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Analysis of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on July 26, 2020 • ( 1 )

Many commentators agree in the belief that The Tempest is the last creation of Shakespeare. I will readily believe it. There is in The Tempest the solemn tone of a testament. It might be said that, before his death, the poet, in this epopee of the ideal, had designed a codicil for the Future. . . . The Tempest is the supreme denouement, dreamed by Shakespeare, for the bloody drama of Genesis. It is the expiation of the primordial crime. The region whither it transports us is the enchanted land where the sentence of damnation is absolved by clemency, and where reconciliation is ensured by amnesty to the fratricide. And, at the close of the piece, when the poet, touched by emotion, throws Antonio into the arms of Prospero, he has made Cain pardoned by Abel.

—Victor Hugo , Oeuvres complètes de Shakespeare

It is inevitable, given the position of The Tempest as William Shakespeare’s final solo dramatic work, to hear in Prospero’s epilogue to the play, Shakespeare’s farewell to his audience:

Now my charms are all o’erthrown, And what strength I have’s mine own, Which is most faint. . . . . . Now I want Spirits to enforce, art to enchant; And my ending is despair Unless I be relieved by prayer, Which pierces so, that it assaults Mercy itself, and frees all faults. As you from crimes would pardoned be, Let your indulgence set me free.

Prospero bows out on a note of forgiveness, the tone that finally rules the play along with an affirmation in the essential goodness of humanity. It has been tempting, therefore, to view Prospero’s sentiment and his play as Shakespeare’s last word, his summation of a career and a philosophy, what critic Gary Taylor has called “the valedictory culmination of Shakespeare’s life work.” First performed at court on November 1, 1611, before the playwright’s exit to Stratford, The Tempest , however, is technically neither Shakespeare’s finale nor requiem. Two years later Shakespeare was back in London, collaborating with John Fletcher on The Two Noble Kinsmen, Henry VIII, and the lost play Cardenio. As intriguing as the biographical reading is, it is only one of The Tempest ’s multiple layers of meaning and significance. Called by critic T. M. Parrot, “perhaps the best loved of all Shakespeare’s plays,” and by William Hazlitt as among the “most original and perfect of Shakespeare’s productions,” The Tempest continues to be one of the most performed and interpreted plays in the canon, generating (and withstanding) autobiographical, allegorical, religious, metaphysical, and more recently postcolonial readings. The play’s central figure has likewise shifted from Prospero, who fascinated the romantics, to Miranda, who has claimed the attention of feminists, to Caliban, who is exhibit A in the reading of the play as “a veritable document of early Anglo-American history,” according to writer Sydney Lee, containing “the whole history of imperialist America,” as stated by critic Leslie Fiedler. The Tempest has served as a poetic treasure trove and springboard for other writers, with allusions detectable in John Milton’s Comus , T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, W. H. Auden’s The Sea and the Mirror, and countless other works. Based on its popularity, persistence, and universality, The Tempest remains one of the richest and most fascinating of Shakespeare’s plays.

The Tempest is a composite work with elements derived from multiple sources. Montaigne’s essay “On Cannibals,” whose romantic primitivism is satirized in Gonzalo’s plan for organizing society on Prospero’s island in the second act, is a possible source. So, too, are a German play, Comedy of the Beautiful Sidea, by Jacob Ayrer, about a magician prince whose only daughter falls in love with the son of his enemy, and several Italian commedia dell’arte pastoral tragicomedies set on remote islands and featuring benevolent magicians. Accounts of the Sea-Venture, the ship sent to Virginia to bolster John Smith’s colony that was wrecked on the coast of Bermuda in 1609, may have furnished Shakespeare with some of the details for the play’s opening storm. However, the most substantial borrowing for the plot of The Tempest comes from Shakespeare’s own previous plays, so much so, that scholar Stephen Greenblatt has described The Tempest as “a kind of echo chamber of Shakespearean motifs.” The complications following a shipwreck revisits Twelfth Night ; the relocation of court society to the wilderness is featured in As You Like It and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which also employs spirits and the supernatural to teach lessons and settle scores. The backstory of The Tempest —Prospero, the former duke of Milan, usurped by his brother—recalls  Hamlet and King Lear . Miranda’s being raised in ignorance of her past and status as well as the debate between nature and nurture echo Pericles and The Winter’s Tale. Like both, The Tempest mixes light and dark, tragic and comic elements, yet compared to their baroque complexity, the shortest of Shakespeare’s plays after Macbeth obeys the Aristotelian unities of place and time (the only other Shakespearean play to do so is The Comedy of Errors ), with its action confined to Prospero’s island, taking place over a period roughly corresponding to its performance time.

