The Tempest, quite possibly Shakespeare’s greatest of plays! In this scene Shakespeare
maps out the course of the entire play. Prospero, the cheated Nobel man seeking
restoration of his land and title, a man who has learned and acquired great power in his
enforced exile. His daughter, Miranda a beautiful and innocent virgin whom Prospero will
do anything to protect and who has, until this scene, been kept in innocence of their
circumstances and how they came to be on the Island. Caliban, enslaved by Prospero and
threatened with pain and agony unless he does as Prospero instructs. But Caliban, pitiable
as he is not innocent himself and has attempted to rape Miranda (in order to create an army
of Calibans to overthrow Prospero) and would have succeeded but for the intervention of
Prospero. So the relationship between the three of them is dominated by the power of
Prospero who seeks the protection of his daughter at all costs, control of the elements and
of Caliban whom he will seek to dominate Miranda, an innocent who knows nothing of the
World except obedience to her Father, so a dutiful naive and innocent woman. Caliban
tortured by his own life, his loneliness and his inability to confront the power of his
oppressor, Prospero. So Caliban, part desperate creature, part good, part nature but also