It is often noted that The Tempest is a strange play in the Shakespeare canon; unlike any of his other works, with the exception of The Comedy of Errors, it observes classical unities of time and setting. Of all Shakespeare's opening scenes, that of The Tempest is probably the most dramatic, as it includes both a storm and a shipwreck. However, the drama seems to subside almost completely in the next scene, in which Prospero recounts the prehistory of the play. This is an extreme challenge for the actor playing Prospero, as it is up to him to maintain the momentum in a scene full of long expository passages. This is one of the reasons why many actors who have played him have called him the most difficult character they have ever played. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on 'Why violent video games should not be banned'?Get the original essayMiranda only vaguely remembers her past; “rather like a dream than like an assurance that my memory deserves.” Prospero explains that he was once Duke of Milan, his title having been forcibly taken from him by his brother Antonio, who had been allied with Alonzo, King of Naples. Walter Clyde Curry argues that Prospero is not saying that he neglected his duty; rather, he says that he neglected "material ends" – a virtue for Shakespeare's largely Christian audience, but not a virtue for a duke in a Machiavellian Italian Renaissance. Prospero here describes an irreconcilable collision of value systems. Some critics argue that he is a weak ruler who took his destiny into his own hands by isolating himself in his studies, thus allowing his dukedom to be taken away from him. However, many believe that Shakespeare wrote Prospero as a wise man studying to become a better person, the victim of a power-hungry brother. Both interpretations are at least partially correct, and I think it is best to view Prospero as a combination of these two models. It is clear here that Prospero is not a good ruler, as he is more interested in his studies than his duchy. He is therefore not completely innocent regarding his loss of power. His “false” brother could not have taken power from Prospero so easily if he had been more involved in the workings of Milan. This diminishes Antonio's betrayal and immediately establishes the romantic genre: if Prospero is blameless, the play becomes a tragedy, since the "bad guy" would be irreconcilable. Prospero cannot therefore be seen as vengeful: Shakespeare strives to assure us of this, telling the audience at least twice that even though the ship in the opening scene was wrecked, everyone was saved and the passengers are safe on the island. Leslie Dunton-Downer argues, rightly I believe, that the "stereotype of Prospero as the sanitized Merlin the Magician character is misleading." It is neither simple nor purely good. He attacks his "false" brother, but admits that he was "so withdrawn" from his duties as duke that an "evil nature" "awakened" in his brother, and his "confidence made him begotten a lie.” He knows how to be calm and empathetic, as he demonstrates at the beginning of the scene when he calms Miranda's fears for the safety of the castaways from the previous scene. However, he becomes a completely different person when he tells the story of Antonio's betrayal. Dean Ebner notes the seriousness with which Shakespeare's audiences would have taken this account: the rebellion was "thoroughly condemned in the homilies of the English Church and by Shakespeare in his earlier plays." The homilists considered mass rebellion and individual usurpation to be sins against God's anointed who,.