leynes's Reviews > The Tempest

REREAD (2025):
Willie Shakes truly was that guy:

“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”

“We are such stuff as dreams are made on...”

“What's past is prologue.”

“How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in't!”

I mean, ya'll just can't compete with my man.

The Tempest truly is Shakespeare's most fascinating (and relevant) play as it speaks so much to the mechanisms of colonialism and enslavement. This time around I was particularly struck by Prospero's relationship to Ariel. Ariel pleads for their freedom from Prospero's service in return for executing Prospero's commands. Prospero declines, reminding Ariel of the state they were in before Prospero rescued them. The magician denies Ariel's request for freedom at this time, but promises that on the condition they follow the rest of his commands, Prospero will grant Ariel's wish in two days — which he eventually does at the end of the play. The power imbalance between these two characters is just so striking. Despite Ariel's abilities (they are the ones being able to execute the magic – putting people to sleep etc.), it is Prospero who is fully in charge and in power. The hierarchy is clear. Ariel literally is Prospero's eyes and ears throughout the entire play. It is their magical abilities which caused the tempest. Yet they are still the one being oppressed by Prospero, who is a literal colonizer and enslaver. The power dynamics are fascinating bc as a modern reader you simply want to shout at Ariel: "Just bewitch Prospero, love. Put that rusty man to sleep and ride off into any freedom you want to." The only reason Ariel serves Prospero is because Prospero freed him from imprisonment by the witch Sycorax. So their enslavement is a psychological one. Ariel "agreed" to serve Prospero (in exchange for his help), and therefore feels inclined to stay faithful to their agreement. It's easy to interpret his behavior as gratitude, but to me, it read more like a deal in exchange for freedom. It's kinda like a business arrangement. And Ariel probably fears that Prospero has the ability to imprison him again – but then again, why is Ariel underestimating their own power?

Anyways, I could go on like this forever, but I haven't properly studied the play, so I'm just rambling. But if you have any interesting sources for me to read on The Tempest in a postcolonial context, please let me know. I'd love to learn more! As almost always when reading the Bard, this was an eye-opening read and an afternoon well-spent! This would also be the perfect play for a book club!!!

REVIEW (2017):
The Tempest is, supposedly, the last play which William Shakespeare wrote alone. It must have been written in 1610–11. It is set on an unspecified island, where Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan, is plotting to get revenge on his brother Antonio and Antonio's aid Alonso, the King of Naples. Prospero schemes to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place by using magical illusions and skilful manipulation.

Critics say The Tempest differs from Shakespeare's other plays in its observation of a stricter, more organised neoclassical style (here, unlike in most of his other plays, Shakespeare respects the Unity of Time, Place and Action). The Tempest is pretty preoccupied with its own nature as a play, frequently drawing allusions between Prospero's "magic" and theatrical illusion. Following this interpretation, Prospero could be seen as a representation of Shakespeare himself, and his renunciation of magic as signalling Shakespeare's farewell to the stage.

The play portrays Prospero as a rational magician by providing a contrast to him in Sycorax: her magic is frequently described as destructive and terrible, where Prospero's is said to be wondrous and beautiful – just like Shakespeare's language and narrative.

Beginning in about 1950, The Tempest was viewed more and more through the lense of post-colonial theory. This view explored the effect of the colonizer of the island (Prospero) on the colonized (Ariel and Caliban). Ariel, unlike the more rebellious Caliban, feels that negotiation and partnership is the way to freedom from the colonizers.

In Shakespeare's day, much of the world was still being colonized by European settlers, and stories were coming back from America with myths about Cannibals and distant tropical Utopias. With the character Caliban (whose name is almost an anagram of Cannibal), Shakespeare may be offering an in-depth discussion into the morality of colonialism. Different views are found in the play – Gonzalo's utopia, Prospero's enslavement of Caliban and Ariel, and Caliban's resentment.

Plot summary
12 years prior to the beginning of the play, Prospero was overthrown by his brother Antonio, and could flee with his daughter and the help of the counsellor Gonzalo; they eventually stranded on an island which had been ruled by the evil witch Sycorax. After the death of the witch, her servants – the spirits – remained bound to the island and in servitude to its master – Prospero takes on this role after learning how to conjure magic. The spirit Ariel serves him loyally (with the prospect of getting released eventually), and the only non-spirit on the island, the witch's son Caliban, gets adopted and raised by Prospero. Prospero and Miranda teach him their own language and religion which Caliban perceives more as intrusion than charity.

