Young (Star Crossed?) Lovers: A Relationship Going Nowhere Fast

In Touchstone’s interpretation of Miranda and Ferdinand’s first unchaperoned encounter, the dress, physical appearance, tone, and body language of both actors infuses extra information into the exchange, giving particularly keen insights into Miranda’s psyche.  Miranda’s tattered clothing and unkempt hair reference both her isolation from the outside world, and also her lack of independence and self-control. Though both Prosperio and Miranda were marooned, Prosperio is much more “put together,” affecting a regal atmosphere in his choice of garment and upkeep of his appearance and debonair mien.  In contrast, Miranda’s white undergarment resembles withered swaddling, and, along with her wavering, feeble, hesitant air, intimates her lack of maturity.

Miranda’s wincing at her realization of her disobedience in revealing her name to Ferdinand underscores both her mother’s overbearing influence, while her bashful reluctance to meet Ferdinand’s gaze while he praises her exposes her emotional immaturity. As a result of this immaturity, her and Ferdinand’s relationship has a clear power imbalance. Their literal flight and pursuit on the barren rocks illustrates Ferdinand’s position as the instigator of the relationship, but Miranda plays no deliberate game of hard to get (the dynamic of which her cunning mother contrives). Her lack of resolution in her conflicting duties to her mother and do her own romantic life show that she will not make her choices out of self-reflection, but rather on a whim, spurred by the emotional high from the newfound attention of another (human) man.