What is the message in The Tempest?

There are many important messages in The Tempest, but the need to show mercy is undoubtedly one of the most important. On the face of it, we might expect Prospero not to understand this lesson. After all, he has every right to be angry and bitter over his treatment. In exile after being unceremoniously overthrown as duke of Milan by a bunch of traitors, including his own brother, Prospero can be forgiven for feeling bitter toward those who wronged him.

And yet, despite everything that's happened, Prospero shows mercy toward his enemies. He certainly exacts revenge to some degree by causing a tempest at sea to punish his enemies, but that's about as far as his vengeance goes. For all of Prospero's justified anger and bitterness, at no point do readers get the impression that he's going to carry out a brutal act of vengeance, even with all the magic powers at his disposal. As such, Prospero eventually shows mercy by pardoning those who have wronged him.

Prospero's mercy is also evident when he releases Ariel. Prospero had always promised to do this, but Ariel could have been forgiven for thinking that Prospero might well have reneged on his promise. But as with the case of his brother, Antonio, and the other traitors, Prospero realizes that he needs to show mercy if he is to move on with his life. Therefore, he makes good on his long-standing promise to free Ariel.

What is the ending of The Tempest?

The Tempest ends with a restoration. Prospero has all of the shipwrecked nobles brought to the same location so he can speak to them. Antonio, Alonso, and Sebastian are brought before him, and he tells them how they had betrayed him in the past, but rather than punishing them further, he forgives them. He also reveals that Ferdinand did not drown in the tempest but is safe on the island and planning to marry Miranda, Prospero's daughter. Prospero invites everyone to stay the night so that he can share what he has done for the past twelve years while they rest up. After that, they will return to civilization.

The final scene is an epilogue in which Prospero fulfills his promise to give up his magic once he has restored his political power in Milan. He urges the audience to clap in order to set him free. Some scholars have interpreted Prospero's ending speech as Shakespeare's own sentiments regarding his writing career. Just as Prospero renounces his magic, so, too, is Shakespeare retiring from the theater. The Tempest was one of his last plays and is likely the last one he wrote without a collaborator, and so in many ways it marks the end of an era, adding another layer of bittersweetness to the finale.

What is the overall conclusion of The Tempest?

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 are happy as well. Prospero tells the audience his magic powers are gone he is back to being a duke, and he has forgiven his enemies. He asks the audience to reward him by clapping, and by doing so that releases him from the illusory world of the island. Ferdinand and Mirando head back to Naples to get married.

What is The Tempest about?

On the plot level, The Tempest is about a group of sailors who shipwreck on an island. There they find Prospero and Miranda. Prospero was the duke of Milan before being exiled there. Miranda and one of the sailors fall in love, while other sailors plot to take over the throne of Naples and still others plan with Caliban, Prospero's monstrous servant, to kill Prospero.

Through magic, virtue, and young love, these plots are thwarted. The ship is repaired, and Prospero is restored to his rightful place as duke of Milan.

Now, thematically, the play is about the social order and what happens when it is upset, about the right to rule and rightful rulers, and about the wonder and magic of the world.

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How does The Tempest, including the epilogue, conclude?

At the opening of Shakespeare's The Tempest, a resentful, vengeful, and vindictive Prospero causes a tremendous storm that wrecks the ship on which his brother, Antonio, and others who participated in usurping Prospero's position as Duke of Milan are travelling. All of the passengers on the ship are cast ashore on Prospero's island.

The fact that Prospero doesn't have his brother and the others killed outright in the shipwreck for the wrongs they've done against him provides a glimpse into Prospero's essential character. This spark of humanity in Prospero's character allows him to undergo a gradual change of attitude and change of heart toward his captives; his daughter, Miranda; his slaves, Ariel and Caliban; and even himself.

Prospero's desire for revenge against Antonio, and against those who helped Antonio usurp his dukedom and cast Prospero and Miranda adrift at sea, is tempered by Prospero's need to have Antonio and the others realize the effect of their wrongs against him and repent for the pain they've caused him and Miranda.

In the course of trying to teach them a lesson, Prospero learns the lesson himself. Prospero empathizes with the grief he's caused Alonso, the king of Naples, who believes his son Frederick was drowned in the shipwreck.

Frederick is alive and has fallen in love with Miranda. Prospero at first mistreats Frederick but comes to realize, and to regret, the effect that his mistreatment of Frederick has on Miranda.

Prospero learns to look at his daughter not just as his daughter and a reflection of himself and everything he's taught her in the twelve years they've lived on the island, but as a person in her own right.

Prospero becomes aware of Ariel's intense desire for freedom and relates this to his own desire to be free from his need to control every aspect of his and Miranda's lives and to control the fate of everyone shipwrecked on his island.

In act 5, Prospero's changes of mind and heart come to fruition. Prospero forgives Antonio, Alonso, and all of those who wronged him and releases them to return to their own lives. He releases Miranda to marry Frederick, which allows them to build their life together, away from Prospero's control. Prospero frees Ariel and Caliban from their slavery to Prospero's wants and needs.

Prospero also releases himself from his enslavement to his need to control everyone and everything around him and from his need to take revenge on those who took his former life away from him.

Prospero realizes that he no longer needs to be a slave to his magic and to his baser instincts; he can throw off his life on the island and return to civilization. Prospero welcomes the opportunity to return to his old life, as Duke of Milan, in order to start a new life, free of all of those elements of life on the island that held him captive in mind, body, and spirit.

The epilogue of The Tempest serves the same purpose as the epilogue in many of Shakespeare's comedies, such as All's Well That Ends Well, As You Like It, and A Midsummer Night's Dream, and also in a few of his history plays, including Henry IV, Part II; Henry V; and Henry VIII. An epilogue summarizes the play or otherwise brings the play to a close, encourages the audience to applaud the performance, and sends the audience back into the real world in a positive frame of mind.

In the epilogue, Prospero himself speaks directly to the audience. He appeals to the audience to release him from their "spell" and thereby to release him from his magic, from his isolated life on "this bare island," and from his "crimes," so he can return to the real world, to Naples, and to civilization in a positive and uplifted state of mind.