illustration of main character Prospero standing with his staff on his island with the ocean in the background

The Tempest

by William Shakespeare

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The Tempest Questions by Tag

Characters

Prospero
Miranda
Caliban
Ariel
Ferdinand
Alonso
Gonzalo
Antonio
Sebastian
Stephano
Trinculo
Boatswain

Plot

Act 1
Act 1, Scene 1
Act 1, Scene 2
Act 2
Act 2, Scene 1
Act 2, Scene 2
Act 3
Act 3, Scene 1
Act 3, Scene 2
Act 3, Scene 3
Act 4
Act 4, Scene 1
Act 5
Act 5, Scene 1
Backstory
Ending
Unity of Time
Usurpation and Exile

Quotes

I Have Great Comfort from This Fellow. Methinks He Hath No Drowning Mark Upon Him; His Complexion is Perfect Gallows. Stand Fast, Good Fate, to His Hanging. Make the Rope of His Destiny Our Cable, for Our Own Doth Little Advantage. If He be Not Born to Be
Full Fathom Five Thy Father Lies; ... Nothing of Him That Doth Fade, but Doth Suffer a Sea-change Into Something Rich and Strange
When Thou Camest First, Thou Strokedst Me and Madest Much of Me, Wouldst Give Me Water With Berries In't, and Teach Me How to Name the Bigger Light, and How the Less, That Burn by Day and Night

Themes

Power
Conflict
Marriage
Justice and Mercy

Literary Devices

Metaphor
Similes
Dialogue
Symbolism
Allusion

Symbolism

Magic Books
Chess Game
Books
The Storm

Setting

The Island

Historical Context

Jacobean England
Colonialism

Genre

Tragicomedy
Romance