Appearance vs. Reality

Kyle Petras

13/12/15

Gubanich

Blog #4

Appearance vs. Reality

In act four, things start to go a bit astray. Prospero gives permission to Ferdinand to marry Miranda and Ariel and Prospero trick Stephano, Trinculo and Caliban. All of this has led from believing the appearance of something and not seeing the reality. Ariel leads the trio to Prospero’s closet of clothes and makes them think that they are theirs. Prospero gives the couple a wedding “show” which includes goddesses and summoning magic. Prospero changes the appearance of all things to direct things the way he wants it to be done.

After talking to Ferdinand about not taking Miranda’s “virgin-knot”, Prospero calls upon Ariel to fetch the spirits of Juno, the queen of the gods, Ceres, the goddess of Agriculture, and Iris, the goddess of the Rainbow. As a wedding gift, Prospero has the three goddess’ put on a masque or a play for Ferdinand and Miranda. During the play, Prospero remembers the plot that Stephano, Caliban and Trinculo have to kill him. He then stops the masque suddenly. Everything disappears as if nothing even happened. This is an example of something appearing and then showing the true reality.

Prospero realizes that he has people plotting his death, so he has Miranda and Ferdinand leave. He consults Ariel to take care of Caliban and his group. The trio is wandering for Prospero’s chamber through a swamp. Ariel has been leading them through swamps and prickly bushes. He then leads them to the entrance to Prospero’s wardrobe. They enter and see clothes galore. Stephano and Trinculo begin to try them on, but Caliban reminds them that that is not what they are here for. The two still try on clothes while Caliban is trying to get them to move on. It gets to the point where they are having Caliban carry more and more clothes. All of this is what Prospero wanted to happen. It appears that the clothes have been laid out for them to take. When everything seems great for them, Prospero sends hounds after them.

Now, of course, they are only spirits, but it looks like there are dogs running after them. Prospero also gives cramps to them all. He is only putting a magic incantation over them, so really none of that is happening. He did this to really scare the three off so he wouldn’t be killed.



Prospero is really directing this who play. He controls what the characters do and where they go. He can do whatever he wants. He plays with their minds and makes them think what they are seeing is real, but really it is just an illusion.