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 spirits put on a small play to celebrate Miranda and Ferdinand’s engagement. During the play, Prospero says, in an aside,

I had forgot that foul conspiracy of the beast Caliban, and his confederates, against my life: the minute of their plot is almost come. (Act IV, Scene 1)

Miranda and Ferdinand notice Prospero’s agitation, and ask if he is feeling well. Prospero begins his response by trying to soothe them, but he moves into musing about the transient nature of life. He compares the spirits disappearing after the play to the dissolution of everything, including “the great globe itself.” He also notes that humans are composed of “such stuff as dreams are made on” that will fade and dissolve as well. He completes this train of thought by noting that human lives are “little” and “rounded with a sleep.”

This speech, coupled with the events leading up to it, makes the audience ponder the fleeting nature of the world around them, and of their own lives. The audience distances themselves from the action of The Tempest, just as Prospero distances himself from the action of the spirits’s play. The audience zooms out of the play within the play to realize that they are also living in the same situation. Just as the spirits’s play ends, so will The Tempest. Therefore, their lives will also fade, just like Prospero’s life.