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English 4
Shakespeare's The Tempest:
Background Information
Type of Work: The Tempest is a comedy with an atmosphere resembling that of a
fairy tale. It is among Shakespeare's most mature and most admired plays.
Key Dates:
Date Written: Around 1611.
First Performance: November 1, 1611, at Whitehall (the English royal palace) by the Kings
Players.
First Printing: 1623 as part of the First Folio, the first authorized collection of
Shakespeare's plays.
Sources: The main sources for the play have not been fully established. Possible sources
include an account of the wreck of the Sea Venture in the Bermudas in 1609; A Discovery
of the Bermudas (1610), by Sylvester Jourdain; A True Repertory of the Wracke and
Redemption of Sir Thomas Gates upon and from the Islands of the Bermudas (written in
1610 and published in 1625), by William Strachey; Comedy of the Beautiful Sidea (circa
1600-1605), a German drama by Jacob Ayer; New and Large Discourse of the Travels of
Sir Anthony Shirley, Knight (1601), by William Parry; essay by Montaigne (1533-1592).
Settings : The Tempest begins at sea on a foundering ship. The rest of the action takes
place on an island. Strong evidence suggests that the island Shakespeare had in mind was a
fictionalized Mediterranean version of an island in the Bermudas.
Characters:
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Prospero: Rightful Duke of Milan. With his daughter, he had been set adrift by his evil
brother to die, but provisions provided secretly by his friend Gonzalo enable him and his
daughter to reach a mysterious island. There, Prospero practices magic and rules the
island and its inhabitants for 12 years. When a ship carrying his brother and other high
officials of Naples—including the king—sails a course near the island, Prospero conjures a
powerful tempest that blows the ship to his island.
Antonio: Prospero's brother. He illegally seized Prospero's dukedom. After the tempest
drives the ship carrying him and Alonso, the King of Naples, to Prospero's island, Antonio
conspires against the king.
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Miranda: Fifteen-year-old daughter of Prospero. She has lived with her father on his
island since she was three years old and has never seen a man except for her father and
the half-human Caliban. The name Miranda is derived from the Latin
word mirandus, meaning wonderful, strange, and admired.
Alonso: King of Naples. He helped Antonio oust Prospero as Duke of Milan. However, after
arriving at Prospero's island, he exhibits genuine remorse for his reprehensible treatment
of Prospero.
Sebastian: Brother of the king.
Ferdinand: Son of the King of Naples.
Gonzalo: Honest old counselor and friend of Prospero.
Ariel: Spirit of the air on the magical island who serves Prospero. Ariel first served a
witch, Sycorax, who imprisoned him in a recess of a pine tree after he refused to do her
bidding. He remained there to suffer great torment for twelve years, during which time
Sycorax died. Upon his arrival on the island, Prospero freed Ariel but bound the sprite to
his service. Ariel possesses protean power, enabling him to alter his appearance instantly.
He can also travel to any part of the island in a split-second.
Adrian, Francisco: Lords.
Trinculo: Jester.
Stephano: Drunken butler.
Caliban: Savage half-man who serves as a slave on Prospero's island. He is the son of a
witch, Sycorax. Caliban believes he is the rightful ruler of Prospero's island, having
inherited it from his mother.
Iris, Ceres, Juno: Goddesses presented by the spirits. In classical mythology, Iris was
a messenger goddess and goddess of the rainbow. Ceres was the goddess of agriculture,
and Juno was the queen of the gods.
Nymphs, Reapers: Dancers
Master of the Ship
Boatswain
Mariners
Spirits
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Themes:
Forgive and forget. Though Prospero has been wronged, he reconciles with his
wrongdoers.
Repent your sins. All of Prospero's wrongdoers repent at the end and achieve
redemption.
The New World (America) is a raw, untamed wilderness. Prospero's island may have
symbolized America, or the islands off the coast of America, with Caliban representing
the uncivilized native population.
