the tempest analysis essay

Literary Theory and Criticism

Home › Drama Criticism › Analysis of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest

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.

The Tempest Oxford Lecture by Emma Smith

The Tempest Ebook PDF (1 MB)

Share this:

Categories: Drama Criticism , Literature

Tags: Analysis Of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest , Ariel , Bibliography Of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest , Calban Postcolonialism , Caliban , Character Study Of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest , Criticism Of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest , ELIZABEHAN POETRY AND PROSE , Essays Of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest , Ferdinand , Literary Criticism , Miranda , Notes Of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest , Plot Of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest , Postcolonial Reading of the Tempest , Prospero , Simple Analysis Of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest , Study Guides Of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest , Summary Of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest , Synopsis Of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest , The Tempest , The Tempest Analysis , The Tempest Character Study , The Tempest Criticism , The Tempest Essay , The Tempest Lecture , The Tempest Notes , The Tempest PDf , The Tempest Summary , The Tempest Themes , Themes Of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest , William Shakespeare

Related Articles

• Discuss the Major Themes in Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” – Hamandista Academy

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

• Study Guides
• Homework Questions

The Tempest Essay

• Arts & Humanities

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

The Tempest as a Post-Colonial Text: Exploring Power, Identity, and Oppression

William Shakespeare's play "The Tempest" has been widely regarded as a post-colonial text due to its themes and portrayal of power dynamics, colonialism, and the effects of colonization on both colonizers and the colonized. This essay aims to delve into the post-colonial elements present in the play, examining how it challenges traditional narratives of colonialism and explores themes of power, identity, and oppression.

Related Papers

International Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Translation

International Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Translation (IJLLT)

The twentieth century brought about a new form of understanding, producing and living art that has become a mean to react against the oppression that different groups suffered for centuries. Post-colonial criticism is an approach of analysis that questions racial identity and gender equity. This study investigates how Shakespeare's plays relate to the social codes and the more recent history of the reception of Shakespearian drama within decolonization movements. The Tempest by Shakespeare is defined as a postcolonial text because the colonised is represented in regarding cultural hybridity in which the Self and the Other enlace the colonial experience. Literature has naturally given a voice to these omitted groups and this play is thought to be an early post-colonial work by some scholars. Shakespeare had intended to criticise the European attack of the new lands to the West, and the theme of colonialism is outrightly presented in The Tempest. Post-colonial reading of the text examines the projection of the colonial experience back to Europe. Slavery, colonialism, and the power of changing other civilisations by the West are themes to make inferences.

SMART MOVES JOURNAL IJELLH

Prabha gour

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) is indubitably the best playwright of all time. He acquired an unique place in the world of literature. His plays earned international commendation and acceptance as the finest dramatist in the entire history of English literature. His play, The Tempest has been decoded differently by critics as a postcolonial text. In1611 when William Shakespeare wrote the play The Tempest, colonization was a recent concept in Britain. This paper is an attempt to inspect the postcolonial issues such as subjugation, dominance language, power and knowledge etc. and conjointly converse about the complex relationship that exist between the master and slave in The Tempest.

Talent Development & Excellence

Thamir R . S . Az-Zubaidy

William Shakespeare's The Tempest is both created in and influenced by an era when colonialism was coming into being. It begins with the arrival of a European coloniser, Prospero, to an island in the Mediterranean Sea where he imposes his colonial domination, norms and culture on its natives. In addition to exploring these issues, this paper examines questions of racism, slavery, suppression, and the role of language in consolidating the process of colonisation and maintaining the colonisercolonised politics. It also critiques the coloniser's involvement in the exchange of women as gifts for political gains as he does with his daughter Miranda. Moreover, while highlighting the discursive practices of othering the native, Caliban, the paper investigates his attempts to resist cultural and political European colonisation through Caliban's linguistic and political appropriation of Prospero's power.

