Tuesday, July 22, 2014

In The Tempest, why is Prospero angry that Miranda volunteered to help Ferdinand with the logs?

When Miranda offers to carry the logs for Ferdinand, Prospero exclaims, out of Miranda's hearing, "Poor worm, thou art infected!" He means by this that Miranda is "infected" with love, and the expression "Poor worm" is uttered much more as an expression of sympathy than anger. Prospero is actually pleased that Miranda seems genuinely in love with Ferdinand, and Ferdinand with her. Indeed, Prospero wishes that "Heaven rain grace / On that which breeds between 'em!" In other words, he wishes for their love to be blessed and to blossom.
Miranda might assume, when she offers to carry the logs for Ferdinand, that her father would be angry with her. This is because, earlier in the play, Prospero tells Miranda that Ferdinand is "a traitor," and warns her to stay away from him. He does this, however, only to test that Miranda's love for Ferdinand is pure. Or, in Prospero's own words, he has to make the love between them "uneasy . . . lest too light winning / Make the prize light." In other words, he wants them to earn their love, rather than win it cheaply. He thinks that if they earn their love now, it will be more meaningful, and in this sense heavy and enduring, rather than light and too easy to cast off.


Prospero is testing Ferdinand to make sure he is worthy of Miranda and truly in love with her. He wants to make sure Ferdinand is willing to do lowly and backbreaking labor to win her heart. To Prospero, to prove Ferdinand cares about Miranda, he needs to do all the work, even though Miranda offers to help him move the logs so that he can rest.
Prospero is more than a bit of a control freak—for example, Miranda is worried that she has disobeyed his direct command when she reveals to Ferdinand that she loves him.
Ferdinand does express that he would do all sorts of manual labor if it meant earning the prize of Miranda. His heart is sincere. However, Prospero wants to make things as difficult as possible for him to test his love for his daughter. That means Miranda shouldn't offer to help him.

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