Exploration of new lands often results in mistreatment of native populations. It has
been suggested that Caliban represents indigenous peoples exploited by Europeans during
the Age of Discovery.
The storms of life are followed by peace and calm.
Friends in need are friends indeed. Thanks to his friend Gonzalo, Prospero and his
daughter survive their ordeal at sea.
Freedom must be earned. Everyone in The Tempest is a slave or a captive—socially,
emotionally, geographically or otherwise. For example, Prospero and Miranda, victims of
treachery, are captives of their environment. The shipwrecked adversaries of Prospero
are captives of guilt, ambition or desire for revenge. Ariel, a free spirit of the air, is
Prospero's slave. Caliban, a misshapen half-human, is a prisoner of unruly instincts. Only
through ordeal, tribulation, and demonstrations of humanity do these characters redeem
and liberate themselves.
Plot Summary:
After attending his daughter Claribel’s wedding in Tunis, Africa, King Alonso of Naples and
his company sail home to Italy in a fleet of ships and encounter a violent storm. With
Alonso is his beloved son, Ferdinand. Others on the king’s ship are Antonio, the Duke of
Milan; Antonio’s butler, Stephano; the king’s brother, Sebastian; a counselor, Gonzalo; and
Trinculo, a jester. When thunder booms and lightning strikes, winds churn the sea into a
terrible fury that imperils all of the ships. Mariners laboring to save the king’s vessel cry
out, “All lost! to prayers, to prayers! all lost!” (1. 1. 28). Gonzalo, the king’s counsellor, is the
last to speak as the ship founders: “Now would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for an
acre of barren ground, long heath, brown furze, any thing. The wills above be done! but I
would fain die a dry death” (1. 1. 44).
.......As a strange, fiery light illumines the ship, the king and his company jump overboard.
All except Ferdinand wash ashore at the same location on an enchanted island. Ferdinand
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lands on another part of the island. Alonso thinks Ferdinand has drowned, and vice versa,
and both mourn their losses. The ruler of the island is the magician Prospero. It was
Prospero who caused the tempest. Aware of who was on the ship, thanks to his magical
powers, he commanded the sea to deliver to him the king and his company to settle some
unfinished business. Twelve years before, Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan, had been
set adrift to die at sea with his three-year-old daughter, Miranda, after his brother,
Antonio, seized his dukedom with the connivance of King Alonso. However, the kindly
counselor Gonzalo sneaked food and drink to Prospero, along with his books of magic. So it
was that Prospero and his daughter survived and landed on the island to live in a cave.
.......One of Prospero’s first orders of business on the island was to free the sprites
imprisoned by a witch named Sycorax. The chief sprite was Ariel, a spirit of the air. In
exchange for his liberation, Ariel agreed to do Prospero’s bidding. Sycorax posed no
further threat, for she was dead. However, she left behind an ugly, half-human offspring
named Caliban. Although Caliban once tried to ravish Miranda, Prospero trains him to talk
and perform menial chores, using magic to keep the beast-man’s instincts in check.
Ariel has proved a valuable servant. In fact, under Prospero’s orders, it was Ariel who
guided the tempest toward the island and set the king’s ship “ablaze” by imitating fire.
Sometimes Ariel would divide himself and become fire in several places at once: the
topmast, bowsprit, and yards. In fright, the king and his company hurled themselves
overboard. Miranda witnessed the terrible spectacle. In reporting on it to her father, she
assumes he caused the tempest and begs him to calm the raging waters. She expresses
sympathy for the ship’s crew and passengers, telling her father that
"I have suffered
With those that I saw suffer: a brave vessel,
Who had, no doubt, some noble creature in her,
Dash’d all to pieces. O, the cry did knock
Against my very heart. Poor souls, they perish’d.
