The Tempest

The Tempest is traditionally considered to be William Shakespeare's last play. Its first known performance was on November 1, 1611 at Whitehall Palace in London. It would also have been performed at the Globe Theatre and the Blackfriars Theatre.

The Tempest belongs to the class of plays commonly grouped as Shakespeare's Late Romances. In these plays, Shakespeare shows a concern with family ties and reconciliation in a mythic setting.

One author notes: "Why Shakespeare observed the three unities in The Tempest is not known. In most of his other plays, events occur on several days and characters visit numerous settings. Some scholars have suggested that, because The Tempest contains so much fantasy, Shakespeare may have wanted to observe the unities to help audiences suspend their disbelief. Others have pointed to criticism that Shakespeare received for ignoring the unities; they say he may have wanted to prove once and for all that he could follow rules if he felt like it."[1]

Plot

The sorcerer Prospero, rightful Duke of Milan, and his daughter, Miranda, have been stranded for twelve years on an island, after Prospero's jealous brother Antonio -- helped by Alonso, the King of Naples -- deposed him and set him adrift with the three-year-old Miranda. Possessed of magic powers due to his great learning and prodigious library, Prospero is reluctantly served by a sprite, Ariel, whom he had rescued from imprisonment in a tree. Ariel was trapped therein by the African witch Sycorax, who had been exiled to the island years before and died prior to Prospero's arrival; Prospero maintains Ariel's loyalty by repeatedly promising to release the "airy spirit" from servitude, but continually defers that promise to a vague, future date. The witch's son Caliban, a deformed monster and the only non-spiritual inhabitant before the arrival of Prospero, was initially adopted and raised by the Milanese sorcerer. He taught Prospero how to survive on the island, while Prospero and Miranda taught Caliban religion and their own language. Following an alleged attempt to "violate" Miranda (the references by both Prospero and Caliban are ambiguous, and whether he attempted to rape Miranda, sought to woo her, or had successfully seduced her is left up to the reader's imagination) he had been compelled by Prospero to serve as the sorcerer's slave, carrying wood and gathering pig nuts. In slavery Caliban has come to view Prospero as a usurper, and grown to resent both the magus and his daughter for what he believed to be their betrayal of his trust; Prospero and Miranda in turn view Caliban with contempt and disgust.

The play opens as Prospero, having divined that his brother, Antonio, is on a ship passing close by the island (having returned from the nuptials of Alonso's daughter Claribel with the King of Tunis), has raised a storm (the tempest of the title) which causes the ship to run aground. Also on the ship are Antonio's friend and fellow conspirator, King Alonso, Alonso's brother Sebastian, Alonso's royal advisor Gonzalo, and Alonso's son, Ferdinand. Prospero, by his spells, contrives to separate the survivors of the wreck into several groups and Alonso and Ferdinand are separated, and believe one another dead. Three plots then alternate through the play. In one, Caliban falls in with Stephano and Trinculo, two drunken crew members, whom he believes to have come from the moon, and drunkenly attempts to raise a rebellion against Prospero (which ultimately fails). In another, Prospero works to establish a romantic relationship between Ferdinand and Miranda; the two fall immediately in love, but Prospero worries that "too light winning [may] make the prize light", and so compels Ferdinand to become his servant so that his affection for Miranda will be confirmed. He also decides that after his plan to exact vengeance on his betrayers has come to fruition, he will break and bury his staff, and "drown" his book of magic. In the third subplot, Antonio and Sebastian conspire to kill Alonso and his advisor Gonzalo. When they attempt to murder them they are thwarted by Ariel, at Prospero's command. Ariel appears to the three "men of sin" as a harpy, reprimanding them for their betrayal of Prospero. Alonso, Sebastian and Antonio are deeply affected while Gonzalo is unruffled. Prospero manipulates the course of his enemies' path through the island, drawing them closer and closer to him. In the conclusion, all the main characters are brought together before Prospero. He forgives Alonso, neglects to mention his brother's betrayal of him, or Sebastian's attempted betrayal of Alonso, and finally uses his magic to ensure that everyone returns to Italy. However, the final decision is left to the imagination of the audience of whether he deserves to return or not.

