The Tempest

This is Shakespeare's farewell to the stage: a magician who engineers a whole drama, then dismantles his own power. It asks whether forgiveness is stronger than revenge, and whether art itself—storms, spirits, masques—is just enchantment that must end. Read it if you love stories about control, colonial power, first love, or a father letting go. It rewards anyone who has ever wanted to punish someone and chosen not to.

1. 1

   Act 1

   The Storm

   The play opens on a ship at sea in a violent storm. The Boatswain barks at the panicking nobles cluttering his deck—'You mar our labour: keep your cabins: you do assist the storm'—and when the vessel splits, every soul aboard leaps into the sea. On the island, Prospero tells his daughter Miranda that he was once Duke of Milan: he was Duke of Milan until his brother Antonio, backed by Alonso of Naples, set him adrift with the infant Miranda in a small boat. Gonzalo supplied them with food, fresh water, and Prospero's books. Prospero explains that the tempest was staged by his servant spirit Ariel. Ariel raised the tempest, landed the passengers unharmed, and stowed the ship in a safe harbor with the crew asleep. Ariel asks for his liberty, reminding Prospero that the agreed term of service has expired. Prospero threatens to imprison Ariel again for twelve years if he complains further. Prospero reminds Ariel how he freed him from imprisonment in a cloven pine tree by the witch Sycorax, saying, 'Thou best know'st what torment I did find thee in; thy groans did make wolves howl.' Prospero summons Caliban, the son of the witch Sycorax and the island's only inhabitant when they arrived, calling him a 'poisonous slave' and 'thing of darkness.' Caliban showed them the island's qualities, and in return they taught him language, but he attempted to violate Miranda's honor and was enslaved. Caliban spits back: 'You taught me language; and my profit on't is, I know how to curse.' Ferdinand, Alonso's son, who believes his father drowned, follows Ariel's music and song ('Full fathom five thy father lies; of his bones are coral made; those are pearls that were his eyes') to Prospero's cell. He and Miranda fall in love at first sight. Prospero, wanting to test Ferdinand, accuses him of being a spy, saying, 'Thou dost here usurp the name thou ow'st not; and hast put thyself upon this island as a spy, to win it from me, the lord on't.' Ferdinand draws his sword, but Prospero charms him so he cannot use it, and imprisons him, telling Miranda privately that this is to keep their love from growing too fast.

2. 2

   Act 2

   Swords in the Dark

   On another part of the island, Alonso mourns his son Ferdinand, whom he believes drowned. Gonzalo tries to comfort him, while Antonio and Sebastian mock Gonzalo's long-winded advice. Ariel's invisible music puts all the courtiers to sleep except Antonio and Sebastian. Antonio persuades Sebastian to murder the sleeping Alonso and Gonzalo so Sebastian can become King of Naples, just as Antonio usurped Prospero: 'My strong imagination sees a crown dropping upon thy head.' Sebastian wavers, agrees, and both draw their swords over the sleeping men. Ariel wakes Gonzalo just in time, who cries, 'Now, good angels preserve the King!' Alonso wakes and asks why they have their swords drawn; Sebastian claims they heard a noise like bulls or lions. The search for Ferdinand resumes, with two would-be killers inside it. Caliban, gathering wood, encounters Trinculo, Alonso's jester, who has come ashore and hides under Caliban's gaberdine during a storm. Stephano, the king's drunken butler, enters singing, 'I shall no more to sea, to sea, here shall I die ashore.' Stephano discovers Trinculo and Caliban huddled together, thinking they are a four-legged monster. He gives Caliban wine. Drunk for the first time in his life, Caliban kneels and swears allegiance: 'I'll swear upon that bottle to be thy true subject; for the liquor is not earthly.' He promises to show them the island's riches.