Had I been any god of power, I would
Have sunk the sea within the earth or ere
It should the good ship so have swallow’d and
The fraughting souls within her." (1. 2. 6-14)
.......Prospero informs her, however, that no harm was done; for Ariel has preserved the
ship in a hidden harbor and cast its crew into a deep sleep. Ariel allowed the rest of the
fleet to survive the storm and resume the trip to Italy, “supposing,” as Ariel tells
Prospero, “that they saw the king’s ship wrecked and his great person perish” (1. 2. 277278).
.......After Alonso and the others arrive on the island, Prospero dispatches Ariel to
bring the handsome young Ferdinand to the cave, where the beautiful Miranda is sleeping.
He also sends Caliban to bring wood. When Ferdinand arrives, Miranda awakens and falls
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immediately in love with him. Love smites Ferdinand as well. Prospero pretends Ferdinand is
a spy and takes him prisoner. Elsewhere on the island, King Alonso and most of his company
are still asleep. The only two who remain awake—the evil Antonio and Alonso’s brother,
Sebastian—see an opportunity before them: If they kill the king, Naples will be theirs. But
just as they draw their swords, King Alonso and Gonzalo awaken. Meanwhile, Caliban, who is
bringing in the wood, curses Prospero, wishing upon him “all the infections that the sun
sucks up.” (2. 2. 4). Caliban, after all, was the ruler of the island before Prospero arrived.
Why should he now be carrying wood for Prospero?
.......Trinculo happens upon Caliban and takes shelter with him from a threatening storm.
Stephano, the king’s butler, also shows up, drunk. It seems he had the good fortune to
float ashore on a barrel of wine, which he put to good use after fashioning a flask out of
tree bark. After he plies Caliban with wine, the monster-man dreams of being free of
Prospero. Back near the cave, Ferdinand is gathering wood under orders from Prospero.
When Miranda goes out to help him, the two lovers forget about the wood. Instead, they
coo and woo, and talk of marriage. From a distance, Prospero watches and smiles
approvingly. Caliban, suddenly possessed of a bold and persuasive tongue, convinces his new
companions, Stephano and Trinculo, to help him murder Prospero so that they can all
become the new rulers of the island. Their plan is to steal upon him while he is sleeping,
brain him with a log or pierce him with a stake or a knife, then burn his books.
.......Ariel, off working on Prospero’s behalf, conjures up a magnificent banquet for King
Alonso, Antonio, Sebastian, Gonzalo and the rest of the king’s entourage. As they are
about to eat, lightning flashes, thunder booms, and Ariel appears in the form of a harpy, a
hideous bird. He claps his wings and the banquet vanishes. Then he rebukes Alonso, Antonio
and Sebastian for their previous mistreatment of Prospero and Miranda years before. He
tells them that
Lingering perdition—worse than any death
Can be at once,—shall step by step attend
You and your ways. . . .” (3. 3.93-95)
.......After Ariel vanishes and Alonso, Antonio, and Sebastian leave the scene, the goodly
Gonzalo, observing the reaction of the three men, says,
All three of them are desperate: their great guilt,
Like poison given to work a great time after,
Now ’gins to bite the spirits.” (3. 3. 124-126)
Prospero, meanwhile, presents an entertainment for Ferdinand and Miranda in celebration
of their forthcoming marriage. The entertainers are spirits in the form of three deities—
Ceres, goddess of agriculture; Iris, goddess of the rainbow; and Juno, queen of the gods—
who sing to the betrothed couple. Then Nymphs and Reapers descend upon the island and
perform a graceful dance. After the entertainment, Prospero uses his magic to thwart the
murderous plots against him while Ariel spellbinds Alonso and the others with music and
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leads them to Prospero’s cave. Ferdinand rejoices at the sight of his father, and Alonso
rejoices at the sight of his son. Then every offender repents his wrongs, and even the
beastly Caliban admits he was a “thrice-double ass” (5. 1. 328). Prospero, having regained
his dukedom, renounces magic and prepares to return to Naples with Ferdinand, Miranda,
and Alonso and his entourage after Alonso’s ship—thought wrecked and lost—is found still
afloat and seaworthy. Prospero commands Ariel to calm the seas, then frees him. Only
Caliban remains on the island.
