(iii) Describe the character of Miranda from the extract.
Answers
Answer:
Act 3, Scene 1 takes us to the romantic heart of The Tempest; it is the scene where the play’s two young lovers, Ferdinand and Miranda, confess their love and vow to marry. One is never far away from Prospero’s influence in this play, and this scene is no exception. Not only has he engineered their meeting – and Ferdinand’s rather bogus imprisonment – but the whole decorous exchange of the lovers also occurs, unbeknownst to them, under the watchful gaze of Shakespeare’s most over-protective father. Act 3, Scene 1 is where some of the play’s key themes, including imprisonment and control, romantic love and social class, all intersect. Shakespeare also develops the character of Miranda in this scene. The Tempest is remarkable for its absent women; Prospero’s adored daughter is the only human female inhabitant on an island which, in the wake of the shipwreck, has been increasingly populated by men. Her name means ‘wonder’, and she is cut from a similar cloth to the heroines of Shakespeare’s other late plays, Marina in Pericles and Perdita in The Winter’s Tale, as a chaste, beautiful and engaging young woman. Yet, as this scene reveals, her character is not without a certain complexity and bite.
The different styles of language that Ferdinand and Miranda use within this scene create a gentle tension between sophistication and innocence. Ferdinand’s elevated language constructs an idealised image of Miranda. She is ‘the mistress which I serve’ (3.1.6), who has the power to make ‘my labors pleasures’ (3.1.7). His ornate declaration of love shifts his literal imprisonment to a conceptual one:
Explanation:
Answer:
Miranda is the young daughter of Prospero in William Shakespeare's The Tempest. Although she is naïve and innocent, she is also a charming and gentle girl who stands up for herself when needed. Despite her naïve nature, she falls in love with and marries Prince Ferdinand.