Sources

The Tempest is one of the few Shakespeare plays for which there is no definitive source for the overall narrative. However, some of the words and images in the play seem to derive from a report by William Strachey of the real-life shipwreck of the Sea Venture in 1609 on the islands of Bermuda of sailors travelling toward Virginia. Strachey's report was written in 1610; although it was not printed until 1625, it circulated widely in manuscript and Shakespeare may have taken the idea of the shipwreck and some images from it.

The play draws heavily from the tradition of the Romance, which featured a fictitious narrative set far away from ordinary life. Romances were typically based around themes such as the supernatural, wandering, exploration and discovery. Romances were often set in coastal regions, and typically featured exotic, fantastical locations; they featured themes of transgression and redemption, loss and retrieval, exile and reunion. As a result, while The Tempest was originally listed as a comedy in the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays, subsequent editors have chosen to give it the more specific label of Shakespearean romance.

The overall form of the play is modelled heavily on traditional Italian commedia dell'arte performances, which sometimes featured a magus and his daughter, their supernatural attendants, and a number of rustics. The commedia often featured a clown-figure known as "Arlecchino" (or his predecessor, "Zanni") and his partner "Brighella," who bear a striking resemblance to Stephano and Trinculo; a lecherous Napolese hunch-back named "Pulcinella," who corresponds to Caliban; and the clever and beautiful "Isabella," whose wealthy and manipulative father, "Pantalone," constantly seeks a suitor for her, thus mirroring the relationship between Miranda and Prospero.

In addition, one of Gonzalo's speeches is derived from On Cannibals, an essay by Montaigne that praises the society of the Caribbean natives; and much of Prospero's renunciative speech is taken word for word from a speech by Medea in Ovid's Metamorphoses.

Themes / Tropes

This section may contain original research or unverified claims.

Kingship

The concept of usurping a monarch occurs frequently throughout the play: Antonio usurped Prospero; Caliban accuses Prospero of having usurped him upon the latter's arrival on the island; Sebastian plots to kill and overthrow his brother the King of Naples; Stephano has designs to depose Prospero and set himself up as "king o'the isle." As such, the play is simultaneously concerned with what constitutes virtuous kingship, presenting the audience with various possibilities. In the twentieth century, post-colonialist literary critics were extremely interested in this aspect of the play, seeing Caliban as representative of the natives invaded and oppressed by Imperialism.

Tempe-

The play repeatedly extols the virtues of temperance. Prospero repeatedly urges Ferdinand and Miranda to not indulge in lust but be temperate in their love, warning Ferdinand that "If thou dost break her virgin knot before / All sanctimonious ceremonies may / With full and holy rite be minister'd.../ Sour-ey'd disdain, and discord, shall bestrew / The union of your bed". Similarly, the masque with which Prospero entertains the couple centres around Juno, goddess of chaste marriage, and explicitly excludes Venus and Cupid, deities of lust. The masque concludes with "watery naiads" joining with "sunburned sicklemen", in an allegorisation of the idea that humours - associated with the elements - need to be balanced in order to create a virtuous temperament, in the individual or in a union: water and fire balance each other out.

The play likewise warns against intemperance; most noticeably with the drunkards Stephano and Trinculo being brought to justice, but also through Prospero's punishment of Caliban when the latter attempted to rape Miranda. Prospero himself is said to be "with anger so distemper'd", and learns through the play the need to control his violent temper, ultimately clearing the sky of the tempest, which had been its principal manifestation.

The Theatre

The Tempest is overtly concerned with its own nature as a play, frequently drawing links between Prospero's Art and theatrical illusion. The shipwreck was a "spectacle" "performed" by Ariel; Antonio and Sebastian are "cast" in a "troop" to "act"; Miranda's eyelids are "fringed curtains". Prospero is even made to refer to the Globe Theatre when claiming the whole world is an illusion: "the great globe... shall dissolve... like this insubstantial pageant". Ariel frequently disguises himself/herself as figures from Classical mythology, for example a nymph, a harpie and Ceres, and acts as these in a masque and anti-masque that Prospero creates.

