that Prospero tries to control all of the other characters vicariously through Ariel. But we see the progression of Prospero's state of heart and mind even within the very same scene. There is a huge passage from lines 20-33 where Prospero realizes that all of the men are truly sorry for sending him and Miranda into exile over twelve years ago. The passage is as follows:

And mine shall. Hast thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling of their afflictions, and shall not myself, one of their kind, that relish all as sharply passion as they, be kindlier moved than thou art? Though with their high wrongs I am struck to the quick, yet with my nobler reason 'gainst my fury do I take part. The rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance. They being penitent, the sole drift of my purpose doth extend not a frown further. Go release them, Ariel. My charms I’ll break, their senses I’ll restore, and they shall be themselves.

Here, Prospero's plan has completely changed. He no longer wants to seek revenge on the men. This may, in part, be due to the fact that he knows of their plan to kill him. But, nonetheless, he decides that he is satisfied with their genuine apologies. I think that Prospero's original plan did not successfully carry out with the other characters. They seemed to be able to come together and plan an attack on Prospero, regardless of his work with Ariel against them.