“Our revels now are ended. These our actors, / As I foretold you, were all spirits and / Are melted into air, into thin air: / And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, / The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, / The solemn temples, the great globe itself, / Ye all which it inherit, shall dissolve / And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, / Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff / As dreams are made on, and our little life / Is rounded with a sleep.” (4.1.148-158)
In the selected passage, Prospero was creating an elaborate masque of spirits to celebrate Ferdinand and Miranda’s engagement. However, he abruptly ceases the illusions when he realizes that he forgot to deal with Caliban’s plot to murder him. His beautiful monologue laments the fleeting nature of the magical illusions he fabricates and possibly life as a whole – sometimes, Prospero is so wrapped up in his magic that he forgets about real life. However, that must not sustain because reality should take precedence over the illusions he fabricates, especially since he is nearing the end of his life and will soon be relinquishing the few valuables he has treasured in his lifetime: his daughter and his books of magic.
In my drawing, I sharply contrasted two worlds. On the left, I depicted a world filled with mystical illusions such as the “cloud-capp’d towers.” This half was purposefully drawn to be clean, bright, colorful, and whimsical to emphasize how Prospero’s magic can be used to create a glamorous and dreamlike setting. However, once the “insubstantial pageant fade[s],” we see real life on the right. The right half of the drawing is much darker, less colorful, and has messier sketching strokes, which helps add to conveying Prospero’s slight reluctance in parting with magic and immersing himself full-time into reality. The shipwreck is illustrated as a symbol of something that Prospero turned from magic into reality, and thus he must deal with the situation. While he would like to continue with the engagement celebration, he cannot afford to forget any of the other characters’ plots because real life is still occurring while these “revels” and “dreams” happen. By depicting Prospero’s monologue, I gained an improved understanding of his perpetual struggle of balancing his focus on magic and reality. Magical illusions can give the sense of satisfaction and utopia, but they will never prevent real life from occurring. His self-awareness of this balance shows a lot of change from back when he was the Duke and he had ignored all his political duties in favor of his magical studies; now, he comprehends how cursory magic is and how he cannot continually dwell on the illusions and ignore reality.