Professor Gideon mentioned 'The Prince' by Machiavelli in class last week. I actually just read this in my history of theatre class.
What Machiavelli considers the perfect prince are qualities that are pretty morally questionable for us who do not have such responsibilities as someone in the royal court.
Here are some of the qualities of a successful Prince according to Machiavelli:
-He uses power, strength of character and knowledge to get what he wants.
-He makes the most of a situation -turning it into his favour.
-He rules by fear, not love.
I feel that Prospero fits the Machiavellian ideals of a prince. He has a lot of control of what happens to the plot and really uses his powers to better his own situation. I looked this topic up online and there seems to be some debate to this argument; that Prospero resembles the Machiavellian prince. For how much of a part Prospero plays in the events of the play, his control far outways anything else that might go against this argument. Prospero is a cunning man and who knows what he wants and how to get it. He uses Ariel to get this and of course his own magic.
Here's something I've thought about but haven't brought up before: is Prospero really the most magical one? It seems like Ariel is doing most of the work. Is Prospero's magic really that impressive? Or does he just order Ariel around and that's where his power comes from?
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