In The Tempest by William Shakespeare, Prospero is one of the main characters. Because he is usurped of his position as the Duke of Milan by his brother, he plans his revenge for fourteen years. The speech Prospero delivers in 4.1 hints that Prospero will give up on his revenge and foreshadows the end of Shakespeare’s plays. Prospero is revealed to be tired and giving up on his revenge. The masque Prospero summoned to be performed for Ferdinand and Miranda can be seen as a symbol of his magic.
Prospero’s plans for revenge originate in his previous occupation as Duke of Milan. In Act I we are told of how Prospero became neglectful of his duties as a result of his experimentation with magic. This led to his brother Antonio, gradually assuming complete control. Once in power, Antonio conspired with the king of Naples, to have Prospero and his daughter removed
Macbeth’s ambition to become king, which is a position of great control over scotland’s affairs, causes him to lose control in his own life. In order to attain the throne, Macbeth commits murder, and the resulting guilt overwhelms and takes over his life. He becomes paranoid, and as he attempts to secure his throne by removing anyone whom he suspects to be a threat, he neglects Lady Macbeth, who had ultimate control over him so that he lost control in his life when Lady Macbeth distanced from him and died. Even at the beginning of the play, Macbeth had become submissive to the fate that the witches had prophesized for him, such that he did not account for the choices that he makes in life anymore and lost control. Macbeth becomes victim to guilt when he kills Duncan for the throne, and guilt then takes over his life, leaving him without control of his own behaviors.
Possibly he can be a little of both. In some cases Macbeth is the controller of his own life and he made his way to his downfall. For instance, when his wife convinced him to kill the king so he can become king, he listened. When he was in the room of the king, he chose to kill him. “I have done the deed.” (2.2.ll:14).
The conflict of the play begins during a struggle for the throne, which at its end only begets a period of corruption and betrayal. The dramatic qualities of the play begin to show themselves as Titus seeks to avenge the brutal rape of his daughter and in doing so begins to rid the Roman Empire of the corruptors. While Shakespeare’s emphasis on the downfall of Rome is evident throughout the play, the audience cannot help but witness the downfall of Titus’ family as well. Shakespeare displays the breakdown of each of the characters as if to symbolize the effects of the collapse of Rome in each one of them. Beginning with Bassianus, the audience witnesses his decline as the throne is taken from him and given to his brother Saturninus due to primogeniture.
The priest taught him how to sword fight, too. Finally, the priest died and Edmond found a way to escape. After the escape, some pirates found him and made him have a knife fight with one of them, If Edmond killed the pirate named Jacopo, then he would join the pirates and if Jacopo killed Edmond, Jacopo will stay alive. They fought, then Edmond tried to reason with the chief pirate, called Luigi Vampa, to let Jacopo live and Edmond in the crew. When they reached Marsailles, Edmond’s home town, he got off the pirate duty, started calling himself the Count on Monte Cristo and finally getting the revenge he always wanted.
The first illustration of how power is illuminated is how much the characters want it. The individuals in The Tempest would do anything to be sovereign of the island; such as in Act Two/Scene Two when Antonio attempts to persuade Sebastian to do away with Alonso to become the undisputed Duke of Naples, due to the issue of Alonso’s daughter being too far away to return and reign as heir to the throne. Another beautiful model of when the thirst for power drives people to an insane point is when Prospero is willing to conjure up the tempest, a deadly storm, in order to rekindle his rightfulness as Duke of Milan. Both of these specimens show how some people would meditate, and sometimes act on, killing or risking lives to get what they desire. Furthermore, in The Tempest, the characters need to maintain what they already control.
The storm is also very important in understanding that there will be a great effect on the outcome of the play because of the different types of power and the storm is the first of many episodes where power has severe consequence on the characters in the play and can be understood to foreshadow other powerful events. When the focus shifts away from the events at sea to those on land it becomes clear that much of the different types of power in the play focus around Prospero. Prospero is the victim of stolen power as he has power taken away
King Hamlet's ghost uttered to Hamlet, “The serpent that did sting thy father's life now wears his crown” (1.5.39). Hamlet agreed to avenge his father's death. Now, his life had a purpose, which is to kill Claudius. Aside from his father's death, there was something else that sent him spiraling down. He was denied access to his love, Ophelia.
Iago initiated the fight between the two by spreading rumors to Roderigo that Cassio wanted Desdemona, when really Iago just wanted Cassio to lose the promotion. After the fight, Michael Cassio not only lost the promotion, but was almost killed as well. In the end, Iago kills Roderigo in a fight. All Iago did throughout the play was use Roderigo to do things that would personally benefit himself. He got Roderigo to give him money and to fight