Early critics saw this constant allusion to the theatre as an indication that Prospero was meant to represent Shakespeare; the character's renunciation of magic thus signalling Shakespeare's farewell to the stage. This theory has fallen into disfavour; but certainly The Tempest is interested in the way that, like Prospero's "Art", the theatre can be both an immoral occupation and yet morally transformative for its audience.

Magic

Magic is a pivotal theme in the Tempest, as it is the one device that is used above all other to make the plot hold together. Prospero commands so much power in the play because of his ability to use magic and to control the spirit Ariel, and with magic, he creates The Tempest itself, as well as controlling all the happenings on the island, eventually bringing all his old enemies to him to be reconciled. Magic is also used to create a lot of the imagery in the play, with scenes such as the masque, the opening scene, and the enchanting music of Ariel.
Prospero and Ariel from a painting by William Hamilton.
Enlarge
Prospero and Ariel from a painting by William Hamilton.

Colonialism

In Shakespeare's day, most of the world was still being "discovered", and stories were coming back from far off Islands, with myths about the Cannibals of the Caribbean, faraway Edens, and distant Tropical Utopias. With the character Caliban (whose name is a rough anagram of Cannibal), Shakespeare offers an in-depth discussion into the morality of colonialism. Different views are discussed, with examples including Gonzalo's Utopia, Prospero's enslavement of Caliban and Caliban's resentment of this. Caliban is also shown as one of the most natural characters in the play, being very much in touch with the natural world (and far nobler than his two old world friends Stephano and Trinculo).

... the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
will hum about mine ears

Shakespeare's treatment of this subject matter is thought to have been influenced by Montaigne's essay "Of Cannibals" which was published in 1603 and discussed the values of societies that had not been affected by European civilisation.

List of Characters

• Alonso, King of Naples
• Sebastian, his brother
• Prospero, the right Duke of Milan (the story's protagonist)
• Antonio, his brother, the usurping Duke of Milan
• Ferdinand, son to the King of Naples
• Gonzalo, an honest, optimistic old councillor
• Adrian and Francisco, lords
• Caliban, deformed slave of Prospero and son of Sycorax
  The name is suggestive of "Carib(be)an", and - given looser 17th century spelling - an anagram of "cannibal", both of which come from the same word. Both implications suggest he is representative of the natives of the New World, and a reference to one of Shakespeare's sources: the essay Des Cannibales by Montaigne.
• Trinculo, a jester
  The name is linked to the Italian verb "trincare" meaning, as can still be heard, "to drink"; appropriate as he is one of the two drunkards of the play.
• Stephano, a drunken butler (sometimes Stefano)
  "Stephan" means "King" in Greek; appropriate as the play concerns itself with the notion of kingship, which this character is used to parody. Shakespeare also may have named him Stephano to suggest a popular rhyme - alluded to by Trinculo and sung in Othello - that begins "King Stephen was an a worthy peer/ His breeches cost him but a crown"; ironic as Stephano's ambition to rule the island is thwarted when he starts stealing clothes (his breeches cost him his "crown"); likewise Prospero lost his crown when he turned his attention to his Art, symbolised by a cloak.
• Master of a ship
• Boatswain
• Mariners
• Miranda, daughter to Prospero, often called "a wonder".
  The name comes from the Latin root "mira-", to wonder. All other words in the play that come from the same root (admired, miracle, etc), can be understood to be referring to Miranda.
• Ariel, an airy spirit
  The name is certainly suggestive of the "air" element, directly opposing the character to Caliban, who is called "thou earth" by Prospero. In Hebrew the name means "lion of God" - it is therefore interesting that Ariel's voice is once mistaken for the roar of lions.
• Iris
• Ceres
• Juno
• Nymphs
• Reapers
• Spirits
  (mentioned but never seen:)
• Sycorax a witch, and mother of Caliban.
  raven", with which she is frequently linked in the play. The stresses individually sound like "sick" and "wracks"; sickness and "wracking" people being two of the more insidious ways Prospero uses his own magic.
• Claribel daughter to Alonso
  Her name comes from the French "clair et belle": "clear and beautiful" - words which can only describe musical notes, the weather, and bodies of water. She is thus the symbolic opposite to the titular tempest, which disrupts the weather, disturbs the sea and creates discordant sounds - and therefore has been absented from the play's action before it has begun.

