Education in The Tempest

Paper Summary:

This paper analyzes the character Miranda's education. Her education is the result of her father's teaching, her experiences with Caliban and her relationship with Ferdinand. Despite the unconventional setting for this play, Miranda is portrayed as being the perfect European lady of that time.

From the Paper:

What we call education and culture is for the most part nothing but the substitution of reading for experience, of literature for life of obsolete fictions for contemporary experience (Evans, 193). Shakespeare s The Tempest focuses on the theme of education. Throughout the play characters are each educated in some form. Miranda s education is particular is central to the play s plot, and reflects the period in which Shakespeare was writing. She is educated in the ways of being a proper woman despite the uncivilized setting. How she learns and what she is taught is directly influenced by the culture of the Elizabethan era, and the attitudes towards women at the time. Her education is divided into the direct and indirect teachings of Prospero, what is learned from her relationship with Caliban, her love of Ferdinand, and the messages in the masque."

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