The Tempest begins with one of the most spectacular scenes in all of Shakespeare: the storm at sea that threatens the vessel whose passengers include King Alonso of Naples, his son Ferdinand, and Prospero’s hated brother Antonio, the usurping duke of Milan. Their life-and-death struggle enacted on stage is subjected to a double focus as Prospero reassures his daughter, Miranda, distraught over the fate of the passengers and crew, that he controls the tempest and that their danger is an illusion. The disaster, which he calls a “spectacle,” is artifice, and the play establishes an analogy between Prospero’s magic and the theatrical sleight of hand that initially seemed so realistic and thrilling. Prospero stands in for the artist here: Both magician and playwrights are conjurors, able to manipulate nature and make others believe in a reality without substance. The contrast between illusion and reality will be sounded throughout the play, suggesting that The Tempest is a metadrama: a play about playwriting and the power and limitations of the imagination. Prospero finally tells his daughter how they arrived on the island; how his brother, Antonio, joined in a conspiracy with Alonso to usurp his place as duke of Milan; how 12 years before Prospero and Miranda were set adrift at sea, provisioned only by a compassionate Neapolitan, Gonzalo. Friend and foes, aboard the vessel Prospero has seemed to wreck, are now under his control on the island where Prospero intends to exact his vengeance. Prospero, therefore, will use his long-studied magical arts to stage a reckoning for past offenses. The play proceeds under Prospero’s direction with a cast that either cooperates or complicates his intentions. Serving him are the ethereal Ariel, whom Prospero promises to free after completing his bidding, and the contrasting earthly and brutish Caliban, a witch’s son, whom Prospero says he has “us’d thee / (Filth as thou art) with human care, and lodg’d thee / In mine own cell, till thou didst seek to violate / The honor of my child.” Prospero, therefore, controls symbols of both sides of human nature: aspects of the imagination and fancy and baser instincts that come in conflict on the island as the play progresses.

As playwright Prospero must juggle three subplots: Miranda’s relationship with Ferdinand, the son of Alonso, who mourns his loss at sea; the plotting of Prospero’s brother, Antonio, and the king’s brother, Sebastian, to murder Alonso and seize his throne; and Caliban’s alliance with the jester Trinculo and butler Stefano to kill Prospero and reign in his stead. The first goes so well—Miranda and Ferdinand fall in love at first sight—that Prospero tests Ferdinand’s fidelity by appearing to punish him by making him his servant. Ferdinand, however, proves his devotion by gladly accepting his humiliation to be near Miranda. Prospero ends Ferdinand’s penance and testing in the first scene of act 4, declaring: “All thy vexations / Were but my trials of thy love, and thou / Hast strangely stood the test.” To seal the nuptial vows a ritual masque is performed by various mythological goddesses and pastoral figures. In the midst of the dance Prospero stops the performance to deliver one of the most celebrated speeches in all of Shakespeare’s plays:

Our revels now are ended. These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits, and Are melted into air, into thin air; And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff As dreams are made on; and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.

Jaques in As You Like It asserted “All the world’s a stage,” and Macbeth described life as “a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage.” Prospero’s speech suggests the transience of both human life and art, with its reference to “the great globe,” the name of Shakespeare’s theater, that, along with towers, palaces, and temples, “shall dissolve . . . like this insubstantial pageant.”

Made aware by Ariel of Caliban’s conspiracy with Trinculo and Stefano, Prospero distracts them from their purpose of murder by rich attire, which Trinculo and Stefano put on before being set upon by spirits. Their comic rebellion is matched by the more serious plot of Antonio and Sebastian to kill Alonso. An assassination attempt is halted by the appearance of spirits providing a banquet for the hungry men. Just as they try to satisfy their hunger the food disappears, replaced by Ariel, “like a harpy,” who accuses Alonso, Sebastian, and Antonio of their crimes against Prospero and delivers their sentences:

. . . But remember, For that’s my business to you, that you three From Milan did supplant good Prospero; Exposed unto the sea, which hath requit it ,Him, and his innocent child; for which foul deed The powers, delaying not forgetting, have Incensed the seas and shores, yea, all the creatures, Against your peace. Thee of thy son, Alonso, They have bereft; and do pronounce by me Ling’ring perdition, worse than any death Can be at once, shall step by step attend You and your ways; whose wraths to guard you from— Which here, in this most desolate isle, else fall sUpon your heads—is nothing but heart’s sorrow, And a clear life ensuing.

Prospero, approving of Ariel’s performance, declares, “They now are in my pow’r,” and the play turns on how he will decide to use that power.

