The Tempest

The Tempest is a late romance about Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan and a magician, who uses a storm to bring his enemies to his island, then chooses forgiveness over revenge. It is often thought to be the last play Shakespeare wrote alone.

Main characters

• Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan
• Miranda, his daughter
• Ariel, an airy spirit
• Caliban, the island's native, Prospero's servant
• Alonso, King of Naples, and Ferdinand, his son
• Antonio, Prospero's usurping brother
• Sebastian, Alonso's brother
• Gonzalo, an honest old counsellor
• Trinculo, a jester, and Stephano, a drunken butler

Plot summary

This summary gives away the ending.

Twelve years ago Prospero, absorbed in his books, was overthrown by his brother Antonio with the help of Alonso, King of Naples, and set adrift with his baby daughter Miranda. They reached an island where Prospero freed the spirit Ariel from a tree and made Caliban, son of the witch Sycorax, his servant. Now, as the play opens, Prospero raises a storm that wrecks a ship carrying Alonso, his son Ferdinand, Antonio and their court.

The survivors are scattered around the island. Ferdinand meets Miranda and they fall in love at once; Prospero sets Ferdinand to menial tasks to test him. Antonio persuades Alonso's brother Sebastian to murder the sleeping king, but Ariel wakes them in time. Caliban meets the jester Trinculo and the drunken butler Stephano, takes Stephano as a new master and plots Prospero's murder.

Prospero celebrates Ferdinand and Miranda's engagement with a masque of goddesses, then breaks it off abruptly, remembering Caliban's plot. With his enemies at his mercy, and moved by Ariel's pity for them, he decides that 'the rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance'. He reveals himself, forgives his brother, regains his dukedom and reveals Ferdinand and Miranda playing chess. He frees Ariel, renounces his magic, and in the Epilogue asks the audience to set him free with their applause.

Themes

• Power and control
• Forgiveness and revenge
• Colonisation and freedom
• Art, illusion and theatre
• Endings

Famous lines

We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.

Prospero, Act 4 Scene 1

O brave new world, That has such people in't!

Miranda, Act 5 Scene 1

Full fathom five thy father lies; Of his bones are coral made.

Ariel's song, Act 1 Scene 2

Hell is empty, And all the devils are here.

Ariel, reporting Ferdinand's words, Act 1 Scene 2

Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.

Trinculo, Act 2 Scene 2

More in our collection of famous Shakespeare quotes.

Sources

Accounts of the wreck of the Sea Venture off Bermuda in 1609, especially William Strachey's letter describing the storm, and Michel de Montaigne's essay 'Of Cannibals' in John Florio's translation. Prospero's renunciation speech echoes Medea's in Ovid's Metamorphoses.

On stage and screen

It was performed at court on 1 November 1611 and again in 1613 for the wedding celebrations of James I's daughter Elizabeth. Many readers have heard in Prospero's farewell to his art Shakespeare's own farewell to the stage, though he went on to collaborate on further plays. Since the mid-20th century, productions have often focused on Caliban and the play's colonial themes.

See where The Tempest sits in Shakespeare's career on the timeline, or read about the playhouses it was written for.