Prospero is the former Duke of Milan and the ruler of the island on which the play takes place. He is a sorcerer, and he uses his magical powers to control others. Aggressive by nature, he speaks harshly to his daughter Miranda and to Ariel and Caliban, over whom he has authority as the colonizer of the island. His hostility may be explained by the fact that his brother Antonio, assisted by the king of Naples, usurped his dukedom and his lands and banished him and his daughter to a remote island, inhabited only by Ariel, Caliban and his mother Sycorax, and forest creatures. In Césaire’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Prospero is characterized as a white master. While he displays racist and colonialist views throughout the play, his actions at the end of the play suggest a change of heart, brought on in part by the influences of his slaves, Ariel and Caliban.

Miranda is Prospero’s daughter; she left Milan with her father when she was very young, so when he tells her the story of her past, she is surprised to learn of her noble background. Miranda obeys her father, but his control over her does not temper her sensitivity nor her compassion.