At the start of the fifth act Prospero announces the climax of his plan: “Now does my project gather to a head,” with his victims now imprisoned to confront their guilt and fate. It is Ariel who shifts Prospero from vengeance to forgiveness by saying, “Your charm so strongly works ’em / That if you now beheld them your affections / Would become tender.” Ariel’s suggestion of what should be the reaction to human suffering shames Prospero into compassion:

Hast thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling Of their afflictions, and shall not myself, One of their kind, that relish all as sharply, Passion as they, be kindlier moved than thou art? Though with their high wrongs I am struck to th’ quick, Yet with my nobler reason ’gainst my fury Do I take part. The rarer action is In virtue than in vengeance. They being penitent, The sole drift of my purpose doth extend Not a frown further. Go release them, Ariel; My charms I’ll break, their senses I’ll restore, And they shall be themselves.

Prospero turns away from revenge and the pursuit of power that had formerly ruled the destinies of so many Shakespearean heroes, including Hamlet, Macbeth , and many more. Prospero changes the plot of his play at its climax and then turns away from his art to reenter the human community:

. . . But this rough magic I here abjure. And, when I have required Some heavenly music—which even now I do— To work mine end upon their senses that This airy charm is for, I’ll break my staff, Bury it certain fathoms in the earth, And deeper than did ever plummet sound I’ll drown my book.

The end of Prospero’s plot, his art, and the play conjoin. Ariel returns with the prisoners, and Prospero pardons all, including his brother, before reclaiming his dukedom and reuniting father and son. Miranda, overcome by so many nobles on their formerly deserted island, declares:

O wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world! That has such people in’t!

Prospero, more soberly and less optimistically, responds to her words: “’Tis new to thee.” Finally, Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo are brought in. The lowly status and ridiculousness of the latter two are exposed, prompting Caliban to assert:

I’ll be wise hereafter, And seek for grace. What a thrice-double ass Was I to take this drunkard for a god, And worship this dull fool!

Having reestablished order and a harmonious future in the marriage of Miranda and Ferdinand, Prospero delivers on his promise to free Ariel before turning to the audience to ask for the same compassion and forgiveness he has shown. As Prospero has released the spirit Ariel, we are asked to do the same for Prospero. We now hold the power and the art to use it as we will:

. . . Now ’tis true I must be here confined by you Or sent to Naples. Let me not ,Since I have my dukedom got, And pardoned the deceiver, dwell In this bare island by your spell; But release me from my bands With the help of your good hands.

If the play is not Shakespeare’s last will and testament, there scarcely can be a better: a play that affirms essential human goodness while acknowledging the presence of human evil, written in the full powers of the imagination, while conscious of its limitations and responsibilities.

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A Short Analysis of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest

On Tuesday, we offered a short plot summary of The Tempest , one of Shakespeare’s last plays, and his final solo work for the theatre. As we remarked then, The Tempest is essentially a fantasy story (or ‘romance’ to use the term that tends to be used to categorise The Tempest ) featuring a magician, the ‘monstrous’ offspring of a wicked witch, treachery and conspiracy, drunkenness, fairies, a lavish masque, young lovers, and much else. How should we go about interpreting Shakespeare’s last solo work for the theatre? Below, we offer some notes towards an analysis.

Inspiration for The Tempest

Shakespeare is thought to have based his play The Tempest on a real-life shipwreck. William Strachey’s A True Reportory of the Wracke and Redemption of Sir Thomas Gates, Knight , an account of his experience during the wreck of the ship Sea Venture on the island of Bermuda, was written in 1609, and many scholars believe that the Bard read this account and used it as inspiration for The Tempest . This isn’t as clear-cut as all that, because the account of the Sea Venture was only published later, but it’s possible Shakespeare heard something of the account before it was printed.

Analysis of The Tempest : key themes

Magic and ‘art’

Contrary to popular belief, The Tempest wasn’t quite Shakespeare’s final play. The popular myth that after The Tempest the Bard packed up shop, and moved back to Stratford-upon-Avon to live out his last few years in retirement, overlooks the fact that he collaborated with the younger playwright John Fletcher on several plays after The Tempest in 1611, including Henry VIII , Cardenio (now sadly lost), and The Two Noble Kinsmen , based on Chaucer’s ‘Knight’s Tale’. However, it does appear that The Tempest was Shakespeare’s final solo work for the stage.

