I began The Tempest with lukewarm feelings, but by the time I finished it, I was pleasantly surprised to have enjoyed it. At this point in the semester, I think I was burned out and just ready for it all to be over with, so at the beginning of this play, I wasn’t really in the right mindset. However, before the end of Act I, I was intrigued.
There was an interesting discussion in our class about Prospero and Miranda’s relationship. Some people found Prospero incredibly controlling, to the point where his behavior toward his daughter was creepy. I didn’t find any evidence in the text to support the “creepy” theory at all. There was also talk about how Prospero was dictatorial toward his daughter, but I’m thinking that the relationship was probably pretty representative of the time in which Shakespeare wrote it. In other words, I’m thinking Prospero wasn’t the least bit interested in progressive parenting methods.
Of all the characters, I liked Caliban quite a bit–so much that I wound up writing my essay on how he is ultimately a sympathetic character. (I got an A on the essay, by the way! 
) I was very bothered by Prospero’s treatment/abuse of Caliban. Prospero treated Ariel poorly at times, but his treatment of Caliban made me sad. Hence, my sympathetic feelings toward him.
[Footnote: Many times during my reading I noticed similarities in motifs between The Tempest and the TV show Lost. Most notably, I likened Caliban to the Man in Black in the sense that they both just wanted to leave the island more than anything and they both had someone keeping them from doing that. Then again, Lost draws from tons of other sources (literature, mythology, religion, etc.), so this play is one source of many, in that sense.]
