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“A haunting story that reimagines the consequences of Shakespeare’s The Tempest.”
After the tempest, after the reunion, after her father drowned his books, Miranda was meant to enter a brave new world. Naples awaited her, and Ferdinand, and a throne. Instead she finds herself in Milan, in her father’s castle, surrounded by hostile servants who treat her like a ghost. Whispers cling to her like spiderwebs, whispers that carry her dead mother’s name. And though he promised to give away his power, Milan is once again contorting around Prospero’s dark arts. With only Dorothea, her sole companion and confidant to aid her, Miranda must cut through the mystery and find the truth about her father, her mother, and herself.
Review:
Given the paucity of details about Shakespeare’s personal life, it’s left to his body of work to speak of his ideas of sexuality. And his writings do not disappoint. There is an undercurrent of homoeroticism and the flouting of the sexual binary in plays like As You like it, The Merchant of Venice and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (I am still convinced the text of Othello supports a reading of Iago’s actions being driven as much by sexually possessiveness of Othello, as by a malevolent nihilism that takes pleasure in destruction for its own sake).
As a result, I enjoy queer retellings of Shakespeare because I can’t help but think the Bard seeded his text in such a way to enable queer readings of his work, whether intentionally or not (here is an excellent layman’s article in The Guardian about reading homoeroticism in Shakespeare’s sonnets).
Miranda is Milan is an excellent example of a Sapphic retelling of events at the end of The Tempest that relies on implications already present in the original text. To summarize, The Tempest begins with a literal tempest created by the powerful magician, Prospero, the former Duke of Milan who was deposed by his brother, Antonio and exiled to a remote island together with his young (and now grown, very beautiful daughter) Miranda. The storm is created to shipwreck a vessel carrying, among others, Prospero’s treacherous brother, Antonio, the King of Naples and his handsome son, Ferdinand so that Prospero can carry out his plot to avenge the usurpation of his kingdom. However, hijinks ensue involving Prospero’s servant-sprite, Ariel and a deformed island creature, Caliban, while men on the ship plot to kill the King of Naples, who believes his son, Ferdinand, has drowned in the storm. When Ferdinand turns out to be alive and falls in love with Miranda, and the plan to kill the King is thwarted, Prospero forgives all ills and everyone returns to Italy to live happily every after.
Except, that’s not exactly how things end, according to Duckette’s retelling. The novel pays on some of the more sinister aspects of Prospero’s characterization – his ruthless pursuit of absolute magical power and his vindictiveness. He is set up, not as the doting father of a wild girl but the extreme expression of patriarchy’s oppression. Miranda returns to Milan in the hopes of marrying Ferdinand but instead of a wedding, she is held in her father’s castle and greeted with suspicion and outright hostility by Prospero’s subjects. Confined to her rooms, she can leave only if she covers her face.
She finds a confidante in Dorothea, a Moroccan serving woman who also practices witchcraft. Miranda takes a chance and trusts Dorothea and their friendship goes from trust to a deeper, truer love. Dorothea’s declaration of desire for Miranda is probably among one of the most beautiful I’ve ever read. When Miranda seeks to uncover the mystery of her mother’s death and the reasons for Prospero’s exile, it is Dorothea who ties her fate to Miranda’s in pursuit of the truth, at great risk to their lives.
This story engages with themes of female solidarity and fragility in the face of patriarchal power. Miranda’s mother and her aunt, as well as Dorothea’s mother, are all women who were diminished or crushed by the rage and desires of men. It also engages oppression based on race in the person of Dorothea, Miranda’s love interest, who speaks of the weight her otherness adds to her existence in Italy, how very vulnerable she is, even moreso than Miranda, who is treated as a savage by the court. Dorothea’s punishment for defiance is more pronounced, her class disadvantages compounded by the color of her skin.
The story suggests that the answer to the destructive power of patriarchy lies in the bonds that women form to fight against that power and to protect each other. The learn to take male power for themselves, wielding it against their oppressors. This should transcend race, and benefits all women. In the play, Prospero chooses forgiveness over vendetta to restore balance. In Miranda in Milan, love and solidarity are the forces unleashed to overcome the pursuit of absolute male dominance, themes that befit even the greatest of Shakespeare’s plays.
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