It’s hard not to see Prospero’s magic as, on one level, a metaphor for Shakespeare’s own art as a playwright. Both summon spirits, creatures of illusion – and, to tighten up this parallel, both create performances involving actors. Just as Prospero uses his ‘art’ to conjure Ceres, Juno, and the other figures who act in his masque, so Shakespeare uses his art to conjure Prospero himself. And ‘art’ is even used in The Tempest to describe magic: Caliban describes Prospero’s magic powers as an ‘art’ stronger than the powers of Setebos, the god his mother Sycorax worshipped, just as we talk about the ‘dark arts’ of magic. ‘Art’ – meaning not only the arts, including playwriting and poetry, but also, more broadly, ‘artifice’ – is a loaded word in The Tempest . So it’s little surprise that critics have seen a touch of self-reflexivity in Prospero’s abjuration or renunciation of his ‘rough magic’ at the end of the play, just as Shakespeare is preparing to hang up his quill and stop writing for the theatre (barring a few collaborations with Fletcher).

The Tempest ends with Prospero addressing us, the audience, directly, and requesting that we release him from the island and allow him to retire to Milan, and older and wiser man:

Now my charms are all o’erthrown, And what strength I have’s mine own, Which is most faint: now, ’tis true, I must be here confined by you, Or sent to Naples. Let me not, Since I have my dukedom got And pardon’d the deceiver, dwell In this bare island by your spell; But release me from my bands With the help of your good hands:

It’s as if Shakespeare is addressing his audience of playgoers and asking them to set him free from the theatre, that ‘island’ of enchantment cut off from the rest of the world: he bids the audience’s permission to be ‘sent to Naples’ (or Stratford, in any case). The lines ‘dwell / In this bare island by your spell; / But release me from my bands’ seem to support such an analysis, with Shakespeare effectively saying, ‘by all means continue to enjoy the theatre, but just let me leave it behind, won’t you?’

Similarly, Miranda, Prospero’s daughter, feels honour-bound to serve and obey her father. And then there is Caliban, Sycorax’ son, whom Prospero made his slave. Caliban is even less free than either Ariel or Miranda, and he, too, must serve Prospero. Act I Scene 2 is a key one in the play, for it introduces us to Prospero and then sets out his relationship with these three key characters: Miranda (who, as his daughter, serves him); Ariel (who, in thanks for being freed by Prospero, serves him); and Caliban (who, as Sycorax’s son and the only surviving native of the island, is enslaved by Prospero and confined to one portion of the island).

Even Prospero himself is similarly in service, according to that final speech or epilogue, where he suggests that the audience’s power keeps him imprisoned on the island, he can only leave with their blessing. And in the context of the events of the play, he is imprisoned on the island in a sense, having been banished from Milan.

Love, too, can make us servants (and slaves), as Ferdinand’s heartfelt speech to Miranda in III.1 shows:

The very instant that I saw you did My heart fly to your service, there resides To make me slave to it, and for your sake Am I this patient log-man.

And Miranda, in return, pledges to Ferdinand: ‘I’ll be your servant / Whether you will [marry me] or no.’

The subplot of The Tempest , involving Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo and their plot to overthrow or usurp Prospero as ruler of the island, mirrors the main plot and backstory to the play: namely, Antonio’s usurpation of his brother Prospero as Duke of Milan, twelve years before the action of the play is set. Stephano, a drunkard, is clearly deluded when he thinks he will be a better ‘king’ of the island than Prospero, or that he could even be successful in overthrowing such a powerful magician. Caliban is deluded for following Stephano, although it is clearly understandable when Stephano gives him wine: one can’t imagine Prospero giving Caliban such treats (although note that he used to, according to Caliban in I.2: ‘Though strok’st me, made much of me, wouldst give me / Water with berries in’t’). But was Antonio right in usurping his own brother and having himself proclaimed Duke of Milan? Much as with Claudius and Old Hamlet (where, alongside Claudius’ baser motives for wanting to murder his brother, there may have been the more honourable reason that he knew he could do a better job of ruling than his brother did), it may be that Antonio, in noticing that his brother was more interested in his magic spells than in ruling over his own city, did a good and just thing in rising up against Prospero and having him banished. So is it a good thing that Prospero used his ‘rough magic’ to conjure the tempest and shipwreck Antonio and Alonso, just so he could hold them captive until they agreed to restore him to his dukedom? And is Prospero’s promise to renounce his magic enough to convince us he will be a good duke this time around? As he says at the end of the play, he plans to spend a third of his time thinking about his imminent death, which hardly seems like a healthy outlook for a man governing a city.