3. 3

   Act 3

   Logs, Plots, and a Vanishing Feast

   Ferdinand, forced by Prospero to carry logs, works willingly because Miranda is watching: 'The very instant that I saw you, did my heart fly to your service.' Miranda, disobeying her father's orders, comes to him and offers to carry the logs herself, saying, 'If you'll sit down, I'll bear your logs the while: pray, give me that; I'll carry it to the pile.' Ferdinand refuses. She declares her love: 'I am your wife, if you will marry me.' Ferdinand joyfully accepts, and Prospero, watching unseen, is glad. Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo plot to murder Prospero. Caliban instructs them to seize Prospero's books first and to stab him while he sleeps. He describes Miranda's beauty and promises she will become Stephano's queen. Ariel, invisible, plays music and leads them astray. Ariel leads the weary shipwrecked nobles to Prospero's cell, where spirits set out a banquet. Before they can eat, Ariel appears as a harpy, claps his wings, and makes the banquet vanish. He declares them 'three men of sin' for usurping Prospero: 'You are three men of sin, whom Destiny, that hath to instrument this lower world, hath caused to belch up you.' He reminds Alonso, Antonio, and Sebastian of their crimes and says 'lingering perdition' awaits them unless they repent. Alonso, stricken with guilt, runs off believing Ferdinand's death is retribution. Gonzalo notes their mounting despair, saying, 'All three of them are desperate: their great guilt, like poison given to work a great time after, now 'gins to bite the spirits.'

4. 4

   Act 4

   Revels Ended, Charms Overthrown

   Prospero gives Ferdinand permission to marry Miranda but warns him not to break her 'virgin-knot' before the wedding ceremony, saying, 'If thou dost break her virgin-knot before all sanctimonious ceremonies may with full and holy rite be minister'd, no sweet aspersion shall the heavens let fall to make this contract grow.' Ferdinand vows to honor the command. Prospero summons spirits to perform a masque celebrating the betrothal, featuring the goddesses Iris, Ceres, and Juno, who bless the couple with fertility and prosperity. Ceres sings, 'Earth's increase, foison plenty, barns and garners never empty.' The dance of nymphs and reapers follows. Prospero suddenly remembers Caliban's plot and ends the revels abruptly. Prospero speaks his famous lines on the transience of life and art: '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.' Ariel reports that he led Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo through briars and ponds to a filthy pool. Prospero and Ariel set out glittering garments as bait. The three conspirators enter, wet and complaining. Trinculo and Stephano are distracted by the clothes, ignoring Caliban's pleas to focus on the murder. Prospero sends spirits in the shape of hounds to chase them away. Ariel reports that Alonso and his followers are imprisoned in a grove, where they are 'spell-stopped' and 'brimful of sorrow.' Ariel says that if Prospero saw them, his 'affections would become tender.' Prospero replies, 'Hast thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling of their afflictions, and shall not myself, one of their kind, be kindlier moved than thou art?' He decides to forgive them, saying, 'The rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance.' He draws a circle on the ground and abjures his magic, saying, 'I have bedimm'd the noontide sun, call'd forth the mutinous winds, and 'twixt the green sea and the azured vault set roaring war... But this rough magic I here abjure.' He vows to break his staff, bury it certain fathoms in the earth, and drown his book deeper than did ever plummet sound. He sends Ariel to fetch the nobles, then changes into his ducal robes. Prospero draws the nobles into a magic circle and reveals himself to the stunned courtiers as the rightful Duke of Milan. He forgives Alonso, embraces Gonzalo as his 'noble friend,' and confronts Antonio and Sebastian, saying to Antonio, 'I do forgive thy rankest fault; all of them.' Alonso restores Prospero's dukedom. Prospero reveals Ferdinand and Miranda playing chess in his cell. Alonso is overjoyed to find his son alive, saying, 'If this prove a vision of the Island, one dear son shall I twice lose.' Miranda, seeing the assembled nobles, exclaims, 'O wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, that has such people in't!' The Boatswain enters and reports that the ship is 'tight and yare and bravely rigg'd' as when they first put to sea; Ariel has freed the crew. Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo are brought in, still drunk and wearing the stolen garments. Caliban says, 'I'll be wise hereafter and seek for grace. What a thrice-double ass was I, to take this drunkard for a god.' Prospero speaks directly to the audience in an epilogue, asking for their applause to set him free. He says, '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... As you from crimes would pardoned be, let your indulgence set me free.'

