The Tempest

As happens to young couples in most of Shakespeare's comedies, and in one notable tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, Ferdinand and Miranda fall deeply in love at first sight in The Tempest. Miranda sees...

In The Tempest, Prospero is served by both Ariel and Caliban. But whereas the former serves willingly, Caliban despises—and ultimately betrays—his master. Both seek their freedom, but they do so...

As Caliban, Trinculo, and Stephano walk through the island drinking, Caliban proposes to Stephano that he can become king of the island if he kills Prospero. In that case, Caliban says, Trinculo...

In act 4, scene 1, Prospero has Ariel conjure a masque, meant to impress Ferdinand, who is soon to wed Miranda. Prospero wants to emphasize for his son-in-law the serious side of marriage as a...

In act 1, scene 2 of Shakespeare's The Tempest, Prospero assures his daughter, Miranda, that "I have done nothing but in care of thee" (1.2.19). On one hand, this is true. On the other hand,...

In Act 1, Scene 2, Caliban claims to Prospero and Miranda that when they first came to the island, "I loved thee and showed thee all the qualities o' th' isle." But Prospero quickly sets the record...

At the beginning of act 5 of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Prospero sends Ariel to “fetch [him] the hat and rapier in [his] cell” and says to him, “Quickly, spirit! / Thou shalt ere long be...

According to the Greek philosopher Aristotle, a play was a tragedy if everyone suffered in the end, even the innocent. A play was a comedy if the innocent triumphed and only the wicked came to a...

Caliban believes that Prospero treats him badly and stole his island from him. When Prospero came to the island, Caliban was already there. Prospero made him into his servant, or slave, and took...

One theme of the play is that illusion--which appears in the play as magic--can shape reality. Prospero, on one level, is the great director, staging a carefully choreographed show, with certain...

The title of The Tempest encapsulates the themes and action of the play in many dimensions. In fact, it is hard to think of a single character who is in a calm state. The action on the island in...

Prospero listens to Miranda and Ferdinand so he can tell if they are falling in love. Prospero was betrayed by his brother, Antonio, and Ferdinand’s father, Alonso. They took his kingdom from him...

Ariel is an airy sprite or spirit that Prospero finds on the deserted island. Ariel was too good-hearted to cooperate with the "blue-eyed hag," the sorceress Sycorax. In revenge, she trapped him...

The majority of conflicts in Shakespeare's The Tempest swirl around Prospero, former Duke of Milan, whose brother, Antonio, usurped his dukedom and set Prospero and his daughter, Miranda, adrift on...

The themes of freedom and forgiveness are linked in The Tempest primarily by Prospero. It is his brother's treachery, which he has not forgiven, that leads Prospero to colonize the island and...

Although Prospero has picked Ferdinand out as a husband for Miranda, he still wants to test whether the young man is worthy of her love. As Ferdinand carries logs—normally Caliban's work—Prospero...

I think the significance of the masque that Prospero summons up with his magical powers lies in the way that he sends through it a very clear message to his future son-in-law about the kind of...

The Tempest is a very famous play written by William Shakespeare. In act 3, scene 3, Antonio and Sebastian are still contemplating killing Alonso. Alonso is increasingly growing exhausted, which is...

Prospero uses Caliban as a slave, substituting him for the dukedom he lost. Prospero has no respect for Caliban. He treats him as something otherworldly and less than human, using magic and the...

The Tempest opens with a storm at sea and a shipwreck, a dramatic and ambitious beginning for a seventeenth-century play. While the scene is light on stage directions, Shakespeare does call for "a...

Prospero appears to experience quite a transformation throughout the play. Initially, he's bent on revenge against those responsible for his enforced exile. The arrival of his foes on the island...

In broadest terms, literature falls into two categories: comedy or tragedy. Comedy has a happy ending, whereas tragedy has a sad ending, usually through the deaths of one or more main characters....

The interesting thing about Prospero as a ruler, a father, and a magician is that his performance in all these roles is rather ambiguous when it comes to morality. Prospero cannot be easily...