Legacy of The Tempest

Shakespeare’s The Tempest has inspired countless artistic responses in theatre, music, poetry, and fiction. There have been nearly 50 operas based on The Tempest , while composers including Henry Purcell, Arthur Bliss, Hector Berlioz, Malcolm Arnold, and Engelbert Humperdinck (not that one) have all written incidental music to accompany performances of Shakespeare’s play. W. H. Auden wrote a long poem, The Sea and the Mirror , in response to the play. In 1968, the Franco-Caribbean writer and theorist Aimé Césaire wrote a play titled Une Tempête , which portrays Caliban sympathetically as a native of the island who has been forced into subjugation by the island’s white European coloniser, Prospero. It’s certainly a different experience reading and studying Shakespeare’s play in the wake of the British Empire (and European imperialism more widely) and the granting of independence to many former British and French colonies in the mid-twentieth century. There have also been some extremely radical and memorable stage and screen adaptations of Shakespeare’s The Tempest , including Peter Greenaway’s 1991 film Prospero’s Books , which fuses animation with live-action performances.

The Tempest has even had an impact on astronomy: one third of the moons of the planet Uranus are named after characters from the play. Miranda, Caliban, Sycorax, Prospero, Setebos, Stephano, Trinculo, Francisco, and Ferdinand are all Uranian moons as well as characters from the play. Curiously, there’s also a moon named Ariel, but that’s thought to have been named for a different Ariel, the sprite from Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock .

A fine bit of trivia to bring this short analysis of the play to a close: a number of phrases which have since passed into common use are thought to have originated in The Tempest . It’s easy to exaggerate the number of words and phrases Shakespeare coined, but he popularised – and perhaps even originated – the phrases ‘into thin air’ (to describe someone or something vanishing from view), ‘brave new world’ (which Aldous Huxley gratefully took up as the ironic title of his 1932 dystopian novel), ‘in a pickle’, and perhaps even ‘sea change’. All of these appear in The Tempest .

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1 thought on “A Short Analysis of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest”

And let us not forget to mention that the classic film Forbidden Planet, which inspired Star Trek, was based on the Tempest.

Good Essay. Thanks. I saw the play at Stratford on Avon and for the first time, watching English Shakespearean actors perform it, understood why the old bard has such power over theater goers.

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• The Tempest

William Shakespeare

• Literature Notes
• Play Summary
• About The Tempest
• Character List
• Summary and Analysis
• Act I: Scene 1
• Act I: Scene 2
• Act II: Scene 1
• Act II: Scene 2
• Act III: Scene 1
• Act III: Scene 2
• Act III: Scene 3
• Act IV: Scene 1
• Act V: Scene 1
• Act V: Epilogue
• Character Analysis
• Character Map
• William Shakespeare Biography
• Critical Essays
• Caliban and the Natural World
• The Tempest as a Political Romance
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The Tempest opens in the midst of a storm, as a ship containing the king of Naples and his party struggles to stay afloat. On land, Prospero and his daughter, Miranda, watch the storm envelop the ship. Prospero has created the storm with magic, and he explains that his enemies are on board the ship.

The story Prospero relates is that he is the rightful Duke of Milan and that his younger brother, Antonio, betrayed him, seizing his title and property. Twelve years earlier, Prospero and Miranda were put out to sea in little more than a raft. Miraculously, they both survived and arrived safely on this island, where Prospero learned to control the magic that he now uses to manipulate everyone on the island. Upon his arrival, Prospero rescued a sprite, Ariel, who had been imprisoned by the witch Sycorax. Ariel wishes to be free and his freedom has been promised within two days. The last inhabitant of the island is the child of Sycorax and the devil: Caliban, whom Prospero has enslaved. Caliban is a natural man, uncivilized and wishing only to have his island returned to him to that he can live alone in peace.

Soon the royal party from the ship is cast ashore and separated into three groups. The king's son, Ferdinand, is brought to Prospero, where he sees Miranda, and the two fall instantly in love. Meanwhile, Alonso, the king of Naples, and the rest of his party have come ashore on another part of the island. Alonso fears that Ferdinand is dead and grieves for the loss of his son. Antonio, Prospero's younger brother, has also been washed ashore with the king's younger brother, Sebastian. Antonio easily convinces Sebastian that Sebastian should murder his brother and seize the throne for himself. This plot to murder Alonso is similar to Antonio's plot against his own brother, Prospero, 12 years earlier.

Another part of the royal party — the court jester and the butler — has also come ashore. Trinculo and Stefano each stumble upon Caliban, and each immediately sees a way to make money by exhibiting Caliban as a monster recovered from this uninhabited island. Stefano has come ashore in a wine cask, and soon Caliban, Trinculo, and Stefano are drunk. While drinking, Caliban hatches a plot to murder Prospero and enrolls his two new acquaintances as accomplices. Ariel is listening, however, and reports the plot to Prospero.