• PProsperoThe usurped Duke of Milan and a magician who engineers the whole storm-island drama with his books and his spirit Ariel. He wants revenge on his brother, a future for his daughter, and finally chooses forgiveness—then breaks his staff and drowns his book.
• MMirandaProspero's innocent daughter, raised on the island having seen no man but her father and Caliban. She falls for Ferdinand at first sight, proposes marriage herself, and greets the assembled court as a 'brave new world.'
• AArielAn airy spirit, freed from Sycorax's pine by Prospero, serving out a term he insists has expired. He stages the tempest, torments the guilty with music and a harpy's shape, and longs for liberty.
• CCalibanSycorax's son and the island's only native, enslaved by Prospero after he tried to violate Miranda. He curses the language he was taught, trades one master for a bottle, plots murder, and ends sobered, promising to seek grace.
• FFerdinandPrince of Naples, son of Alonso, who believes his father drowned in the wreck. He falls for Miranda, proves his love by hauling logs without complaint, and earns Prospero's blessing.
• AAlonsoKing of Naples, who helped Antonio usurp Prospero and spends the play mourning Ferdinand as dead. Struck by Ariel's harpy speech, he repents his crimes and restores Prospero's dukedom.
• AAntonioProspero's brother, the usurping Duke of Milan, who never repents. He promptly tries to talk Sebastian into a second usurpation and receives forgiveness he has not asked for.
• SSebastianAlonso's brother, persuaded by Antonio to murder the sleeping king for a crown. Ariel's timely waking of Gonzalo saves him from the act—and from becoming a king by regicide.
• GGonzaloThe honest old councillor whose supplies and books let Prospero and Miranda survive the open boat. He comforts Alonso, is nearly murdered in his sleep, and is embraced by Prospero as his 'noble friend.'
• SStephanoAlonso's drunken butler, washed ashore with a cask of wine. He becomes Caliban's worshipped 'god,' dreams of ruling the island with Miranda as queen, and is chased off by spirit-hounds.
• TTrinculoAlonso's jester, who hides from weather under Caliban's cloak and joins the drunken conspiracy. He is more interested in the stolen fine clothes than in any murder.
• TThe BoatswainThe blunt seaman who orders nobles below deck during the storm and, at the end, reports the ship found 'tight and yare and bravely rigg'd' with the crew freed.

The tempest

The storm is Prospero's own turmoil made weather: a manufactured catastrophe that strands his enemies where he can judge them. It costs nothing—everyone survives—and it gives way to the calm of reconciliation, mirroring the play's arc from rage to mercy.

Prospero's books

The source of his magic and the first target of any plot against him. They saved his life in the open boat and gave him dominion over the island; drowning them 'deeper than did ever plummet sound' is his renunciation, the price of returning to Milan as a man rather than a sorcerer.

Staff and robe

The physical instruments of Prospero's art, handled in the final act as he draws his last circle and abjures 'this rough magic.' Discarding them marks the moment the magician becomes merely a duke—and a father.

The island

An isolated stage where every character is stranded, tested, and transformed: nobles driven to repentance, lovers proven through labor, fools drowned in a filthy pool. Whoever controls the island controls the story—until Prospero walks away from it.

The ending works on two levels at once. In the story, Prospero's mercy restores a broken political order: dukedom returned, lovers betrothed, ship found intact, conspirators forgiven or chastened. But the epilogue breaks the frame—Prospero, his 'charms all o'erthrown,' tells the audience he is confined on the island by them, and asks their applause to release him, as they hope to be pardoned for their own crimes. Read one way, this is Shakespeare retiring from the stage, the magician's staff and the playwright's pen laid down together. Read another, it is unsettling: forgiveness is granted, but Antonio never repents, Caliban gets no island back, and the 'brave new world' Miranda praises is the same old court restored. The play lands because it refuses to make mercy tidy—virtue is 'rarer' precisely because it is not owed, and the final freedom belongs as much to the audience as to the magician.

1. 1.Is Prospero a just ruler or a colonial occupier? Weigh his enslavement of Caliban—who showed the newcomers the island and learned their language only to curse with it—against his claim that Caliban's crime justified bondage.
2. 2.Why does Prospero choose forgiveness over vengeance, and what does Ariel's tenderness as 'a spirit of air' reveal about what it costs to be human? Consider whether Antonio's unrepentant pardon strengthens or undermines the play's moral.
3. 3.The masque, the harpy, the storm: Prospero stages spectacle after spectacle, then says the actors 'were all spirits' and melts into air. How far does The Tempest read as Shakespeare's argument about theatre itself—and his own farewell to it?

Anyone who wants Shakespeare at his most theatrical and most personal—a play about staging storms, pardons, and a career's final bow. Ideal for readers drawn to questions of power, forgiveness, and who gets to name a 'brave new world'.

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