At the beginning of the actual play Prospero raises a tempest to lure the nearby ship on which his brother and the King of Naples took passage to his shores. Also on the ship are Alonso's brother (Sebastian), son (Ferdinand) and counsellor (Gonzalo). In the confusion of the tempest Alonso and his son are seperated and each believes the other to be dead.

Three plots then alternate through the play. 1.) Caliban falls in with Stephano and Trinculo (two drunkards), believing Stephano to be a god. Due to Caliban's resentment of Prospero he agrees to raise a coup against Prospero, which ultimately fails. 2.) Prospero encourages a romantic relationship between his daughter and Ferdinand, which works out splendidly because #instalove. 3.) Antonio and Sebastian conspire to kill Alonso and Gonzalo so that Sebastian can become King. At Prospero's command, Ariel thwarts them.

In conclusion, all the main characters are brought together before Prospero, who forgives Alonso, Antonio and Sebastian. After preparing the proper sailing weather to guide the King's ship back to Naples, Ariel is being freed from his servitude. Prospero pardons Caliban. Before everyone leaves, Prospero entertains them with the story of his life on the island. He has resolved to break and bury his magic staff, and in his epilogue, shorn of magic powers, invites the audience (the one within and outside of the play) to set him free from the island with their applause.

Personal thoughts
My favorite scene in this entire play was the masque – at Ferdinand and Miranda's wedding Prospero asked his spirits to entertain the young couple by resuming the form of the goddesses Iris, Ceres and Juno – so it's basically like a play within a play. It was beautiful, Ceres (Demeter) was basically just ranting about Venus (Aphrodite) and Cupid (Eros) and that it was their fault that her daughter Prosperina (Persephone) got „raped“ (taken) by Dis (Hades), and that Juno (Hera) with her hate for Venus jumps in on that and talks about the sacredness of marriage and blesses Miranda and Ferdinand. "The Raping of Persephone" is one of my favorite myths and therefore I was really happy to see it mentioned here.

Overall, I was a big fan of the relationship between Ferdinand and Miranda because it seems to be one of the most healthy that the Bard has written (at least from my experience with him so far). I don't have a problem with #instalove in a Shakespeare play, due to the fact that Shakespeare follows the Aristotelian unity of time (the action of a play should occur over a period of no more than 24 hours) it is inherent in the play that everything is rushed. The big plus point of their relationship was the honesty that both of them showed and how realistic Miranda was:

MIRANDA: Sweet lord, you play me false.
FERDINAND: No, my dearest love, I would not for the world.
MIRANDA: Yes, for a score of kingdoms you should wrangle, And I would call it fair play.

In this scene Miranda acknowledges that Ferdinand would probably betray her or leave her if he couldn't arrange their marriage with him becoming King of Naples, and that she wouldn't fault him for that. And I appreciate that level of realness.

In conclusion I have to say that The Tempest took me completely by surprise. I wasn't expecting it to be such an easy and understandable read but I had no problems whatsoever to follow what was going on and what the true intentions of the characters were. I was also somewhat proud of myself for getting some of Shakespeare's puns, I was also a huge fan of his graphic language:

GONZALO: I'll warrant him for drowning, though the ship were no stronger than a nutshell and as leaky as an unstanched wench.

And the fact that Miranda and Prospero had such a relatable father-daughter-relationship. I mean take this beautiful scene which takes place after Prospero recounts to her in full length his flight from Milan:

PROSPERO: Dost thou hear?
MIRANDA: Your tale, sir, would cure deafness.

I mean c'mon, if that doesn't seem perfect to you, I don't know!

The epilogue was utter perfection and I was living for its ambiguity. Prospero is given the task of dissolving another imaginative construct, one far larger and more complex than the masque of Iris and Ceres.

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.

As Epilogue, it is his duty to admit that the play world now lies in ruins, and to appeal for grace the superior reality of that theatre audience which, for a little while, has submitted itself to the illusion of The Tempest. This is not, however, what Prospero does as Epilogue. Prospero does not cease to be Prospero in the moment that he turns to address the theatre audience, does not step out of the illusion of the play. Instead he decides to blur the lines of illusion and reality – sure, he asks for applause, but not with the voice of an actor merely but as Prospero himself, still in character, but suddenly and mysteriously aware of the theatre audience and of the conditions of performing. Prospero begs release not from the stage, but from the island. The effect is to suggest that the play goes on beyond the formal limits of its fifth Act, that it runs into and shares the reality of its audience.