The Tempest: An Analysis of Antonio

Essay by canadiankidHigh School, 10th grade August 2004

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Antonio is the younger brother of Prospero. He is an evil man with an ego so big that he wants to take total control of Milan away from his brother. At the time, Prospero was the Duke. However Prospero was so tied up with his books and his magic that he gave almost his power to Antonio. At first, Antonio was very conservative with this power. But as time went on, he began to abuse this power and eventually Antonio teamed up with the King of Naples and threw Prospero off the throne. Antonio is obviously a very influential person who seeks for power and control. He is also a very humorous character in this scene. When he is teamed up with Sebastian, they most likely created a whole stadium of cheers back in the Elizabethan times.

In the beginning of this scene, Antonio deals with his fellow royal mates with disrespect such as that implied by his interactions with Gonzalo. He suggests a bet over which of Gonzalo or Adrian will laugh first, as well as many other puns targeted toward Gonzalo. In this scene, Antonio clearly becomes the antagonist of the story and he makes himself very offensive to others except for Sebastian.

As the scene goes on, Antonio and Sebastian were left alone as Ariel put all other characters to sleep. This was the perfect opportunity for Antonio to unleash his plan of killing the king and putting Sebastian on the throne. Since Antonio himself has already had this experience already with his brother, he didn't require much thought. All he needed to do was convince Sebastian to make the move. Antonio didn't really have a motive of doing this, but one probable explanation would be that he wanted to restore freedom...