Shakespeare's "The Tempest" Plot Summary, Themes & Characters
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Drama and poetry pre-1900
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The Tempest Plot summary:
Key events Key quotes
1.1 Group of noblemen (Alonso, Ferdinand, Sebastian, Gonzalo, B - ‘Keep to your cabins! You do assist the storm.’
Antonio, Adrian, Francisco) are aboard a ship, returning to Italy
B - ‘What cares these roarers for the name of king?’
after the wedding of Alonso’s daughter in Tunisia, and are caught
in a violent storm When G tells the B to ‘remember whom thou hast aboard.’, the
response is ‘None that I love more than myself.’
As the storm rages, the Master of the ship, his Boatswain and other
Antonio - ‘We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards’
sailors are trying to control the ship, whilst the noblemen get in
their way. G - ‘The wills above be done, but I would fain die a dry death.’
It seems the ship is about to sink and the sailors yell ‘We split, we
split!’
Scene ends with Gonazlo addressing the audience, expressing his
desire for even a small amount of barren land, instead of the sea
1.2 Miranda is upset, having watched the storm engulf the ship just M - ‘O, I have suffered with those that I saw suffer … Poor souls, the
offshore. She asks Prospero to calm the storm if he can, and he perish'd. Had I been any god of power, I would have sunk the sea
within the earth’
reassures her that ‘There’s no harm done’
P - ‘I have done nothing but in care of thee, of thee, my dear one, thee
Prospero tells Miranda the story of how they ended up on the my daughter, who art ignorant of what thou art’
island. Explains that he was the Duke of Milan until his brother
M - ‘More to know did never meddle with my thoughts’
Antonio betrayed him. Antonio, with the help of the King of
Naples, had Prospero and Miranda captured at night and put into P - ‘Obey and be attentive.’
an old boat. Gonzalo (‘Master of this design’) generously gave ‘Thy father was the Duke of Milan and a prince of power’
them some provisions, and then they were cast adrift. Eventually, ‘he needs will be absolute Milan. Me, poor man, my library was
‘By providence divine’, they washed up on the shores of the dukedom large enough’
‘extirpate me and mine’
island. ‘O, a cherubim thou wast that did preserve me.’
Prospero then uses his magic to put Miranda to sleep and calls to ‘By accident most strange, bountiful Fortune … hath mine enemies
Ariel. Ariel describes how he created the storm and that the ship is brought to this shore’
now ‘Safely in harbour’ and everyone on board is safe. Prospero is A - ‘Jove’s lightning’
pleased but tells Ariel ‘there’s more work’. Ariel objects, ‘Not a hair perished; on their sustaining garments not a blemish, but
reminding Prospero ‘what thou hast promised’, and Prospero fresher than before’
threatens him with the same fate that befell him when he refused to
fulfil the ‘earthy and abhorred commands’ of Sycorax (trapped P asks what A demands, and A replies: ‘My liberty.’
inside a tree for 12 years). However, Prospero also promises the P - ‘malignant thing’
spirit his freedom ‘after two days’ if he obeys. Prospero tells Ariel ‘the foul witch Sycorax’
to go and make himself invisible to everyone except ‘thine and
mine’. ‘A freckled whelp, hag-born … not honoured with a human shape’
‘Go make thyself a nymph o’ th’ sea’
Ariel leaves. Prospero wakes Miranda and takes her to see
Caliban, ‘my slave’. She is reluctant, but Prospero insists. Caliban ‘Fine apparition, my quaint Ariel’ vs ‘Thou poisonous slave, got by
curses at them and complains that although he helped them find the devil himself’
food and water when they first arrived on the island, now they
C - ‘This island’s mine by Sycorax, my mother, which thou tak’st
keep him trapped ‘in this hard rock’, away from the rest of the from me’
island. Prospero calls him a 'lying slave’ and says they cannot trust ‘I am all the subjects that you have, which first was mine own king’
, him because he tried to rape Miranda. He sends Caliban away,
commanding him to fetch wood, and Caliban leaves, grumbling ‘I P - ‘violate the honour of my child’
must obey. His art is of such power’. M - ‘ when thou didst not, savage, know thine own meaning, but
wouldst gabble like a thing most brutish, I endow'd thy purposes with
Ariel sings a song, assisted by the spirits, which magically leads words that made them known. But thy vile race, though thou didst
Ferdinand to Miranda. Ariel’s song also speaks of Ferdinand’s learn, had that in't which good natures could not abide to be with’
father, saying he lies deep in the sea. Miranda and Ferdinand fall A in his his song - ‘Foot it featly here and there, ans sweet sprits bear
in love at first sight. Prospero pretends to be angry, telling the the burden.’
audience he is doing so because the more difficult it is to win a
prize, the more value it has (‘les too light winning make the prize F - ‘I have followed it [the music] (or it hath drawn me, rather)’
light’). He uses his magic to imprison Ferdinand and Ferdinand
Part of A’s song:
submits to Prospero’s powers, in the hope that it will lead him ‘Full fathom five thy father lies;
closer to Miranda (if only simply seeing her ‘once a day’) Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.’
M on first seeing F - ‘What is’t, a spirit? … ‘tis a spirit.’
‘I might call him a thing divine, for nothing natural I ever saw so
noble.’
F - ‘my prime request, which I do last pronounce, is, O you wonder! I
you be maid or no?’
M - ‘nothing ill can dwell in such a temple’
P to M when she tries to stand up for F - ‘What, I say, my foot my
tutor?’
P - ‘Foolish wench, to th’ most of men, this is a Caliban, and they to
him are angels’
2.1 Alonso, Antonio, Sebastian, Gonzalo, Adrian and Francisco find G - ‘But for the miracle, I mean our preservation, few in millions can
themselves washed up on the island together after the shipwreck. speak like us.’
Alonso replies to Gonzalo’s entreaty of optimism with ‘Prithee,
Alonso is worried about what has happened to his son Ferdinand. peace.’ and Sebastian remarks ‘He receives comfort like cold
He laments the fact that his marrying his daughter, Claribel, ‘so far porridge.’
from Italy’ (to the King of Tunis, capital and largest city of
An - ‘Which, of he or Adrian, for a good wager, first begins to crow?’
Tunisia, on the northern African coast), as it has led them to their
present circumstances. The others try to cheer him up. Antonio and Al - ‘You cram these words into mine ears, against the stomach of my
Sebastian sarcastically mock Gonzalo and Adrian’s optimistic sense. Would I had never married my daughter there’
attempts. Sebastian tells Alonso ‘The fault’s your own’.
S - ‘Sir, you may thank yourself for this great loss, that would not
bless our Europe with your daughter but rather loose her too an
Gonzalo establishes his vision of the utopian society he would African … The fault’s your own.’
create, if he was ‘king’ of the island, while Antonio and Sebastian
mock him with remarks such as ‘Long live Gonzalo!’ G - ‘I’th’ commonwealth I would by contraries execute all things …
riches, poverty and use of service, none; … No occupation, all men
idle, all; and women, too, but innocent and pure; no sovereignty’
Ariel enters, invisible to the noblemen, and sends them all to sleep
except for Antonio and Sebastian. Antonio says he did not fall Antonio points out the hypocrisy in Gonzalo previously imagining if
asleep with the others because his ‘spirits are nimble.’ he ‘were the king’ on the island by sarcastically noting ‘The latter end
of his commonwealth forgets the beginning.’
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