We’ve been taught that we cannot judge a person by his or her appearance because one’s external doesn’t necessarily tell about his or her personality. The same concept applies in The Tempest as well. A lot of times, people determine how others are by what they see without learning about them further, and that always leads them into wrong judgments; in Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest, Stephano, Caliban, and Miranda all make wrong evaluations by simply trusting what they observe.
Stephano shows how incorrect first judgements can be if he believes how things appear to be. When he first gets on the island, he is in shock because he sees there is a “monster of the isle, with four legs, who hath got, as (he) take it, an ague” (II.2, 59-60). And when …show more content…
When Miranda first meets Ferdinand, she says to her father, “What is’t? A spirit?/ Lord, how it looks about! Believe me, sir,/ It carries a brave from. But’its a spirit” (I.2, 409-411). Even after her father tells her that that is only a human being, she still maintains that he is divine. The reason why Miranda considers Ferdinand a spirit is that he is the only man she has ever been besides his father and Caliban, so for sure, he is far more handsome than Caliban, the son of a witch and a devil. Thus in her mind, a person who is that good-looking must be a celestial being, but for us he is just an ordinary human being. Near the end of the play, Miranda meets all the nobles who were on the ship, including Antonio and Sebastian. She says, “O wonder!/ How many goodly creatures are there here!/ How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world/ That has such people in’t!” (V.1, 182-185) Nonetheless, based on the previous events in the play, Antonio takes his brother’s country and usurps his position as the Duke of Milan. Also, he tries to persuade Sebastian to follow his path, which means Sebastian will kill Alonso, who is his brother, and becomes the king of Naples. Actually Sebastian almost carries it out. Therefore, at least these two persons are not much beautiful humankind in their hearts, but innocent Miranda just sees how they dress nicely and look like candid
Stephano shows how incorrect first judgements can be if he believes how things appear to be. When he first gets on the island, he is in shock because he sees there is a “monster of the isle, with four legs, who hath got, as (he) take it, an ague” (II.2, 59-60). And when …show more content…
When Miranda first meets Ferdinand, she says to her father, “What is’t? A spirit?/ Lord, how it looks about! Believe me, sir,/ It carries a brave from. But’its a spirit” (I.2, 409-411). Even after her father tells her that that is only a human being, she still maintains that he is divine. The reason why Miranda considers Ferdinand a spirit is that he is the only man she has ever been besides his father and Caliban, so for sure, he is far more handsome than Caliban, the son of a witch and a devil. Thus in her mind, a person who is that good-looking must be a celestial being, but for us he is just an ordinary human being. Near the end of the play, Miranda meets all the nobles who were on the ship, including Antonio and Sebastian. She says, “O wonder!/ How many goodly creatures are there here!/ How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world/ That has such people in’t!” (V.1, 182-185) Nonetheless, based on the previous events in the play, Antonio takes his brother’s country and usurps his position as the Duke of Milan. Also, he tries to persuade Sebastian to follow his path, which means Sebastian will kill Alonso, who is his brother, and becomes the king of Naples. Actually Sebastian almost carries it out. Therefore, at least these two persons are not much beautiful humankind in their hearts, but innocent Miranda just sees how they dress nicely and look like candid