Zahra Sadeghi

Colonization and imperialism are of those interesting critical conversation throughout the world and this study examines how English theater addressed, promoted, and at times challenged ideologies of colonization and notions of civility and civilization. The Tempest in regarded as a New World drama by many critics because of colonization and civilization debates presented on the London stage and depiction of the colonizers and the colonized to present and, at the same time, question those colonial debates. Shakespeare depicts the New World’s indigenous cultures in an ambiguous way to both present and question the ideologies of empire. This dramatization of the “other” helped sixteenth and seventeenth century audiences to recognize New World indigenous peoples as different rather than uncivilized and reevaluate what they have read or heard of these native peoples. Shakespeare presented the contemporary rhetoric through the medium of the theater and helped audience to visualize the process of conquest and colonization. He helped to civilize audiences about the reality of colonization, civility, and the New World. This theatrical medium makes audiences to challenge those established stereotypes of the New World natives and understand them as different, not inhuman or monster, and ignorant of European language and cultures, but no incapable of being civilized. Shakespeare, in dramatization of the New World, neither support nor oppose the process of colonization but he tries his best to show both sides of the issues and let the audiences to decide whether it is legitimate or not. This ambiguous representation of both colonizers and the colonized encourages the audience to examine colonial debates in as objective manner.

Md. A M I R Hossain

In this paper, my purpose is to focus on the underlying reading of The Tempest in the 21st century attempt with a view to revealing the colonizing attitudes of human psychology and embittered experiences of nations, ethnic groups and race. Shakespeare’s The Tempest during the late 20th century and early 21st century has been influenced by “post-colonialism” from the point of view of either Prospero or Caliban. Post-colonial criticism is dealt with Western colonialism of different nations, creed, and caste with the colonial relations of hegemony and submission, especially with regard to race and gender. Shakespeare has drawn upon the language of prayer and religion as a storehouse of emotion and symbol for which his audience and reader are readily responsive as a mode of intensified expression for the feelings and values. Shakespeare’s curses are the language of fury, hatred, helplessness, and despair wrought to its uttermost. The language of prayer is used in expressions of love, kindness, and gratitude, in outbursts of joy and wonder, and in countless eloquent pleadings for mercy, forgiveness, and compassion. The discourse of prayer, elegant and artful thought is an attempt to euphemize the 21st post-colonial domination of the island. Prospero’s ideas and thoughts extend the discourse of prayer into the life of audience. Caliban’s curses are regarded as an integral part to the dialectical structure and the discourse of prayer in the play for which they belong as cataplectic threats of Prospero. Ariel is being held to his side of a bargain at a time of desperate need; Ferdinand is being tested in self-control and in his respect for Miranda; Prospero’s enemies are subjected to corrective punishments designed to bring them through suffering to self-knowledge and a change of heart. Keywords: Ariel, Caliban, Ferdinand, Post-colonialism, Prospero, The Tempest

Deborah I K E O L U W A Jayeoba

This study seeks to explore and enunciate the characteristics of and pointers to the presence of colonialism which validates the events of colonialism in these three plays: William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Aime Casaire’s A Tempest and Esiaba Irobi’s Sycorax. William Shakespeare’s The Tempest exposes a Western view and political indifference to colonialism; neither invalidating nor justifying. Aime Casaire’s A Tempest and Esiaba Irobi’s Sycorax presents a writing back and questioning as it restructures the narrative of colonialism in its adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

Rituparna Paul

The objective is to present a critical study of discursive practices of ‘othering’. The post colonial critics have referred to Caliban as the ‘other’ and this makes ground for us to delve into the politics of unsaid, or things that have been omitted. Hence, the chief focus of a post-colonial investigation of The Tempest is through the character of Caliban, seen not as the ‘deformed slave’ of the dramatis personae but as a native of the island over whom Prospero has imposed a form of colonial domination.

Ramayana Lira

Taking on assumptions about oppression, identity and representation as they are developed in contemporary postcolonial theory, this study proposes the analysis of the 1993 theatrical production of William Shakespeare's The Tempest by The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). It aims to discuss the role of Caliban's monstrosity in the production and how it pertains to issues such as power relations and spectacle. The main benefit of doing an analysis of a performance of a Shakespearean text seems to be the possibility of seeing the play's meaning as contingent, as a result of a series of elements (actor's body, visual clues, the theatrical institution, spectatorship) that release it from the burden of being considered as the work of a single, universal, non- contradictory mind that contemporary criticism has pointed out as the 'Shakespeare Myth'. I conclude that the 1993 RSC production presents a Tempest that, in many ways, reinforces traditional positions about th...

