“I’ll miss you, Father,” Miranda whispered as her thoughts wandered back to past memories.
Miranda and Ferdinand’s wedding day had been one of the happiest days of Miranda’s life. Just before the ceremony, King Alonso had sent a box to Miranda’s room containing a beautiful diamond necklace. A note sent with the necklace read: The jewel is a family heirloom which the late queen wore at our wedding. I would like you to wear it at yours as well.
After the wedding, Miranda had difficulty settling into her new role, but the noble ladies of the royal court were instrumental in helping Miranda through her first weeks as Ferdinand’s queen. They taught Miranda how to speak and behave as a proper, dignified queen should. Miranda had learned quickly and soon became indispensable to Ferdinand not only as a companion, but also as an advisor.
Two years later, Miranda had been overjoyed to discover she was pregnant. Miranda, Ferdinand, and the entire royal court were even happier when the baby turned out to be a boy.
“What should we name him?” Miranda had asked Ferdinand, cradling their newborn son.
Ferdinand was quiet for a moment, then replied, “Our country already has a King Alonso. We should name him after your father, Prospero.”
Now standing in front of her father’s gravestone, Miranda smiled as she pictured her son’s bright face.
“You would be proud of him, he’s just like you,” Miranda spoke softly, lingering for one last moment. Just as she turned away, the skies opened up and started to pour, thunder booming and lightning flashing in the distance.
“Goodbye, Father.”
The lines I chose to reference in the story are from Act 3 of The Tempest in which Miranda says to Ferdinand, “One of my sex, no woman’s face remember – / Save, from my glass, mine own. Nor have I seen / More that I may call men than you, good friend, / And my dear father. How features are abroad / I am skilless of, but my modesty / (The jewel in my dower), I would not wish / Any companion in the world but you, / Nor can imagination form a shape, / Besides yourself, to like of. But I prattle / Something too wildly, and my father’s precepts / I therein do forget” (3.1.49-58).
I wrote my short story as an epilogue for Miranda’s character. (I initially wanted to write an epilogue in the same style as Prospero’s, however I do not write poetry well). I was inspired by Prospero’s epilogue, and I was curious what might have happened to Miranda after the end of The Tempest. I was specifically interested in how we discussed Miranda’s life being controlled by Prospero, and the story touches on those themes tied to Miranda’s character by highlighting specific memories. Miranda wearing Ferdinand’s mother’s diamond necklace (“the jewel in [her] dower”) at their wedding and her joy at having a baby boy reflect the theme that Miranda is a sort of prize to be won, a prize whose worth is determined by her womb and ability to bear heirs. The ladies who help Miranda in the third paragraph represent her gaining the maternal influence that Miranda lacked in her life as well as the idea that Miranda must conform to society’s gender roles. The epilogue takes place at Prospero’s grave in order to explore the extent of Prospero’s control over Miranda. Miranda names her child after Prospero and has essentially followed the exact ‘proper’ path of marrying well, being a good wife, and bearing a son, that Prospero wanted her to. Finally, the story takes place during a storm which is representative of the initial tempest that Prospero conjured to control events in The Tempest and implies that Prospero’s control extends, perhaps indirectly, even beyond death.
by Lea Rysavy