1. It takes place on a ship during a storm and on an island in the Mediterranean.
I've loved islands for a really long time. I'm not sure why exactly, but it probably has something to do with growing up very isolated from other people my age. I mean, I went to school and stuff, but I pretty much read when I wasn't in class. Because of this, I can relate to Miranda in her youth of being among books with pretty much no one but the owner of those books to keep her company. When I first read the play a few years ago - in the interest of auditioning for the part of Miranda, actually - what struck me most was how Miranda had grown up.
I also quite love ships. Again, I'm not sure why, but I have a feeling it's something to do with feeling the spray of the sea on my face. The smell of the ocean is one of my favorite things, and there's just a certain air of adventure to watching the waves slip past you like folds of silk on a seamstress's table.
2. It was one of the first romances I read where the girl was valued for more than just her good looks and kindness.
When Alonso meets his future daughter-in-law, she and Ferdinand are playing chess. Miranda's relationship with Ferdinand is more than just pretty people kissing each other. It's also an intellectual one, which was rather atypical of romances of that age. I mean, few girls were educated at all, let alone to a level to equal the son of a king. Miranda, on the other hand, is educated. How could she not be, growing up alone on an island with her book-obsessed father, a spirit of the air, and... well, Caliban? I mean, she is also compassionate - the first thing we hear her say is her asking her father to stop the storm so no one is hurt. I just really like Miranda a lot as a character, and I think it'd be cool to maybe play her sometime.
3. It's really serene.
Aristotle and his unities left alone because they are not what I mean, I like how simple this story is. As sort of Shakespeare's farewell to the stage, it is very well-crafted and sort of a love letter to the potential the stage has. This is especially true in the epilogue, when Prospero entreats the audience to send him on his way with good wishes and warm fuzzies.
(Also, it's a really good play to read while listening to a storm. Go figure.)
That said, though, I'd vehemently disagree with people who would call it a stagnant play, because....
4. A ton of stuff happens.
Seriously. A ship pretends to wreck because of Ariel and his orders from Prospero, we learn about seriously Hamlet-level brother-on-brother treachery, the king's brother plots to murder him and is then morally reformed, Trinculo and Stephano get Caliban drunk, Caliban promises the island to Stephano and the girl to Trinculo, they start revolting, the king comes across Prospero's cell and finds his son, whom he had previously thought drowned, playing chess with Prospero's daughter.
On top of all this, Ferdinand and Miranda fall in love and have an awesome engagement party.
Under all this, Prospero, with the help of his air spirit servant Ariel, creates a storm, weaves an extensive and elaborate illusion, reclaims his title from his brother and throws an incredible engagement party for his daughter.
5. Reading this play inspires me to be more creative.
Everything about it - the themes of female magic replaced by male, the love story, the shipwreck, the characters - make me want to make stuff. And I think that's everything I have to say about that.
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