In The Tempest, consider Prospero as the Duke of Milan, as father to Miranda and as a powerful magician?

Duke of Milan

Although Prospero was
an intelligent, honest and compassionate leader, he had two fatal flaws that caused his downfall:
his inability to detect betrayal, and his passion for knowledge. Prospero mentions that he
dedicated the bulk of his time to establishing his library and towards study, while leaving
Milan's administrative responsibilities to his brother. Like Duncan in Macbeth, Prospero is
unaware of the dangers surrounding him and is blinded by his emmersion in his books. Therefore,
he has strong leadership abilities and intentions, but weak empthatic
qualities.

Prospero as a father:

By
today's standards, Prospero was a terrible father. He keeps his daughter ignorant about her past,
treats her more as property than a human, and even casts her to sleep in order to keep her in the
dark about his plot. However, I believe that for an Elizabethan audience, Prospero would have
appeared as an ideal father (or perhaps it was Shakespeare's twisted ideal). He is protective,
assertive, controlling, and understands her gender's weaknesses. All of his actions towards her
are therefore justified because she is incapable of making her own decisions, and knowing what is
best for her. In a sense, Prospero's parenting style only works because Miranda is one of the
most plastic, stereotypical female roles ever conceived.

Prospero as
a Magician

There is a strange dilemma here. Shakespeare needed
Prospero to be a sympathetic protagonist, however, he was one that dabbled in magic which was
highly frowned upon by the Elizabethan audience. Therefore all of Prospero's spells were
immediately shown to be harmless. The best example of this is the scene immediately after the
storm sinking the ship. Ariel makes it painfully clear to Prospero (and the audience) that no one
was hurt in any way. This makes Prospero's use magic less 'sinister'. At the end of the play,
Prospero relinquishes all of his powers before he journies back to Milan. This restores the
natural order and shows that dabbling in magic should only be reserved for 'brave new
worlds'.