Climax: The climax of a play or another narrative work, such as a short story or a novel,
can be defined as (1) the turning point at which the conflict begins to resolve itself for
better or worse, or as (2) the final and most exciting event in a series of events. The
climax in The Tempest occurs, according to the first definition, in Act III, Scene III,
when Ariel (appearing as a Harpy, a mythological monster with the head of a woman and
the body of a bird) reveals Antonio, Alonso, and Sebastian as sinners who conspired to
remove Prospero from his dukedom. According to the second definition, the climax occurs
at the end of Act V when Ferdinand and his father are reunited, and all the enemies in the
play become friends.
Figures of Speech/Literary Terms:
Antithesis
"Good wombs have borne bad sons." (1. 2. 141)
(Contrast of good wombs and bad sons. The statement is also a paradox.)
Alliteration
"Hast thou forgot
The foul witch Sycorax, who with age and envy
Was grown into a hoop?" (1.2.259-260)
"Full fathom five thy father lies" (.2.394)
"He that dies pays all debts." (3.2.143)
Hyperbole
"Your tale, sir, would cure deafness." (1.2.106)
(This line also contains a metaphor comparing the tale to a remedy.)
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Metaphor
"My library
Was dukedom large enough." (1.2.128)
(Comparison of a dukedom to a library.)
"The king's son, Ferdinand,
With hair up-staring,—then like reeds, not hair,
Was the first man that leap'd; cried, 'Hell is empty
And all the devils are here.'" (1.2.213-216)
Comparison of Prospero's island to hell
"You taught me language; and my profit on’t
Is, I know how to curse." (1. 2. 430-431)
(Comparison of knowledge to profit.)
"The winds did sing it to me, and the thunder,
That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounced
The name of Prosper: it did bass my trespass." (3.3.97-99)
(Metaphor (and personification) comparing the winds to a singer)
(Metaphor comparing thunder to the sound made by an organ pipe)
"No sweet aspersion shall the heavens let fall
To make this contract grow. "(4.1.18-19)
(Comparison of heaven's approval to rain (aspersion) that promotes the growth of a seed)
"We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep." (4.1.168-170)
(Comparison of humans to the immateriality of a dream)
Paradox
"What's past is prologue." (2.1.261)
Shakespeare's Name Game
*Did you notice in your reading of The Tempest that the name of the beast-man, Caliban,
is an anagram for cannibal (except for a missing n)?
*Did you also notice that name of Prospero’s servant, Ariel, sounds like aerial, meaning in
the air, of the air, high flying, ethereal, and fanciful—words which all describe Ariel?
Other characters also have names suggestive of their qualities and lot in life: Prospero (a
name that derives from the Latin prosperare, meaning to cause to prosper), who prospers
through his magic and intelligence; Miranda (a name that derives from the Latin mirandus,
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meaning strange, wonderful, miraculous), who is wonderful to behold and is indeed
strange—that is, exotic; and Ferdinand (a name that derives from Germanic words meaning
bold traveler), who has traveled on the high seas and survived a roaring tempest.
Prospero’s Island as The New World
Shakespeare sets the scene in a far-off, isolated island. Whether he intended the setting
to symbolize the New World is arguable, but it certainly resembles it. Like America, it is
wild and undeveloped, with strange sights, sounds, and creatures. It has a “colonial”
overseer, Prospero, who exploits the native population—the savage beast-man, Caliban, and
the sprite, Ariel—turning them into servants, or slaves. Prospero’s daughter, Miranda,
knows no other world but her father’s island. In this respect, she is like the real-life
Virginia Dare, the first English child born in the Americas (on Roanoke Island, off the
coast of present-day North Carolina).
