In Shakespeare's play The Tempest, the cast of characters is cast in very typical roles. Prospero is our noble hero, Miranda is the beautiful girl and Antonio is the “bad guy”. Shakespeare endowed each of the characters with a sense of humor, a tool that allows us to see the small details of their minds; a look at the inner workings of each character's personality. It is through humor that Shakespeare is able to show the “roundness” of characters who might otherwise be seen as “flat” characters. Shakespeare uses humor to give his characters a new life, to help them expand beyond the limits of normal characters and transform into real people. Miranda is a good example of a character whose humor enriches her personality. At the beginning of the play we are told, largely through Prospero's actions, that Miranda is a perfect child. She is compassionate, beautiful, well-mannered and obedient. She is the apple of Prospero's eye. Later, however, it turns out to be too perfect. Perfect to the point of irritation and perfect to the point of sterility and, despite her qualities, she is nothing more than a porcelain doll. Throw Ferdinand, a handsome prince, into the equation. It gets a lot more interesting, the high-class girl is gone, replaced by a googly-eyed, puppy-headed, hormone-filled love-raging teenager. She is so in love with Ferdinand that she refers to him as a "noble creature". It's so perfect for Miranda. It's a wonderfully fun transformation to see Miranda, the role model for women everywhere, go crazy over a guy to the point of volunteering to carry giant logs of wood for him. This humor allows us to see Miranda underneath the class act and obedient demeanor... middle of paper... nestled in Prospero's clothesline of bright clothes. Trinculo and Stephano take their time pretending to be dukes and kings, even forcing Caliban to carry their bags, despite Caliban's warnings. Although Trinculo and Stephano are foolish creatures, their humor goes a long way to revealing the kind of resentment they harbor for their powerful masters. They are clearly frustrated by their years of unrewarding hard work, and this shows in their extravagance. Shakespeare's humor shows us that they are not just drunks, but angry, disgruntled drunks. Shakespeare uses his gift for humor and silliness to reveal new sides of his characters. By making his characters laugh and goofy, we get to see them as real, complex people with strange thoughts, vulnerabilities, and personalities. He uses humor as a necessary tool to transform human beings into words, as opposed to roles.