Shakespeare's The Tempest

Hey, /book/ I'm writing an essay about Miranda's role in "The Tempest"  My points are: she is the only female role, she is Prospero's only human confidant, and she plays a key role as part of the only romance in the play with Ferdinand.

Any thoughts, points, or changes?  Just looking for an outside view.

She's never seen a man before and has no knowledge of the outside world that rejected her. Her exclamation "oh brave new world etc etc" upon seeing Ferdinand and the rest of the crew is highly ironic, as what she's really seeing are the staggering survivors of a shipwreck.

She might be Prospero's human COMPANION but suggesting she's his confidante is a bit strong, I think. Prospero speaks more to Ariel and Caliban both of his internal thoughts than he does to Miranda; I feel this is largely symptomatic of his larger inability to connect to "real people" which led him to take up sorcery and be booted out of his duchy in the first place.

Hmm, good point about the confidante/companion thing, that seems more like what I am trying to go for.  I had already included a bit about her isolation and reactions upon meeting new people.

Much thanks Anon, it was looking like the "what a crappy board" thread below was fast becoming a reality.

(Also, a good point about Prospero, I hadn't thought about that.  If I were doing an essay about him, it would totally be in.)

It might be a nice idea to include the critical view that miranda and prospero's relationship verges on an incestuous one- prospero acts as the voyuer from his lair by using ariel and his 'vision' to watch the courting couple.
also, from another point of view, it could be argued that miranda is the queen figure in prospero's game of chess (i.e all the other characters are the pawns, and the island is the board)as she is the main way in which he is trying to regain power. her and ferdinand playing chess upon their revealing by prospero could thus be interpreted that, by allowing her to marry ferdinand, prospero is now handing the 'game' over to miranda.

When the play began Prospero had not even told miranda about their lives before living on the island, and throughout the play he used her and her affection for ferdinand to get even with the other characters.  I think prospero spends most of the play as a greedy and proud character but only becomes sympathetic in the end