International Review of Humanities Studies

amir mohammad

The paper focuses on how the colonizers who in this play are Prospero and Miranda in particular, endeavor to inflict their own socio-cultural precept including their language to make the colonized fully unprotected in The Tempest as a colonial play, but eventually fail to fulfill this attempt. In addition, the high importance of learning the language of the colonizer by the colonized gets illuminated which finally contributes to Caliban so as to undermine the roots of the colonizer in the colony. This article fully evaluates affected literary works by The Tempest, the importance of transferring the colonizer's language to the colony, and the main colonizer and his manners and attitudes towards the colonized; it also brings forth postcolonial concepts including Mimicry, Orientalism, the double consciousness of the colonized and his unhomeliness. Furthermore, it features the dirge situation of mimic men who come across a disappointing dead end from both colonizers and the colonized. After all, this article reflects on the ever-presence of ambivalence and mimicry in colonial discourse and also the vital importance of violence as an inseparable part of the decolonization.

Injamamul Hoque

RELATED PAPERS

Synergismus Scyentifica Utfpr

Renata C A M A C H O Bezerra

Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy

Karine Steenkeste

Journal of the Endocrine Society

Giulia Tartaro

José Ignacio García Pérez

Sociedad e Infancias

Brian Milne

The Journal of Physical Chemistry C

Tetsuro Morooka

GrosirCelanaJeans

yui rizkana

Forensic Science International: Reports

Edwin Walong

Respiratory Care

Javier Hernan Dorado

Journal of Transplantation

Chee-kiat Tan

Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology

Elizabeth Spellacy

yakubu turaki mohammed

Ii Encuentro Iberoamericano De Editores Cientificos 2010 Isbn 978 987 26312 0 8

Ramón Piezzi

Journal of Turkish Science Education

woro sumarni

JURNAL MANAJEMEN TRANSPORTASI DAN LOGISTIK

Aditya Wardana

PLoS Computational Biology

Soon Gang Choi

Revista Brasileira de Estudos Estratégicos

Luiz Pedone

Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society

Mostafa Gholizadeh

Journal of heat transfer

Precious Sibanda

Matrix Biology

Kentaro Hozumi

American Journal of Occupational Therapy

Gioia Ciani

Annals of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine

Karim Jamal

Journal of Insect Science

Rene LAFONT

Journal of Psychiatric Nursing

Nurcan Pirgan Çakır

medRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)

Jay Warrick

See More Documents Like This

RELATED TOPICS

•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024

The Tempest

William shakespeare, everything you need for every book you read..

From the opening scene of The Tempest during the storm, when the ruling courtiers on the ship must take orders from their subjects, the sailors and the boatswain, The Tempest examines a variety of questions about power: Who has it and when? Who's entitled to it? What does the responsible exercise of power look like? How should power be transferred? The play is full of examples of power taken by force, and in each case these actions lead to political instability and further attempts to gain power through violence. Antonio and Alonso's overthrow of Prospero leads to Antonio and Sebastian's plot to overthrow Alonso, just as Prospero's overthrow and enslavement of Caliban leads Caliban to seek revenge.

Ultimately, it is only when Prospero breaks the cycle of violence by refusing to take revenge on Alonso, Antonio, Sebastian, or Caliban that the political tensions in the play are calmed and reconciled. After Prospero's merciful refusal to seek revenge, Alonso and Prospero quickly come to an understanding and unite their once warring cities through the marriage of their children. The Tempest suggests that compromise and compassion are more effective political tools than violence, imprisonment, or even magic.

Power ThemeTracker

Power Quotes in The Tempest

The Tempest Essay Topics & Examples

Students’ life is a bumpy ride, and sometimes you can end up with several vital assignments all of which are due the next day. Custom-Writing.org experts have prepared a compilation of The Tempest essay topics.  

Our specialists will write a custom essay specially for you!

On this page, you’ll find best questions, prompts, title ideas on the Shakespeare’s play, together with The Tempest essay examples. Feel free to alter and adjust them to your liking and academic requirements!

