Question

Read this excerpt from The Tempest: MIRANDA If by your art, my dearest father, you have Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them. The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch, But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's cheek, Dashes the fire out. O, I have suffered With those that I saw suffer: a brave vessel, Who had, no doubt, some noble creature in her, Dash'd all to pieces. O, the cry did knock Against my very heart. Poor souls, they perish'd. Had I been any god of power, I would Have sunk the sea within the earth or ere It should the good ship so have swallow'd and The fraughting souls within her. PROSPERO Be collected: No more amazement: tell your piteous heart There's no harm done. (Act I, scene ii, lines 1 – 15) What does Miranda's questioning of her father's decision to cause the shipwreck most clearly indicate about her character?
A. That she is confused by her father’s actions
B. That she is not totally under her father’s control
C. That she is frightened of her father’s power
D. That she believes her father is a liar

Answer 1

B. That she is not totally under her father’s control

Miranda, emotionally affected by all that was happening, seems to suspect that his father has "art", (magic or supernatural powers) and that he was the one who created the terrible storm that was doing great harms to the people and the ships, and she continues by asking him to put an end to it, which demonstrates Miranda's position toward his father, she does not talk out of full fear, submission or confusion, but of determination. She asks for a straightforward thing: "to allay the waters".