Dayondra Duffy's Attitudes Towards Cruelty

“A Cruel Hate Towards Cruelty”

Dayondra Duffy

Cruelty under any circumstance is unjust. Even though some may believe that cruelty can be justified under extreme circumstances, Michel De Montaigne writes, “The Essays,” as an educated novel based off his observations in the late 1500s. One of his major observations that shaped his work was that he saw cruelty as an art of suffering, and that this is harmful in such a way that makes man inhuman. He observes cruelty not only through the actions of one individual to another, but also through the ideals that makes a human suffer spiritually. These types of cruelty is also demonstrated in Shakespeare's, “The Tempest,” through the dynamic character, Prospero, who is a duke of Milan that spends
Prospero is a protagonist in “The Tempest” because he has been attacked and betrayed by the people around him. Even though this puts him in a sympathetic position, he is ultimately cruel because he uses his advantages in order to get vengeance and stay in power over others. In particular, Prospero tournaments, Caliban, whom he catches trying to rape his daughter Miranda. He resorts to vengeance in Act 1, telling Caliban, “If thou neglectest or dost unwillingly what I command, I’le wrack thee with old Cramps, fill all thy bones with Aches, make thee roar, that Beasts shall tremble” (Shakespeare 1:2:21). Prospero threatens Caliban by imposing torture on him. To punish Caliban for his actions Prospero threatens to cause physical pain to Caliban by giving him painful cramps during the night. The fact that Prospero's idea of justifying the problem through torture demonstrates his standing in his sense of morality.. Prospero is wrong in the way he uses his social standing as a mean to torture others. Prospero feels a sense of authority. And this makes him like he is able to inflict suffering Caliban so that Caliban can pay for his actions towards his daughter. It is important to understand that authority figures such as Prospero's often turn to torture and cruelty to keep their subordinate figures in order. This contradicts the fact that all humans were created equally with the
For Instance, Prospero tells Caliban, “ I pity’d thee, took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour one thing or other; when thou didst not (Savage) know thy own meaning, but would’st gabble, like a thing most brutish, I endow’d thy purposes with words which made them known”(Shakespeare 1:2:21). Prospero goes on about how he has taught Caliban his native ways such as speaking. In this scene, Prospero appears to be a protagonist because it seems like even though Caliban was his slave, Caliban was able to advance and thrive as a person as Prospero educates him. This is true, but it is also true that the consequence of Prospero teaching Caliban these things is that Caliban overtime lost track of his own culture and