Meanwhile, Prospero has kept Ferdinand busy and has forbidden Miranda to speak to him, but the two still find time to meet and declare their love, which is actually what Prospero has planned. Next, Prospero stages a masque to celebrate the young couple's betrothal, with goddesses and nymphs entertaining the couple with singing and dancing.

While Ferdinand and Miranda have been celebrating their love, Alonso and the rest of the royal party have been searching for the king's son. Exhausted from the search and with the king despairing of ever seeing his son alive, Prospero has ghosts and an imaginary banquet brought before the king's party. A god-like voice accuses Antonio, Alonso, and Sebastian of their sins, and the banquet vanishes. The men are all frightened, and Alonso, Antonio, and Sebastian run away.

Prospero punishes Caliban, Trinculo, and Stefano with a run through a briar patch and swim in a scummy pond. Having accomplished what he set out to do, Prospero has the king's party brought in. Prospero is clothed as the rightful Duke of Milan, and when the spell has been removed, Alonso rejects all claims to Prospero's dukedom and apologizes for his mistakes. Within moments, Prospero reunites the king with his son, Ferdinand. Alonso is especially pleased to learn of Miranda's existence and that Ferdinand will marry her.

Prospero then turns to his brother, Antonio, who offers no regrets or apology for his perfidy. Nevertheless, Prospero promises not to punish Antonio as a traitor. When Caliban is brought in, Caliban tells Prospero that he has learned his lesson. His two co-conspirators, Trinculo and Stefano, will be punished by the king. Soon, the entire party retires to Prospero's cell to celebrate and await their departure home. Only Prospero is left on stage.

In a final speech, Prospero tells the audience that only with their applause will he be able to leave the island with the rest of the party. Prospero leaves the stage to the audience's applause.

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By william shakespeare, the tempest essay questions.

To what extent can Prospero can be considered the protagonist of the play?

Many would agree that Prospero is the protagonist of the play, given that he starts out as a sympathetic character who has been robbed of his station and betrayed by his brother. However, Prospero is not a straightforward or traditional hero. Instead, he relies on his magic to control and manipulate others on the island while also maintaining control over his young adult daughter, Miranda. While audiences are likely to sympathize and root for Prospero's success, the play presents a rather nuanced portrait of its protagonist, leading many to compare Prospero to the playwright whose dedication to their craft outweighs their sense of social or filial duty. When Prospero renounces his magic at the end of the play, he is in many ways restored to hero status, having recognized that his ability to control others is a dangerous power to wield.

In what ways is Caliban a representation of colonization?

Caliban is the only character in the play who is native to the island on which The Tempest takes place. As such, he has long been interpreted as a figure of the effects of colonization and specifically of English imperialism. Caliban is treated by Prospero and Miranda as both a monster, a pupil, a son, and a servant: he is grateful to be able to curse Miranda in her own language, but later uses that same language with mastery and eloquence. The play stops short of expressing a direct judgement of English colonization, instead using the relationship between Prospero and Caliban to explore the complex social and filial dynamics that arise from imperial pursuits.

How does Miranda change over the course of the play?

One quality of Miranda's that is stressed throughout the play is her purity and innocence. Both Prospero and Ferdinand appear interested in preserving her virginity, if for different reasons (Ferdinand for assurance that any children they have will be biologically his, and Prospero for continued control over his surroundings). However, as the play develops, Miranda starts to show signs of budding autonomy – specifically sexual autonomy. She all but demands that Ferdinand marry her, and in so doing makes a choice on her own that reflects her growth from a girl to a woman. Prospero's preoccupation with Miranda's continued purity is therefore challenged by Miranda's own expression of love for Ferdinand, showcasing how even Prospero's magic cannot prevent his daughter from maturing.

Why must Prospero relinquish his powers at the end of the play?

At the end of the play, Prospero renounces his magical powers in order to restore his dukedom. However, he does not do so simply to return to power. Instead, Prospero comes to realize that it was his commitment to his magic that led to his usurpation and exile in the first place. When he agrees to renounce his books, he is really agreeing to be a more committed leader and to relinquish false power – his ability to control his surroundings and the experiences of others – for real and meaningful power in the form of political leadership.

Why do many see Prospero as a representative of Shakespeare himself?

Prospero is often compared to the William Shakespeare because of his dedication to his craft – specifically, the craft of creating whole worlds out of nothing, a task that parallels the role of the early modern English dramatist. Shakespeare wrote The Tempest toward the end of his career, and many see Prospero as the manifestation of the Bard's own reckoning with his departure from the theater. Indeed, Prospero's final speech – in which he asks for applause from the audience in order to be set "free" – is frequently understood as Shakespeare's personal farewell to the English stage.