Caliban as an Exploited Native
In The Tempest, Caliban suffers the same fate as many New World natives: He loses
control over a domain he thought he ruled, becoming a virtual slave of Prospero. Although
Prospero teaches him language, Caliban complains that the only benefit of this experience
is that he learned how to curse. Caliban’s encounter with Prospero resembles the
encounter of real-life native Americans with Europeans seeking riches in the New World
wilds while spreading their culture. The natives learned bad habits, acquired alien diseases,
and lost control of their domains. Of course, The Tempest centers on the wrong done to
Prospero by his brother, who usurped Prospero’s dukedom. But did not Prospero usurp
Caliban’s domain?
The Tempest and Humanism
During the European Renaissance between 1400 and 1600, great thinkers began advocating
the betterment of civilization by emphasizing the study of classical culture and literature
and by promoting the cultivation of such ennobling qualities as compassion, generosity,
friendship, wise judgment, and prudence. In The Tempest, Prospero exhibits those
qualities. He does not seek to retaliate against those who wronged him; he seeks only to
bring them out of the darkness of hatred and revenge. In this respect, he is like the
Renaissance humanist who builds a bridge for the Dark Ages to cross into the
enlightenment of a new age in which humankind renounces its old barbarity and savagery.
In discussing this idea, Shakespeare scholar Bernard D. Grebanier wrote:
Shakespeare is perhaps the perfect expression of Renaissance humanism. His profound
sympathy for humanity enabled him to pierce to the very core of his characters; his
unexcelled gifts as a poet made his men and women unforgettable creatures of flesh and
blood. This may be said as much of the best of his earliest plays as of The Tempest, where
Prospero is himself a kind of incarnation of the best of what the Renaissance had
extended to mankind.
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Shakespeare's Grab Bag of Marvels
To give his play a wondrous, fairy-tale atmosphere, Shakespeare set it on a remote island
with an exotic landscape, then populated the island with a sorcerer (Prospero), a monster
(the beast-man Caliban, son of a witch), a mischievous sprite, a beautiful maiden (Miranda),
a young prince who loves her (Ferdinand, son of the King of Naples), and mythological
deities--including Ceres, goddess of agriculture; Iris, goddess of the rainbow; and Juno,
queen of the gods. Perhaps Shakespeare was capitalizing on stories about the New World
across the seas--a world that was mostly terra incognita to the English and therefore a
ripe subject for speculation about wonders there that awaited discovery.
There were, of course, published reports about the Americas and the islands near the
mainlands. These reports included several about Bermuda, including an account of the
wreck of the Sea Venture in the Bermudas in 1609; A Discovery of the Bermudas(1610), by
Sylvester Jourdain; A True Repertory of the Wracke and Redemption of Sir Thomas Gates
upon and from the Islands of the Bermudas (written in 1610 and published in 1625), by
William Strachey. The Spanish navigator Juan Bermúdez is credited with discovery of the
Bermuda Islands, and they first appeared on Spanish maps in 1511. It may well be that the
wreck of the Sea Venture inspired Shakespeare to write about the wreck of King Alonso’s
ship.
Study Questions and Essay Topics
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Write an essay explaining how closed, isolated environments like Prospero’s island in The
Tempest, Elsinore Castle in Hamlet, and the forest of Arden in As You Like It affect the
characters.
Shakespeare uses allusions to mythology in The Tempest. What is an allusion? Where do
allusions take place in Acts 3 and 4?
Lust for power, a theme in other Shakespeare plays, manifests itself in The Tempest in two
independent conspiracies? What are these conspiracies and who is involved in them?
Would you consider Prospero’s island an example of a microcosm? Write a short essay that
explains your answer. In the essay, be sure to define microcosm as a literary device.
To whom does Shakespeare address the epilogue at the end of the play?
What was Prospero’s wife like? (See lines spoken by Prospero in Act I.)
Do you despise or pity Caliban. Explain your answer.
Do you approve of the way Prospero treats Miranda?
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