 Let's look at the character of Prospero. Now Prospero is the protagonist of the play and we learn that he used to be the Duke of Milan until he was usurped which means kicked out of power by his brother Antonio with the help of Alfonso who is the king of Naples. Now we learn at the stage that the play starts he has been living in exile away from Milan with Miranda his daughter on an island near Italy for 12 years and during that period he has taught himself magic and become a very powerful magician indeed. He has two slaves who also know magic both Caliban and Ariel working for him as well. Now he decides to cause this shipwreck in order to both reclaim his title as Duke but equally teach Alonso and his brother Antonio a lesson in terms of not betraying him. Now I've mentioned this before however bear in mind that the play Tempest is a tragic comedy so that's its genre. Now the tragic aspect of this play in other words the tragedy is known as any type of play which has a main character that has a flaw that leads them to cause a series of mistakes bear in mind to check out my video where I go over Aristotle's tragedy in a bit more detail if you're not entirely clear. However going back to this play Prospero is presented as a tragic character in so far as his fatal flaw was that he trusted his brother too much and this opened him up to betrayal that's how he lost his title as Duke of Milan. However the play does have comedic elements that's why it's a fusion of both tragedy and comedy and it does end well with Prospero renouncing his magical abilities and planning to go back to Milan to regain his title and also he forgives his brother as well as the king of Naples. Now of course if you're writing about this play for your coursework or exams you need to be able to be very well versed with the character of Prospero being the protagonist and so I have prepared all the key quotations to bear in mind with his character if you're writing about him either for your coursework or exams and for each quotation I'll point out all the word level analysis you need to do because of course when you're writing about a quote it's also very important to add word level analysis. So let's start with the first quotation and this is when he is explaining to his daughter Miranda this is when Prospero is explaining to his daughter Miranda how his brother betrayed him and how he ended up losing his title of Duke of Milan. He states and my trust like a good parent did beget of him faltered in its contrary as great as my trust was. Now here what he's basically saying is he trusted his brother too much he trusted the appearance is too much and this led him to be misguided by his brother's fakeness his duplicity okay and of course this is what leads his brother to successfully usurp him remember usurp means kick him out of power. Now of course this quotation illustrates Prospero's fatal flaw which is that he trusted other characters and trusted appearances too much. Now the word level analysis you want to do for this quotation is firstly the contrast in the pronouns my versus him of course showing the difference between Prospero's very trusting kind nature as opposed to his brother's duplicitous false nature. This is him. Also you want to focus on the repetition of the noun the abstract noun trust hair and hair and of course this shows us Prospero's fatal flaw he was too trusting as a character and the final word level analysis you want to do is the simile like a good parent showing just how much he invested in his relationship with his brother only for his brother to take advantage of his trust and kindness also showing that Prospero when he used to be Duke of Milan he was a little bit too naive. Now the second quotation for Prospero's character is when he states and this is when he realizes that his magic has worked and he's successfully shipwrecked the ship that's carrying Antonio Nalfonzo he states my high charms work and these mine enemies are all knit up in the distraction so of course here we learned that he's really happy that this shipwreck has worked because now he's going to be able to manipulate these guys and ultimately this is going to feed into his final plan in order to regain his title as Duke of Milan. Now the word level analysis you want to do here is firstly the eliteration of M in my and mine also the assonance of E in these mine enemies okay now here we can see that of course the comedic element of the play is being set up here we learn at this stage of the play that he has successfully shipwrecked these men and we are interested and keen as the audience to see how this shipwreck unfolds. Now the third quotation to bear in mind for Prospero's character is when he states spirits which by mine act I have from the confines called to enact my present fancy so again here he's talking about his magical abilities the spirits of supernatural world which he's able to conjure he's able to call upon in order to help him both misguide and mislead these men but also of course shipwrecked them too so he's really happy and he's quite gleeful now this is interesting because do bear in mind that contextually during Shakespeare's time people used to see the supernatural in spirits is quite evil forces now arguably you could say the fact that Prospero has used his spiritual forces to shipwreck Alfonso and his brothers Antonio's crew this is maybe an evil element however it's for the greater good it's for him in order to teach them a lesson and also to regain his title so this is interesting because contrary to Shakespeare's other place where the supernatural is presented as very dark evil forces if you think about for instance Macbeth where the witches cause chaos here this is very managed chaos because Prospero has an ultimate aim whilst the supernatural in other Shakespeare's plays they don't have any aim they just want to cause chaos and disruption okay now the one level analysis you want to do here is firstly the abstract noun spirits then also the alliteration of confines and quotes alliteration of sea hair and finally the assonance of e in an act present and fancy so of course here what Prospero is basically saying is that he's using the spirits in order to get what he wants and what his ultimate aim is being restoring his title as Duke of Milan the next quotation to bear in mind for Prospero's character is when he's describing how horrible deceitful his brother Antonio is he states a devil born devil and whose nature nurture can never stick so now here what he's basically saying is his brother Antonio is just an evil person he is inherently evil there's nothing good about him and actually even if you gave birth to somebody like him his nature is so evil that even if through nurture you try and teach him good things he's still inherently evil now the word love analysis you want to do here is the repetition of the word devil which of course sets Antonio up as one of the antagonists one of the villains of this play and of course the fact that he's been referred to as a devil is a metaphor and finally you want to look at the alliteration of N in nature, nurture and never okay and of course what this alliteration does is it shows how angry Prospero is how emphatic he is when he's describing just how horrible his brother is in usurping him and betraying him now the other quotation to bear in mind for his character is when of course he has successfully shipwrecked these men he's caused he's even taken Alfonso Alonso's brother and his brother his little son Ferdinand and Ferdinand then falls in love with Miranda then Prospero ends up revealing himself to them and letting them all know that they have betrayed him and he is still not vanquished he states at this hour lie at my mercy all mine enemies okay so of course we know that he wants to pay them back and here we can see that he does have power over these men now the word them analysis you want to do here is the alliteration of M in my mercy in mine and of course what this is showing is how victorious Prospero feels at submitting these men now contrary to what we would expect which is for example these men betrayed him therefore he's probably going to inflict really horrible punishment on them maybe even kill them Prospero actually forgives them so this shows just how honorable Prospero is he has all this power over these men especially his brother and the king of Naples who betrayed him but rather than doing an eye for an eye whereby he basically hurts them harms them or even kills them he actually forgives them and tells them not to do what they've done again to him which has betrayed him now the final quotation for Prospero's character is when he does renounce his magical skill and his magical ability he has used the supernatural for his aim he now the the the idea and the possibility of him successfully returning to Milan and restoring his title as Duke is now a really palpable a real possibility he states but this rough magic hair I abjure now this is what we call a declarative sentence if I remind a declarative sentence that states a fact feeling of mood here we can see that he's stating the feeling that he's going to be renouncing his magical qualities also the other word love analysis you want to do is the adjective rough of course here what he's talking about is he's used his magic in a very harsh way in order and of course his magic is very powerful and it's so powerful that it caused this massive shipwreck however we can see here Prospero's character is actually quite honorable he doesn't want to keep onto his magical qualities his magical abilities he just wanted to use it in order to restore his title and once he's done that he's not greedy he gives up his magical abilities ok so do bear in mind that Prospero is presented as a very admirable protagonist however his fatal flaw is he trusted others too much particularly his brother who were able to then use this trust to betray him so that's it when it comes to key word love analysis to do for all the quotations relating to Prospero's character