Miranda and Prospero (Age vs. Youth)

Dr. Sexson mentioned on Friday in class that to Miranda everything is new and Prospero has "been there, and done that." When he mentioned this I immediately thought of age and youth. If you took Dr. Sexson's Classical literature class you would know that this is one of the major conflicts throughout literature and history. Miranda and Prospero also happen to fall under the classification of man versus woman as well. There are several other conflicts but I can only remember about four, and out of the ones I remember only these two seem to fit these characters.

But isn't this the main conflict of all of history? The young trying to see the world through their eyes and the old telling them, "yep, we already did that." Miranda and Prospero are in direct opposition to each other throughout the work. Each new generation tries to assert itself and create and see something new in the world around them, but the old are telling them no we already did that and things are the way they should be and how they always have been.

Prospero is the obstacle between boy and girl, he is in a way Miranda's memory and he tells her about her past that he shares with her. In a way her not remember everything completely is a view of the future while he is the past, the moment and the memory, the young and old.

Miranda sees nothing behind her and only what lies ahead, all that is new and exciting for her, all that the world holds. Prospero sees all that the world is since the beginning of time and has done it all, there is nothing new and exciting to him. This opposition between father and daughter is the ever present conflict between young and old, and when father comes between daughter and love then the conflict emerges into woman and man.

I shouldn't be surprised that Shakespeare used these conflicts in his works since they seem to appear time and time again, but he does use the two most prolific of the five(?), that of man versus woman (or even father versus daughter) and youth versus age. The two conflicts that have plagued us all since the beginning of time, and of course Prospero would know!