The Tempest Manipulation

In the first act of The Tempest the magical character Prospero practically controls the world around him by manipulating the other characters to work for him. The main and most obvious way Prospero manipulates his surroundings is the way he has complete control over Ariel. Ariel is Prospero's slave. Unlike most other slaves, Ariel is grateful to be under the control of Prospero. This is because Prospero constantly makes Ariel think that Prospero is his hero for saving him from his horrendous life he previously once lived. When referring to the story about Ariel's past life Prospero states that " I must Once in a month recount what thou hast been, Which thou forget’st." Here Prospero is saying that once a month he must retell the story to Ariel in order to keep it fresh in his mind so that Ariel won't forget of the terror Prospero saved him from. Because Prospero is going to constantly be reminding Ariel of his past life and how bad it was he will also be constantly reminding him of how much better his life is now that he is Prospero's slave. Forcing this into Ariel's mind will keep him from thinking anything else that might contradict Prospero or his plans. It's almost like Prospero is brain washing Ariel into thinking exactly what Prospero wants him to think so that he can use him as his slave. This type of manipulation can be compared to the manipulation by the government party in 1984. Both Prospero and the big brother party use the past events to manipulate other people’s reality of the present. Ariel is being manipulated into believing that his life now is extremely better than his life before when in all reality Ariel is still a slave just under a different master. Ariel is told to be grateful for being saved when really his new reality is just as manipulated and terrible as his past.