The Tempest

Sc. 2, Lines 1–24: What do you learn in these lines about the shipwreck and about Prospero? What evidence helped you make these inferences?

If by your art, my dearest father, you have
Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them.
The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch,
But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's cheek,
Dashes the fire out. O, I have suffered
With those that I saw suffer: a brave vessel,
Who had, no doubt, some noble creature in her,
Dash'd all to pieces. O, the cry did knock
Against my very heart. Poor souls, they perish'd.
Had I been any god of power, I would
Have sunk the sea within the earth or ere
It should the good ship so have swallow'd and
The fraughting souls within her.

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This tells us that Miranda does not know much about herself or her fatgher. She suspects that her father has power over the Tempest and wants him to have mercy on the people inside the ship. Prospero tells Miranda that she has much to learn about everything including his power, her past, and the people on the ship.