The Tempest Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Tempest is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

why does miranda have such immediate empathy for the men in the ship?

Because of her nature

I'm not sure how you felt. Prospero is simply winding up his plan. I think Prospero has tempered both his anger and his revenge. I think he is ready to grant mercy to those that have wronged him. He is also ready to give Ariel her promised...

significance of the storm in the Opening act

In The Tempest, the storm at sea serves as the plot's inciting event. The storm washes Prospero 's enemies onto the island's shore, placing them at his mercy. In this sense the tempest or storm represents a disturbance of the social order. It also...

Study Guide for The Tempest

The Tempest study guide contains a biography of William Shakespeare, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About The Tempest
• The Tempest Summary
• The Tempest Video
• Character List

Essays for The Tempest

The Tempest literature essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Tempest.

• Similarities Between Principal Characters in Shakespeare's The Tempest
• A Post-Colonial Interpretation of The Tempest
• The Fierce and Mighty Sea; The Dramatic Function of the Powerful and Ever Present Ocean in The Tempest
• The Sensitive Beast: Shakespeare's Presentation of Caliban
• Love and Magic Intertwined

Lesson Plan for The Tempest

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to The Tempest
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• The Tempest Bibliography

E-Text of The Tempest

The Tempest E-Text contains the full text of The Tempest

• List of Characters

Wikipedia Entries for The Tempest

• Introduction

• Share full article

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Tracking Post-Tropical Cyclone Ernesto

By William B. Davis ,  Madison Dong ,  Judson Jones ,  John Keefe and Bea Malsky

Ernesto was a post-tropical cyclone in the North Atlantic Ocean Tuesday morning Atlantic time, the National Hurricane Center said in its latest advisory .

The post-tropical cyclone had sustained wind speeds of 70 miles per hour. Follow our coverage here .

What does the storm look like from above?

Satellite imagery can help determine the strength, size and cohesion of a storm. The stronger a storm becomes, the more likely an eye will form in the center. When the eye looks symmetrical, that often means the storm is not encountering anything to weaken it.

Ernesto is the fifth named storm to form in the Atlantic in 2024.

In late May, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted that there would be 17 to 25 named storms this year, an above-normal amount .

This season follows an overly active year, with 20 named storms — including an early storm later given the official name of “Unnamed.” It was the eighth year in a row to surpass the average of 14 named storms. Only one hurricane, Idalia, made landfall in the United States.

Typically, the El Niño pattern that was in force last season would have suppressed hurricanes and reduced the number of storms in a season. But in 2023, the warm ocean temperatures in the Atlantic blunted El Niño’s usual effect of thwarting storms.

The warm ocean temperatures that fueled last year’s season returned even warmer at the start of this season, raising forecasters’ confidence that there would be more storms this year. The heightened sea surface temperatures could also strengthen storms more rapidly than usual.

To make matters worse, the El Niño pattern present last year is also diminishing, most likely creating a more suitable atmosphere for storms to form and intensify.

Hurricanes need a calm environment to form, and, in the Atlantic, a strong El Niño increases the amount of wind shear — a change in wind speed and/or direction with height — which disrupts a storm's ability to coalesce. Without El Niño this year, clouds are more likely to tower to the tall heights needed to sustain a powerful cyclone.

Sources and notes

Tracking map Tracking data is from the National Hurricane Center. The map shows probabilities of at least 5 percent. The forecast is for up to five days, with that time span starting up to three hours before the reported time that the storm reaches its latest location. Wind speed probability data is not available north of 60.25 degrees north latitude.

Wind arrivals table Arrival times are generated from a New York Times analysis of National Hurricane Center data. Geographic locations use data from the U.S. Census Bureau and Natural Earth. Time zones are based on Google. The table shows predicted arrival times of sustained, damaging winds of 58 m.p.h. or more for select cities with a chance of such winds reaching them. If damaging winds reach a location, there is no more than a 10 percent chance that they will arrive before the “earliest reasonable” time and a 50 percent chance they will arrive before the “most likely” time.

Radar map Radar imagery is from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration via Iowa State University. These mosaics are generated by combining individual radar stations that comprise the NEXRAD network.

Storm surge map Storm surge data is from the National Hurricane Center. Forecasts only include the United States Gulf and Atlantic coasts, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The actual areas that could become flooded may differ from the areas shown on this map. This map accounts for tides, but not waves and not flooding caused by rainfall. The map also includes intertidal areas, which routinely flood during typical high tides.

