Prospero's Wife

For this final blog assignment I chose to read “Prospero’s Wife” by Stephen Orgel. In his essay he discusses several points, such as, psychoanalytic paradigms, the perfecting/editing of Shakespeare’s works, the missing wife, the marriage contract, power and authority, the renunciation of magic, and the use of wife vs. wise in Ferdinand’s praise of the masque. Of these many topics mentioned I chose to focus my interests on the problem of the missing wife and the curiosity of interpreting portions of the play as psychoanalytic paradigms. Orgel references Freud several times throughout is explanation of what is meant by psychoanalyzing the play, and when describing the uprising and destructive capabilities of the youngest sibling. When describing the analytic process, Orgel recognizes that psychoanalysis is facilitated by the analyst, but ultimately performed by the patients themselves.

“The interpretation of analytical material is done in conjuction with, and in large measure by, the patient, not the analyst; what the analyst does is enable the patient, free the patient to inerpret. An analysis done without the patient, like Freud’s of Leonardo, will be revealing only about the analyst.”

Orgel goes on to talk about Prospero’s missing wife, who is really only alluded to one time in the entire play, when Prospero is describing to Miranda how they came to be on the Island. His reference seems to be made only to assure us that Miranda is his legitimate heir. Orgel points out that when Prospero states that, “Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and/ She said thou wast my daughter; and thy father/ Was Duke of Milan; and thou his only heir/ And princess no worse issued.”, it can be interpreted to mean that had her mother not assured him of this fact it could be assumed that she was a bastard child. It is also assumed that Prospero, like many of Shakespeare’s other prominent male figures, assumes all women to be whores, and men to be virtuous.

Reading this interpretation of some of the meanings behind characters actions in the play was very insightful. I think that there is more than just one instance when Prospero uses a female character to meet his own needs, as he used his wife only for the assurance of a true heir. For example, he uses Sycorax to condemn Caliban and revoke his rights to the island, Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil himself/ Upon thy wicked dam, come forth!”. I think we can also Miranda used as a commodity when Prospero, is ensnaring Ferdinand, and thereby Alonso, in his plots. He also uses her to enslave Ferdinand, who must purchase her, as one would purchase cow or slave. “O, she is/ Ten times more gentle than her father's crabbed, / And he's composed of harshness. I must remove/ Some thousands of these logs and pile them up,/ Upon a sore injunction:”.