• 🏆 Essay Topics
• 💡 Essay Prompts
• 📝 Essay Examples

🏆 The Tempest Essay Topics

• Revenge and forgiveness in The Tempest
• Colonialism and slavery in The Tempest
• The role of setting in The Tempest
• How is Caliban presented in The Tempest?
• Prospero: character analysis
• Frankenstein and The Tempest: compare and contrast essay
• The theme of magic in The Tempest
• Love and relationships in The Tempest
• Gender roles in Shakespeare’s plays
• King Alonso: character traits
• Non-human beings in The Tempest
• The symbolism of Prospero’s books

💡 The Tempest Essay Prompts

• The analysis of Shakespeare’s messages hidden behind the central themes . The first thing you need to find out is what the theme of The Tempest is. There may be more than one, so you should choose those that seem to be the most important. If you have doubts, go back and look through our guide again!
• Discussion of the historical context of The Tempest with the focus on colonization . It appears that the play was quite relevant at the time. No wonder, because Shakespeare took a chance and used the most discussed topic as the theme. Therefore, your main task would be to find out how the views about colonial imperialism are expressed in The Tempest .
• What is the role of comic scenes in the play’s plot ? The Tempest is considered to be a comedy since it involves plenty of funny moments. The most memorable ones are performed by the drunken trio. The main idea of this essay is to analyze how those scenes go along with the main plot.
• How vital are audio impressions and noises in the play? You should start by looking for the moments where various sounds and music are described. Since every element of imagery adds to the overall impression from the play, it is essential to find out what role they play.
• Colonization in The Tempest : how do characters want to rule the island? It might be a part of the central theme dedicated to colonization, but an additional analysis might be fun to do. After getting on the island, almost all the characters start dreaming about owning it. They all have a different vision of how they would rule it, though.
• Discuss the impressions from the very first scene of the play. Here is the place for you to analyze everything mentioned in Scene 1 that influenced your perception of the whole play. For example, see how the characters are presented and what their dialogues tell about them. How are the main themes introduced?
• Contrast and compare The Tempest to one of Shakespeare’s tragedies. Prospero has been planning his revenge for so many years. His desire could have easily turned out as a tragedy for every character if it wasn’t for romance. Therefore, you should look into the differences between this aspect in The Tempest and a tragedy.
• Draw a parallel between the attempted assassination of Alonso and plotting against Prospero. The two of the king’s staff, along with Caliban, are planning on taking the place of the island’s rulers by killing Prospero. Meanwhile, there is an attempt to murder Alonso. Your task is to compare these two occasions and see how social status might affect them.
• What roles does Prospero take on, and what is their significance? It seems like Prospero wants to have as much power as he can. He is a father, friend, magician, island’s ruler, and desires to return home to be a duke again. However, it is impossible to have everything. Analyze Prospero’s character and find out which role he is most likely to choose.
• Analyze and discuss the purpose of Caliban’s character in the play. At first, it seems like Caliban plays a critical role in The Tempest . However, at the end of the play, the audience can see that his part is insignificant. Therefore, your task for this essay would be to find out why Shakespeare involved Caliban after all.
• The complete literary analysis of Shakespeare’s The Tempest . It is one of the primary and most straightforward topics about the play. However, attention to detail is vital. Try to include the most critical elements in there, such as the central themes and ideas, symbols , literary devices. If you need help with it, just look through our guide!
• Does Caliban really need to be trained and educated? From Prospero’s point of view, Caliban is a savage who desperately needs help to become more civilized. In this essay, you can let your perspective create the structure. Do you think Prospero should have left Caliban in peace? What is the role of colonization in it?
• Appearances of feminism in Shakespeare’s The Tempest . Even though there is only one female character in the play, this issue still appears to be relevant. Miranda is always kind to Caliban until the moment he tries to sexually abuse her. Explain what her actions were and how her attitude has changed since then.
• Discuss the theme of religion and Christianity in the play. If you look closely, you can see some associations between Christianity and Prospero’s character. He is almost seen as God due to his powers and control over the events on the island. In the end, he refuses to use magic any longer and forgives his enemies. Can it be a biblical reference?
• The correlation between political corruption and greed of the characters. Antonio is the main character in the play, which shows intense greed for power. He is ready to pay any price to get more power, so his personal ethics degrades quickly. However, you should find out about the role of political corruption in Antonio’s actions and plans.
• What is Miranda’s perception of the island in The Tempest ? She was taken to the island when she was a child. How do you think Miranda perceives her new home as an adult? Does it seem like a prison to her, or does Prospero’s magic makes her believe the island is a utopia?