Satellite map Imagery is from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Precipitation map Data for multi-day forecasts or observed rainfall totals are from the National Weather Service. The 1-day forecast is from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

DNC Night 2

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Live fact check: Night 2 of the Democratic National Convention

By PolitiFact staff

Live updates: The Obamas and Doug Emhoff are set to speak on Day 2 of the DNC

By Associated Press

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• Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/live-map-track-the-path-of-tropical-storm-ernesto

Live map: Track the path of Hurricane Ernesto

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Hurricane Ernesto barreled toward Bermuda on Thursday after leaving hundreds of thousands of people in Puerto Rico without power or water as sweltering heat enveloped the U.S. territory, raising concerns about people’s health.

Track the storm with the live map below.

A hurricane warning was in effect for Bermuda, with Ernesto expected to pass near or over the island on Saturday.

The Category 1 storm was located about 495 miles (795 kilometers) south-southwest of Bermuda on Thursday afternoon. It had maximum sustained winds of 85 mph (140 kph) and was moving north at 13 mph (20 kph) over open waters.

“I cannot stress enough how important it is for every resident to use this time to prepare. We have seen in the past the devastating effects of complacency,” said National Security Minister Michael Weeks.

Ernesto was forecast to near Category 3 hurricane status on Friday and then decrease in strength as it approaches Bermuda, where it is expected to drop between 6-12 inches of rain, with up to 15 inches in isolated areas.

“All of the guidance show this system as a large hurricane near Bermuda,” said the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Ernesto is then expected to pass near or east of Atlantic Canada on Monday.

Meanwhile, the spinning storm on Thursday was generating southern winds in Puerto Rico, which have a heating effect as opposed to the typical cooling trade winds that blow from the east.

READ MORE: Hurricane forecasters still predict highly active Atlantic season in updated outlook

“We know a lot of people don’t have power,” said Ernesto Morales with the National Weather Service as he warned of extreme heat and urged people to stay hydrated.

More than 380,000 of 1.4 million customers remained in the dark more than a day after Ernesto swiped past Puerto Rico late Tuesday as a tropical storm before strengthening into a hurricane. A maximum of 735,000 clients were without power on Wednesday.

Hundreds of thousands also were without water as many questioned the widespread power outage given that Ernesto was only a tropical storm when it spun past the island.

“I haven’t slept at all,” said Ramón Mercedes Paredes, a 41-year-old construction worker who planned to sleep outdoors on Thursday night to beat the heat. “I haven’t even been able to take a shower.”

At a small park in the Santurce neighborhood of the San Juan capital, Alexander Reyna, a 32-year-old construction worker, sipped on a bright red sports drink that friends provided as roosters crowed nearby above the slap of dominoes.

He had no water or power and planned to spend all day at the park as he lamented the lack of breeze, a slight film of sweat already forming on his forehead: “I have to come here because I cannot stand to be at home.”

The situation worried many who lived through Hurricane Maria, a powerful Category 4 storm that hit Puerto Rico in September 2017 and was blamed for at least 2,975 deaths in its sweltering aftermath. It also razed the island’s power grid, which is still being rebuilt.

The National Weather Service issued a heat advisory on Thursday warning of “dangerously hot and humid conditions.”

Faustino Peguero, 50, said he was concerned about his wife, who has fibromyalgia, heart failure and other health conditions and needs electricity. He has a small generator at home, but he is running out of gasoline and cannot afford to buy more because he hasn’t found work.

“It’s chaos,” he said.

Officials said they don’t know when power will be fully restored as concerns grow about the health of many in Puerto Rico who cannot afford generators or solar panels on the island of 3.2 million people with a more than 40% poverty rate.

Crews have flown more than 540 miles (870 kilometers) across Puerto Rico and identified 400 power line failures, with 150 of them already fixed, said Juan Saca, president of Luma Energy, a private company that operates the transmission and distribution of power in Puerto Rico. The remaining failures will take more time to fix because they involve fallen trees, he added.

“We haven’t seen anything catastrophic,” he said.

When pressed for an estimate of when power would be restored, Alejandro González, Luma’s operations director, declined to say.

“It would be irresponsible to provide an exact date,” he said.

At least 250,000 customers across Puerto Rico also were without water given the power outages, down from a maximum of 350,000. Among them was 65-year-old Gisela Pérez, who was starting to sweat as she cooked sweet plantains, pork, chicken and spaghetti at a street-side diner. After her shift, she planned to buy gallons of water, since she was especially concerned about her two small dogs: Mini and Lazy.

“They cannot go without it,” she said. “They come first.”

— Danica Coto, Associated Press

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