Prospero

In the first act there are mulitple examples of ways that Prospero is able to manipulate other characters around him. Prospero goes into great detail and blows out of proportion the wrongs that were done to him to gain much sympathy from his daughter. Prospero puts himself into a light that shows him doing no wrong to anyone else and makes it look like he is always in the right. He is able to control the slave Caliban because he threatens to torture him again. "If you neglect my orders or do them grudgingly, I’ll double you up with pains and cramps, and make all your bones ache, and make you scream so loud that the wild animals will tremble when they hear you" (17). He does not allow Caliban to have an opinion or have any say what so ever in the things or various tasks he is forced to do. Prospero makes it seem like he is Ariel's savior and is in debt for life because he was the one who was able to free him from the tree which he was trapped inside of for twelve years. "It was my magic that saved you when I arrived on the island and heard you, making the pine tree open and let you out" (13). Prospero is in the right because he saved Ariel's life and freed him from the spell which Sycorax and put upon him. He is exctied to find that his daughter falls in love with Ferdinand but believes that he must stir up trouble becuase in his opinion they will never apprectiate true love "But I need to cause a little trouble between them, or else they’ll never appreciate the value of their love" (21).