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Essay / Prospero as a Renaissance Man in Shakespeare's The Tempest...
The reader can also see the qualities of a Renaissance man that allow him to control people and situations using his skills physical and social. Physically, Prospero is almost omnipotent and his servants, Ariel and Caliban, fear him. However, this fear is not only due to his physical attributes, but also his skills as a magician. Prospero's relationships with Alonso and Antonio, both of whom conspired against him, best describe his social faculty. When Prospero meets Gonzalo, Antonio and Sebastian, he sends a warning to Antonio and Sebastian, who want to kill Alonso, threatening to denounce them as traitors, but stating that he will not do so for now (VI 129-131 ). This text illustrates that Prospero controls both Antonio and Sebastian with this simple warning and can bend them to his will. Following this meeting, Prospero meets Alonso. As they talk about the future, Prospero says that in the morning he will take his ship and sail to Naples, where he hopes to see his daughter married to Ferdinand (VI 323-325). Prospero has every right to resent Antonio and Alonso, considering that both have wronged him, but he chooses not to take revenge. Instead, he takes control of the situation by declaring that he wants his daughter to be married to the Prince of Naples. The strategy used by Prospero allows him to obtain a beneficial result