Prospero's and Shakespeare's Magic (Spoiler) [ Edited ]

[Choisya]

I am still puzzling over whether Prospero is the magician or whether Ariel gives him his powers. Nowhere in the text is there an unequivocal moment of Prospero performing magic; on the other hand, there are many moments where Ariel is performing magic on Prospero's behalf.

For instance, when Prospero claims that his 'high charms work' (III.3.88) with the
vanishing food for Alonso, it is the charms of Ariel that have done the work. As for the masque, Prospero himself says, 'Thou [Ariel] and thy meaner fellows your last service / Did worthily perform, and I must use you / In such another trick' (IV.1.35-7), indicating that the trick of the masque does not have to generate from his personal magical powers. In Act V Prospero, having thrown off his magic cloak and staff, says in an aside to Ariel

'Come hither spirit
Set Caliban and his companions free;
Untie the spell'

and later in that Act he says to Gonzalo et al 'I'll deliver all/And promise you calm seas, auspicious gales...' and in another aside to Ariel says

'My Ariel chick.
that is thy charge: then to the elements
Be free, and fare thou well! Please you draw near

Then, in the Epilogue, Prospero implies he is Ariel's prisoner on the island and asks him to 'release me from my bands'

'...in this bare island by your spell;
but release me from my bands
with the help of your good hands
Since I have my dukedom got
And pardon'd the deceiver, dwell
In this bare island by your spell;
But release me from my bands
With the help of your good hands:
Gentle breath of yours my sails
Must fill, or else my project fails,
Which was to please. Now I want
Spirits to enforce, art to enchant,
And my ending is despair,
Unless I be relieved by prayer,
Which pierces so that it assaults
Mercy itself and frees all faults.
As you from crimes would pardon'd be,
Let your indulgence set me free.'

All this indicates to me that the magic has always resided with Ariel, not with him - or possibly it was with the witch Sycorax, the cloak and the island itself?

This is the last play written entirely by Shakespeare and it has been suggested that Prospero is a representation of Shakespeare who created magic on the stage and that Ariel is an allegorical representation of the magic of the theatre. So is one of this earth, the other supernatural? The Epilogue has been read as a plea from Shakespeare to his audience upon his retirement, ending with 'Let your indulgence set me free'. The words 'Now I want/Spirits to enforce, art to enchant,/And my ending is despair' are said to be an indication that Shakespeare's Muse had left him and that he feared he would never write again, although he later wrote Two Noble Kinsmen and Henry VIII, possibly with the collaboration of John Fletcher. The Tempest was written in 1610 and first performed before King James I in the autumn of 1611. Shakespeare 'retired' to New Place, Stratford-upon-Avon in 1610 but I expect he came back for the court performance.

New Place (or Nash's house) has a beautiful Elizabethan knot garden, recreated from the design of Shakespeare's day in 1910:

http://www.oldstratforduponavon.com/newplace.html

Message Edited by Choisya on 04-09-200710:13 PM

[apemantus]

Interesting, and I gotta say, I figured I'd just flip open the text and find numberous examples of Prospero's art, but it wasn't that easy. The only example I could find of Prospero unequivocally using his magic without Ariel is at 1.2.291-293 when Prospero recounts the tale of letting Ariel out of the pine:

PROSPERO: Dull thing, I say so; he, that Caliban
Whom now I keep in service. Thou best know'st
What torment I did find thee in; thy groans
Did make wolves howl and penetrate the breasts
Of ever angry bears: it was a torment
To lay upon the damn'd, which Sycorax
Could not again undo: it was mine art,
When I arrived and heard thee, that made gape
The pine and let thee out.

ARIEL: I thank thee, master.

The important fact is that Ariel doesn't contradict him. Of course, one could say that Ariel is afraid to contradict Prospero, but Shakespeare could have had Ariel say that, yet he didn't, so we've got to accept what is actually in the text.

I doubt Shakespeare wanted us to view Prospero as a fraud and liar, but you bring up a very interesting point, and it begs the question....if Prospero really is powerless, why does Ariel do his bidding?

[Laurel]

I've been wondering whether Ariel is something like a genie in a bottle, or the inhabitant of Aladin's magic lamp--possessed with magical powers that he must perform at the bidding of the one who has released him from the bottle/lamp.

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apemantus wrote:
Interesting, and I gotta say, I figured I'd just flip open the text and find numberous examples of Prospero's art, but it wasn't that easy. The only example I could find of Prospero unequivocally using his magic without Ariel is at 1.2.291-293 when Prospero recounts the tale of letting Ariel out of the pine:

PROSPERO: Dull thing, I say so; he, that Caliban
Whom now I keep in service. Thou best know'st
What torment I did find thee in; thy groans
Did make wolves howl and penetrate the breasts
Of ever angry bears: it was a torment
To lay upon the damn'd, which Sycorax
Could not again undo: it was mine art,
When I arrived and heard thee, that made gape
The pine and let thee out.

ARIEL: I thank thee, master.

The important fact is that Ariel doesn't contradict him. Of course, one could say that Ariel is afraid to contradict Prospero, but Shakespeare could have had Ariel say that, yet he didn't, so we've got to accept what is actually in the text.

I doubt Shakespeare wanted us to view Prospero as a fraud and liar, but you bring up a very interesting point, and it begs the question....if Prospero really is powerless, why does Ariel do his bidding?

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[apemantus]

That does appear to be the case. Not only must Ariel obey Prospero, but seems unable to use his powers against Prospero. It is odd that Shakespeare doesn't really spell out why Ariel is his servant....other than freeing him from the pine, of course. I guess we are to assume that Prospero is more powerful. He does threaten to put Ariel back in a tree (1.2.294), and Ariel takes him seriously. Maybe I'm making too much of this. Shakespeare was probably vague about Prospero's powers so he wouldn't end up getting his play censored.

---

Laurel wrote:
I've been wondering whether Ariel is something like a genie in a bottle, or the inhabitant of Aladin's magic lamp--possessed with magical powers that he must perform at the bidding of the one who has released him from the bottle/lamp.

[Benedict]

To me Prospero’s ability to manipulate the world around him is so far advanced with respect to the other people around him that he appears to be magic. He is always reading his philosophy and physics books, and gets so absorbed in the information contained therein that he lets his reading distract him from the fact that his brother usurps his kingdom. We all know how to contrive our presentations in order to get what we want. Prospero is very, very good at this to the point that it is almost like magic. When he is contriving he is always wearing his magic cloak, but when he wants to speak from the heart to his daughter, and then at the end of the play when his contriving is done, he takes off his magic cloak or contrived presentation, and acts from the heart. We would all like to always simply act from the heart; however, we all contrive much of our actions. Prospero is so good at contriving his actions as a means to an end that he appears to be magic.