📝 The Tempest Essay Examples

• Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” and Sandars’ “The Epics of Gigamesh”
• Shakespeare’s The Tempest Directed by Gregory Doran
• Shakespeare’s The Tempest in the Savage Rose Theater
• The Epic of Gilgamesh and The Tempest: Being “Civilized” or “Uncivilized”
• Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” – Viewing and Reflection
• Ahab from Moby Dick and Prospero from the Tempest
• The Phaedrus and The Tempest: Compare & Contrast
• Prospero in The Tempest: Character Analysis
• The Tempest and the Contemporary Arts
• “The Tempest” Play by St. Louis Shakespeare Theater
• Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” by Savage Rose Theatre
• Shakespeare’s The Tempest: Gender Roles
• Utopia in “The Tempest” by Shakespeare
• Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Image Exploration

Thank you for reading this article! If you haven’t found the perfect title idea, try our topic-generating tool . Any questions left? Check The Tempest QA section !

• Share to Facebook
• Share to Twitter
• Share to LinkedIn
• Share to email

The Tempest is one of the most beloved plays written by Shakespeare. The story is about the duke of Milan who had to escape to an island. Prospero uses magic to revenge his brother for betrayal and takes control over the royal party for that. If it sounds intriguing, you...

The Tempest is a unique and beautiful play that focuses on love and forgiveness at the crossroad of betrayal and magic. The main actions happen on a small island somewhere near Italy. The ship crushes there after a storm. An old magician Prospero and his daughter, Miranda, who live there...

Looking for The Tempest characters? Find them all analyzed here! This article by Custom-Writing.org experts contains character descriptions and analysis of Prospero, Miranda, Alonso, and other characters, as well as The Tempest character map. 🗺️ The Tempest Character Map Below you’ll find The Tempest character map. It contains all the...

Shakespeare tends to focus on very specific issues in each of his masterpieces. In The Tempest, the themes of power and magic are the dominant ones. However, a little bit of attention is also drawn to the topic of colonization. Looking for The Tempest themes? Find them all described here!...

In case you are one of those who love getting into details or just a student who needs help with literature assignments, The Tempest analysis section prepared by Custom-Writing.org experts is what you need. Here, we discuss The Tempest genre and some details about the setting. There is also the...

Have you already looked through our complete guide and still have questions? It’s not always easy to grasp the deep meaning of one topic or another just after reading someone else’s opinion. Or do you have an upcoming assignment on Shakespeare’s The Tempest? This section is the best way to...

In The Tempest, Caliban is the local half-monster who was unfortunate enough to become a slave. Prospero was trying to civilize him by giving language lessons. However, the only thing Caliban actually wants is freedom and his rightful land. He even plots against his master, but the murder plan never...

Tempest means a violent and intense storm. It is somewhat significant that The Tempest by Shakespeare opens up with the storm that carries the boat to the island. However, the detailed analysis of the plot and the characters reveals that the title is mainly related to the turmoil of emotions...

In Shakespeare’s play, Miranda is described as an innocent and empathetic girl. She is a relatively passive character and the only female character in The Tempest. She may seem quite naïve and helpless to the audience, but a few scenes can prove them wrong. She transcends her traditional gender role...

When Caliban finds new friends, Stephano and Trinculo, he asks them to help him with the assassination of his master. They plot to take away Prospero’s books to disarm him and kill him when he is taking a nap. To motivate his fellows, he promises that they would get control...

In Shakespeare’s play, Caliban is ultimately seen as Prospero’s slave. Their relationship highlights one of the central themes of The Tempest concerning colonialism and imperialism. He is the only native inhabitant on the island and is not treated well by his master. Caliban wishes ill to Prospero and wants to...

Shakespeare’s play includes characters of different levels of power. However, since the latter is one of the key play’s literary themes, the division between them is pretty straightforward. The characters who use magic are way more potent than the ones that don’t. Moreover, Prospero is considered to be in control...

There are many lines in The Tempest that Shakespeare wrote in iambic pentameter, so it is hard to pick only one. As an example, the line where Miranda says, “O brave new world,” is perhaps the most famous one. Mostly, the noble characters speak in verse while the others use...

Prospero is the main character of Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest. He was betrayed by his brother and had to seek another home. A remote island appeared to be a nice place, so Prospero and his daughter settled there. Over the years, he has been planning revenge with the help of...

In the play, Prospero is presented as a magician who gets his fantastic powers from the books. There are a lot of things that he managed to achieve thanks to that power. However, by the end of The Tempest, Prospero swears to throw away all his books and put an...

