In “From Gender, race, Renaissance Drama,” Ania Loomba discusses Miranda from William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and the schooling she receives from her father that is based on obedience, where he holds power over her life as property and an exchange. Because Miranda was growing up on an island without any other female figures, she received guidance from a paternal figure, Prospero, which affected her individuality and perception of the world. When she meets Ferdinand, she is infatuated with the presence of another male on the island. She succumbs to another male figure’s control and is “subservient to patriarchal will” (397). Loomba’s overall argument that Miranda is under Prospero’s control is convincing, but she could have included the fact that the play was written by a male and argued that Miranda constantly battles with her true inner self, which then affects her individuality.
First of all, Loomba does well by establishing the different ways Prospero holds control of Miranda’s sexuality and persona. She defines how patriarchalism asserts “knowledge,” “humanity,” “power,” and at times, all three and gives clear examples for each (395). For knowledge, Prospero has wisdom through his magic, schooling of Miranda, and civilizing of Caliban (395). She could have perhaps added his knowledge of how to govern a dukedom and elaborated on how his knowledge of this is based on his experience and mistakes. For humanity, Loomba lists Prospero’s parental care for his daughter, him freeing ‘his’ Ariel and his “‘humanely taken’ pains over Caliban” (395). Noting Prospero’s liberation of Ariel and the sympathetic pains he felt for Caliban was not effective in demonstrating his humanity. Emphasizing that he forgave his brother, Antonio, might have been more effective, because it shows that he loves his brother enough to forgive him and grant him compassion. For power, Loomba chooses her examples to be Prospero’s authority over Miranda and the torture he imposes on Caliban and Ariel. She states that Prospero’s authority over his daughter is based on the fact that “Miranda cannot choose but obey Prospero” (395). Although this is true to an extent, Miranda disobeys him in many other cases where readers see a glimpse of her individuality. For a combination of all three patriarchal elements, Loomba cites when Prospero tells Antonio and Sebastian that he will “tell no tales” at the moment, giving them access to his future plans, being kind enough to tell them that he knows, and also giving them a “warning” (395). This was not the best of examples.
Next, Loomba conveys the importance of Prospero’s foundation in schooling Miranda. She explains that the education he gave Miranda had two purposes: obedience and knowing how to participate in the economics of colonial venture. Miranda constantly obeys her father without hesitation. She maintains silence when she needs to, answers his questions, and follows his orders. She does not question her father, nor does she disrespect him regardless of her being witness to her father’s actions and vengeful plans. She accepts him as he is, with all his flaws and anger. Loomba mentions the initial orders he gives Miranda while he was telling her the story of how they got to the island and what is going to happen next in Act I, Scene ii. He constantly makes sure that he has his daughter’s attention. Loomba briefly mentions how Prospero has a desire to hold his daughter’s attention, a reason that perhaps guides him to set obedience as his foundation to educating Miranda.
The second purpose of her education was to learn the “economics” of situations. The one in the play is that of Caliban. The example Loomba uses corroborates with Miranda knowing what uses Caliban has for her and her father’s benefit. In Act I, Scene ii, Miranda voices that they need him to “fetch in our wood” (Shakespeare 315). This shows that she does understand the economic system from a fiscal standpoint, but also as it concerns people, in this case, Caliban. She is taught to “believe in his natural inferiority,” “inherent incapacity to be bettered,” “to feel sorry for the inferior native,” “to try and uplift him,” and “to concur totally in his ‘deserv’d’ confinement” (Loomba 396). Her knowledge of this confirms that she has a very male-dominated perception. Thus, Miranda is a victim of an economic. However, she does not see that she is. She and her father are more of a dyad who cast away the weak, and so she does not know what life is within a larger society filled with other women. Loomba then concludes that Miranda “conforms to the dual requirements of femininity within the master-culture: by taking on aspects of the white man’s burden the white woman only confirmed her own subordination” (396-97).
Loomba could have also strengthened her claim by arguing that The Tempest was written by William Shakespeare, a male. During Shakespearean time (1500s-1600s), society was patriarchal. Women were inferior to men, and societal roles and expectations governed their daily lives. As children during this time, women were not treated humanely. They were seen as sexual tools. In the play, Shakespeare portrays Miranda as such through Prospero who is in control of her fate due to his human desire for vengeance. He arranges the love affair between Miranda and Ferdinand for his own benefit of accomplishing his goals. Although it may seem to Miranda that it was fate for her to have met Ferdinand, it was all manipulation by her father. Prospero is also portrayed as a colonizer who continues to colonize his daughter by exploiting her and using her as a sexual temptation. Another fact to point out is that Miranda is the only main female figure in the play. During Shakespearean time, women were not allowed to act so this could have been a reason as to why Shakespeare developed one female character in his play. However, it can be argued that it was to show how women can be tamed to fit man’s needs and desires and that a woman’s role was to be submissive to her male authorities. He seems to give a voice to her character, but it was to show that women need to be continuously tamed, because they are prone to outbursts, which do not conform to man’s perception of women. He suppresses her true inner self, identity as a woman, and her individuality, especially by not adding any other female figures in her life.
Miranda constantly battles between obeying her father and letting her voice be heard through her true inner self. Because she has been confined to the male’s world of viewing things, she battles between the norms she knows through her father’s schooling and her own nature, identity, and individuality. Because it has been suppressed for so long, there is little room for her to let her inner self be free. However, readers are able to see a side to her where she gives glimpses of her individuality. In Act I, Scene ii, she speaks out against her father by saying: “If by your art, my dearest father, you have / Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them” (Shakespeare 1-2) She tells him to stop the tempest so that no one loses their lives or gets injured. She then cries out to him saying:
Had I been any god of power, I would
Have sunk the sea within the earth or ere
It should the good ship so have swallowed and
The freighting souls within her. (Shakespeare 10-13)
Then her father tells her to “be collected” and to show “no more amazement” and so she listens to her father (13-14). Her voice is demolished by a male figure, and so there is a constant repression of her identity, nature, and individuality. The male authority in her life, her father Prospero, imprisons her voice. Throughout the telling of his story, he quiets her, mutes her, and tells her to obey. Each time he does so, it is because of a comment she has voiced aloud to him that he was not in agreement with.
Throughout the play, Miranda is very willing to speak up for herself. The most obvious example is when she reprimands Caliban for expressing his malice towards Prospero in Act I, Scene ii: “Abhorred slave, / Which any print of goodness wilt not take, / Being capable of all ill! I pitied thee” (354-356). Miranda is also willing to defend herself and her father by not keeping quiet, but rather by voicing her thoughts regarding Caliban. She also goes against societal norms and asks Ferdinand to marry her instead of him asking her. Because she has not been in contact with other members of a larger society, she has no sense of what is right or wrong in terms of societal norms. She let love power over her and overcome her to the point that one can see her individuality, compassion, and also rebellion. She rebels against her father’s order of not speaking to or seeing Ferdinand. The power of love is shown through Miranda, and this is something that Loomba does not argue. Her individuality is hidden between the lines and may be difficult to see, but once unpacked, one can see that Miranda is trying to let her inner self be free from her father’s control.
Although Loomba discusses how Miranda’s life is governed by patriarchal control, her feminist analysis could have been strengthened by arguing that Shakespeare suppresses her identity and individuality though male authorities because of his own perception of women. Miranda’s inner self was repressed due to her father’s control and schooling based mainly on obedience. However, this portrayed her as property and exchange between father and husband. Nevertheless, women do have a voice and Miranda reveals to the reader that she does, regardless of interference of male figures.