The Tempest : Love Between Ferdinand and Miranda
Question : Give an account of love that develop between Miranda and Ferdinand. What do you think of their love ?
Answer :Miranda and Ferdinand present an idyllic love between the two innocent and trusting people. Although their love develops so suddenly and appears to be infatuation, it is much more than transient attraction.
Prospero’s magic brings together Ferdinand and Miranda but his magic has little to do with the spring of love between the two. Their love is prompted by their mutual admiration, by their physical attraction and by the romantic circumstances of their meeting.
It is the wish of Prospero’s heart that they should fall in love. But Prospero finds that they are too quick, and as soon as they are in love, they seem to be getting free of Prospero’s influence and interference.
Prospero is quite happy at the result, but is afraid that too easy winning may make the prize cheap. Prospero, therefore, wants to test the constancy and sincerity of Ferdinand’s love. Hence, Prospero imposes on Ferdinand the task of bearing logs. Ferdinand is to carry logs of wood from different places and pile them at one place.
Prospero treats Ferdinand harshly to fill his role as a protective parent, but also to emphasise how much he has learned from his previous mistakes. He is no longer overly trusting. He watches carefully a treacherous associate like Antonio, an unbridled brute like Caliban, or even a prospective but untrusted son – in -law like Ferdinand.
He plays down the good qualities of Ferdinand to Miranda, calling him just another man that
“eats and sleeps, and hath such senses/
As we have,……”
and also someone who is
” something stain’d /
With grief,….” Who
“hath lost his fellows/
And strays about to find’ em”
rather like a lost sheep.
Carrying logs is a tough and degrading job for Ferdinand, but he performs this tedious task for the sake of his love for Miranda.
The task of carrying logs brings Ferdinand and Miranda more closely together. Taking advantage of the hours that Prospero spends on study, Miranda steals to Ferdinand while he is engaged in carrying logs.
Miranda feels sympathy for Ferdinand. She expresses her love by offering to share his labour.
On the other side, the thought of Miranda seems to relieve his fatigue. Miranda herself comes to him and her personal company is more encouraging to him. Her sympathy is quite touching and robs the task of all its unpleasantness.
Ferdinand asks Miranda her name. She tells him that her name is Miranda. Then he tells her that her name is fit to be admired. She is perfect in all respect. She is a paragon of beauty.
When Miranda asks him if he loves her, he replies that heaven and earth will bear witness that he loves her and honours her beyond all limits.
Miranda tells him that she has not seen any other woman than her own reflection in the mirror, so she has no idea about her beauty. She then swears by her modesty that she would never accept any other companion except him.
Ferdinand reveals his identity and tells her that he is a prince and most probably a king because his father is supposed to have been drowned. When Ferdinand tells her that he values her beyond anything else in this world, then Miranda begins to weep and tells him that she is ready to become his wife if he marries her and if he does not wish to marry her, she would become his maidservant for her whole life. Ferdinand tells her that he is willing to marry her.
Overall the love between Miranda and Ferdinand seems genuine, real and deep. They both are pure, innocent and trustworthy souls. They are not complex figure like Antonio and Alonso but they are simple and child like people.
Later in the story, Ferdinand assures Prospero that he will not violate the sanctity of marriage by having premarital sex with his daughter. Ferdinand tells Prospero that no incitement of any kind would make his sense of honour yield to his lust. He says that he would wait for his wedding night with great keenness but that he would not allow his passion to get the better of his discretion. This reveals the morality , truthfulness and goodness of the character of Ferdinand.
Thus, the complete devotion, true and genuine love between Ferdinand and Miranda will leads them to live a happy and satisfying married life.