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Summary

Alonso (the King of Naples), his brother Sebastian, his son Ferdinand, Antonio's counselor Gonzalo, and Antonio (brother of Prospero, the usurped Duke of Milan) are on a ship with sailors caught in a tempest at sea. The storm scares all of the nobleman to abandon ship, fearing it split in half. When the storm subsides, the exiled Duke Prospero and his daughter Miranda appear on the island they have inhabited for 12 years. Miranda tells him she saw the ship crack in the storm, but Prospero calms her, explaining it was a magical illusion he created. He explains he was once Duke of Milan, but his brother Antonio took over when he began deeply studying literature, eventually teaming with Alonso to banish Prospero and Miranda and abandon them at sea, where they luckily landed on the island and survived since Gonzalo had given Prospero money, clothes, and his sorcerer books in the boat. Now, he explains, his enemies have sailed by, so he created the tempest to shipwreck them. He causes her to sleep and calls his spirit Ariel to come. Ariel verifies that the nobles are safe on the island, while their ship is deep in a hidden harbor with the crew asleep; further, the remainder of the fleet has returned to Naples believing Alonso is dead. We learn that Prospero rescued Ariel from the "foul witch" Sycorax and will free Ariel himself when his plans for the nobles are complete. Sycorax had imprisoned Ariel in a tree for refusing to do her evil, then, after her death, Prospero freed him. She also had a deformed son, Caliban, whom Prospero commands as his slave (Note that Caliban anagrams from a slightly misspelled canibal). Hidden, Ariel sings a song and scares Alonso's son Ferdinand as he wanders around the island, eventually meeting Prospero and Miranda. Both Miranda and Ferdinand immediately fall in love, but Prospero (although approving) pretends to be gruff and critical toward Ferdinand.

In another part of the island, Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, Gonzalo, and the lords Adrian and Francisco are wandering. Alonso fears Ferdinand is dead, but Gonzalo assures him he may be living, since they are living. Ariel causes all to sleep, except Sebastian and Antonio. Then, Antonio convinces Sebastian to kill Alonso, so Sebastian will become heir to Naples' throne. Prospero, though, has Ariel awaken Gonzalo to warn Alonso. Elsewhere, Caliban is gathering wood when the jester Trinculo, then the drunkard Stephano (both from the ship) come upon them. Caliban takes Stephano to be a god (the Man in the Moon), and vows to serve him.

At Prospero's cave, Miranda meets Ferdinand carrying logs for her father. Here they exchange their love for one another and vow to be married. Prospero, watching in secret, approves. Elsewhere, Caliban convinces Stephano to kill Prospero and seize Miranda so they can be king and queen. Ariel, though, overhears and will warn Prospero. Alonso and others are wandering when Ariel and other spirits bring in a table of food. Before they can eat, Ariel appears and takes the food away, then informs Alonso, Sebastian, and Antonio that it is their evilness toward Prospero that has caused their current sorrows (shipwreck, loss of Ferdinand, etc.).

At the cave, Prospero presents Miranda to Ferdinand, though instructing him not to "break her virgin-knot" until after they are properly married. He celebrates by presenting them with a show by the spirits Iris, Ceres, and Juno. However, Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo show up to kill Prospero. He, however, creates a distraction with extravagant garments, then sends the fairies after them like hounds hunting foxes.

In the final act, Prospero brings the nobles to his cell and reveals himself to them. He forgives Alonso, Antonio, and Sebastian then reveals that Ferdinand is safe with Miranda. Alonso restores Prospero's dukedom and Prospero promises to return all home safely to Italy. As for Caliban, he promises to mend his ways while Stephano and Trinculo repent for plotting to kill Prospero.