In Shakespeare’s play, Ariel is portrayed as a magical spirit under Prospero’s control. Throughout the whole play, he has to complete different tasks the magician gives him. Every time Ariel hopes that it would be the last one, but he doesn’t get his freedom back until the end of The...

Caliban and Ariel live on the remote island which Prospero claimed and took under his control. Both characters of The Tempest have a similar fate since the magician forced them both to serve him. However, the significant difference between them is that Caliban is not treated as respectfully as Ariel....

There seem to be too many things that Prospero does, showing how manipulative he is. The character possessing such a power uses it to alter the events in the play and force others to obey. However, one of his actions shows it most clearly. Prospero uses magic to put his...

Alonso is the king of Naples in the play. Together with the members of the royal party, he gets into the storm and ends up on an unknown island. It appears to be a pretty tragic occurrence since his son, Ferdinand, goes missing. By the end of the play, Alonso...

Caliban is the only islander found by Prospero and Miranda in the play. Even though he shows quite a negative attitude towards other characters throughout the whole story, there is something positive in him. Caliban loves his homeland, and he is ready to share all the knowledge he has about...

It is believed that Shakespeare created his masterpiece in 1610 or 1611. However, it is hard to judge which data is correct. The evidence shows that the first performance of The Tempest was in November 1611. Moreover, it appears to be one of the last plays ever written by Shakespeare....

In the original play, Ariel is a spirit that was trapped on the island. When Prospero freed him, he made Ariel his servant in return. Therefore, throughout The Tempest, the spirit has to attend to the magician’s wishes. In the Balinese production, Ariel resembles an animal and flies around instead...

Gonzalo is a member of the royal party who appears to be on the boat with the others. He is the king’s counselor and the one who is worried about Alonso the most. Throughout the play, he tries to do everything to help the king and protect him from the...

Shakespeare included the themes of colonialism and imperialism in The Tempest for a reason. Moreover, they are most clearly represented through Prospero and Caliban’s relationship in the play. Prospero is pictured as a typical colonizer who doesn’t respect the locals and only wants to take over the land for personal...

It may not appear obvious, but there is an example of linguistic imperialism in Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Prospero and Caliban have a pretty complicated relationship which reflects a typical situation between the colonizer and the locals at the time. It results in the unpleasant occurrence of language barrier and misunderstanding,...

Usually, Shakespeare’s The Tempest is classified as a comedy. There are all the aspects pointing out at it, such as humorous situations and many misunderstandings that end up being clarified. A happy celebration of marriage at the end also aligns with it. However, some of the play’s scenes include tragic...

Among the different productions of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, there are some that can be clearly considered an interpretation. For example, the audience would know that the one in which Prospero shows sympathy to Caliban is far from the original. The magician doesn’t actually act as fair and kind towards his...

Shakespeare’s The Tempest is generally considered a comedy. The plot is based on a series of misunderstandings that turn out to be comic by the end of the play. Moreover, no one dies, even though some of the characters get lost or upset. However, there are some small elements of...

In both the Utah Valley University and Balinese productions, several characters from the play are pictured very similarly. The interpretations of Prospero, Caliban, and Ariel appear to be the same in both perceptions. The main character is shown as a powerful magician who made the islander and the spirit his...

Many important characters in The Tempest appear in the first scene of the play. Sebastian is one of them. It already seems like he and Antonio are up to something, but the audience remains clueless until the play ends. Sebastian is the king’s brother who attempts a murder later on....

Caliban is not presented as the most pleasant character of The Tempest. While Prospero rules over him, Miranda is simply afraid of the islander. Indeed, he is portrayed as an angry, uneducated, and untidy man. The girl feels threatened by him and tries to stay away from him as much...

Shakespeare’s The Tempest raises a few quite important and relevant literary themes. One of them is colonization. It was a popular topic back then, and its main issues are well represented in the play. However, power may be considered the central theme in The Tempest and goes throughout the whole...

Even though Shakespeare’s The Tempest is considered to be a comedy and maybe a romance, there are some elements of a tragedy. It is especially noticeable in the first two acts. Some of the events just don’t align with the standard genre categorization of this play. One of them is...

Shakespeare seems to have a very definite view on colonization which is reflected in The Tempest. All the issues that Prospero has with Caliban, the native to the island, prove the main idea of the play. Unfortunately, Caliban is treated like a handicapped monster by almost every character. There are...