If the only men I had around me for 12 years was my father and a rapist devil child, I'd probably fall in love with the first new, young, normal seeming man I saw too. Poor Miranda. I generally don't feel much sympathy for the younger Shakespeare women (and I might change my mind about Miranda as I continue to read this play) but what a terrible situation. Her situation reminds me of Frederic in Pirates of Penzance. The only woman he ever remembers being around is his nanny until he gets to leave his ship for a brief period of time and meets the beautiful Mabel.
As I've mentioned in previous posts, and I'm sure you're probably sick of hearing me say this, but how stable are these relationships that start out as love at first sight ordeals? I admire Prospero's desire to make things difficult for Ferdinand and Miranda so that they will have a more stable relationship. I'm not quite sure what he has in mind to do so, but at least it's put out with good intentions. I'm happy to know that Prospero loves his daughter and wants the best for her. In Pirates of Penzance Frederic has to go back out to sea for 63 years and asks Mabel to wait for him. That would definitely be a difficult test of love. 63 years is an awfully long time to wait for anything. "The Tempest" seems to have more labor for love than "Love's Labour's Lost".
If the only men I had around me for 12 years was my father and a rapist devil child, I'd probably fall in love with the first new, young, normal seeming man I saw too. Poor Miranda. I generally don't feel much sympathy for the younger Shakespeare women (and I might change my mind about Miranda as I continue to read this play) but what a terrible situation. Her situation reminds me of Frederic in Pirates of Penzance. The only woman he ever remembers being around is his nanny until he gets to leave his ship for a brief period of time and meets the beautiful Mabel. 
Sort of reminds me of "Enchanted" and the difference between the first 5 minutes and pretty much the rest of it. However, perhaps Shakespeare was sort of invested in "love at first sight" since he married a 26 year old at 18 who had a baby 6 months later?
ReplyDeleteI feel like in this play Prospero is Shakespeare's way of looking back over all his previous works and saying, "oh, that was way too easy, love shouldn't be that easy," and then making things a little bit harder for Ferdinand and Miranda. I wonder if he always knew that the relationships in his play didn't have much foundation, or if it was something he realized later in his career..
ReplyDeleteCassandra, the common opinion is that Shakespeare married out of necessity, not love. I don't think he would have married her if he hadn't gotten her pregnant... So maybe he was writing about the ideal he wished he had?
Shakespeare does seem to have a lot of emotion there... I'll bet even though it might have been a shotgun wedding, he still had very strong feelings for his wife. Or maybe another woman i guess. but he definitely knew what love was, I'd say...
ReplyDeleteI guess we will have to ask him about it later... :)
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