On Sun, 29 Oct 2000, Jon Corelis wrote...

> it should be clear, at least unconsciously, that Prospero is
>at every point the puppetmaster in control of things, and I don't think
>her performance brought this home sufficiently.

I'd agree with that. And Prospero as control-freak ties in nicely with
your idea of his attraction to Miranda. If he couldn't control that, it
would doubtless distress him greatly.

It's fairly clear that both Caliban and Ariel are representative of
aspects of Prospero on some level. And the existence of an incestuous
attraction is implied by that. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's the
lynch-pin, though. The cerebral/control/Ariel aspect of his personality
also got him into a deal of trouble.

I'm not sure being stranded on a desert island with a BYW *is* every
man's fantasy, particularly if the BYW in question is his daughter. But
that's not an important part of your thesis.

I think you overstate things when you say:

>Like so many (all?) of Shakespeare's plays it is
>ultimately about fatherhood,

Fatherhood plays an important part in quite a few of them is as far as
I'd be prepared to go. Midsummer Night's Dream, Winter's Tale, Macbeth,
Othello, and Romeo and Juliet aren't ultimately about fatherhood, to
take the first few synapses to fire in my brain. The last two are about
parentage in some way or other, but that's not the same thing.

>and it ultimately enforces a fundamentally
>Freudian interpretation.

Hmm. I suspect you've watched "The Forbidden Planet" one too many times.
(Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

>  I'm quite aware that the foregoing will elicit
>the sneers of the ignorant.

...as deft an example of Poisoning the Well as I've seen in a long time.
;-)

Cheers,
--
Peter

http://www.hphoward.demon.co.uk/poetry/


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