Within the context of the plot, the masque in act 4 of The Tempest occurs because Prospero has Ariel summon spirits to put on a small play to celebrate Miranda and Ferdinand’s engagement. He tells...

Prospero tells Miranda about his past because Miranda witnesses the shipwreck, from act 1, scene 1, in the storm and realizes it was Prospero's magic that caused it. She begs him to stop. If by...

Some Shakespearean scholars and critics, including Hallett Smith and Frank Kermode, suggest that the title of Shakespeare's last fully Shakespeare-written play should be The Island, or Prospero's...

In act 4, scene 1 of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Prospero gives a speech directed towards Miranda, his daughter, and Ferdinand, her betrothed, to try to reassure them. Prospero has Ariel summon...

Prospero studied magic before he shipwrecked on the island, and it was his preoccupation with such studies that diverted his attention from his duties so that his treacherous brother Antonio could...

Before Prospero was banished from Milan and arrived on the island with Miranda, he was the duke of Milan. In the second scene of the play, Shakespeare provides background information on Prospero...

Both Ferdinand and Caliban are enslaved by Prospero. Ferdinand, however, performs his tasks cheerfully for the sake of Miranda, who begs him not to work so hard: This,...

The overall conclusion of the Tempest is a happy one. Prospero rewards Ariel for his services by giving him his freedom and releasing him to the elements. We learn in the epilogue that the others...

The nature of Caliban and Prospero's relationship looks very different according to whose perspective one adopts. From Prospero's point of view, he came to a wild island, which was until recently...

Although it is difficult to know any author's exact motives in writing, Shakespeare's purpose in writing The Tempest, beyond entertaining an audience, may have been to show the value of mercy and...

At the beginning of act 2, scene 1, of Shakespeare's The Tempest, Alonso (the King of Naples), Sebastian, Antonio, and Gonzalo have washed ashore on Prospero's island and they're assessing their...

After Prospero's brother, Antonio, usurps his dukedom with the help of Alonso, he is exiled with his daughter, Miranda, to a faraway island. This island is where he encounters Caliban and saves the...

Betrayal, loyalty, revenge, and reconciliation are the principal, interconnected themes of The Tempest. Prospero longs for the restoration of his dukedom; because his brother betrayed him, he is...

Note the exchange between Prospero and Miranda Act I scene ii l 473f: 'Thou thinkst there is no more such shapes as he [Ferdinand],/Having seen but him and Caliban...'. Earlier in the scene (l...

Gonzalo shows he is a shrewd judge of character, as he more than once expresses confidence the boatswain won't let them all drown during the violent storm that opens The Tempest. He perceives that...

The Tempest is generally thought to be Shakespeare's most metatheatrical play in that it shows its protagonist as a creator, a dramatist like Shakespeare himself. In his capacity as magician...

The chess scene shows Alonso both that his beloved son Ferdinand is not dead and that his son is playing chess with a woman he is clearly in love with, Miranda. Miranda also reveals herself to be...

Arguably, the most important section of Shakespeare's The Tempest is near the end of the play when Prospero draws his magic circle. The major conflict in the play revolves around Prospero's...

After Prospero and Miranda wash up on the largely deserted island, Prospero is able to use his magic to release Ariel, an airy spirit, from a cloven pine tree where he has been painfully trapped...

The main theme of act I, scene 1 foreshadows the rest of the play: the message is that, starting with the storm, the normal order of life is about to be upset. This comes across most clearly in the...

Caliban hates Prospero and Miranda because they have made him their slave. As he states in act 1, scene 2, I am all the subjects that you have,Which was first mine own king. And here you sty meIn...

Postcolonial approaches to The Tempest point out that, like a true European colonialist, Prospero has taken possession of a land that doesn't ultimately belong to him. Sure of his superiority over...

Prospero enslaved Caliban and constantly threatened him with magical punishments. The worst thing that Prospero did to Caliban was force him to be his slave. It seems like when Prospero landed on...