The Tempest is a play about a magician who raises a storm to bring his enemies to his island, holds them all in his power, and then chooses to forgive them, give up his magic, and set everyone free, including himself.
Written around 1610 or 1611, it is thought to be the last play Shakespeare wrote on his own, and many readers hear his own farewell to the stage in Prospero’s final speeches.
This guide covers the plot act by act, the main characters, the themes, and the most famous lines, and ends with a reading of the play’s last word. For the other plays, see our guide to all of Shakespeare’s plays.
At a Glance
Here are the key facts about The Tempest for quick reference.
The Tempest in Brief
The whole story in a few sentences, before the act-by-act detail.
Twelve years ago, Prospero, the Duke of Milan, was overthrown by his brother, Antonio, with the help of Alonso, the King of Naples, and set adrift at sea with his young daughter, Miranda. They landed on an island, where Prospero, a scholar of magic, freed the spirit Ariel and made the island’s only native, Caliban, his servant. Now his enemies are sailing past, and Prospero raises a storm that wrecks their ship and scatters them, unharmed, across the island.
From then on, Prospero controls everything. Miranda falls in love with Alonso’s son, Ferdinand. Antonio plots to kill Alonso, and Caliban plots with two drunken servants to kill Prospero, but Ariel foils both plots. With his enemies finally in his power, Prospero forgives them, reclaims his dukedom, gives up his magic, and frees Ariel. In the epilogue, he asks the audience to set him free.
The Tempest Plot Summary, Act by Act
What happens in each of the play’s five acts.
Act 1: The Storm
A ship carrying Alonso, King of Naples, his son Ferdinand, his brother Sebastian, Antonio, and the old counselor Gonzalo is caught in a violent storm and seems to break apart. On the island, Miranda begs her father to calm the sea. Prospero assures her no one has been hurt and finally tells her their story: “Twelve year since, Miranda, twelve year since, / Thy father was the Duke of Milan.” His brother Antonio, helped by Alonso, took his dukedom and put them to sea. Kind Gonzalo secretly gave them food and Prospero’s beloved books.
Prospero’s spirit servant, Ariel, reports that the passengers are scattered safely across the island. Ariel asks for the freedom Prospero promised him, and Prospero angrily reminds him that he once freed him from the cloven pine where the witch Sycorax had trapped him. Then Prospero summons Caliban, Sycorax’s son, who curses him: “This island’s mine, by Sycorax my mother, / Which thou takest from me.” Meanwhile, Ariel’s music leads Ferdinand to Miranda, and the two fall in love at first sight. Prospero, pleased but testing him, pretends to treat Ferdinand as a traitor.
Act 2: The Plots
Elsewhere on the island, Alonso mourns Ferdinand, whom he believes drowned. Gonzalo tries to cheer everyone up by praising the island, while Antonio and Sebastian mock him. Ariel puts everyone to sleep except Antonio and Sebastian, and Antonio persuades Sebastian to kill his brother and become King of Naples. Just as they draw their swords, Ariel wakes Gonzalo, and the plot fails.
Caliban, carrying wood, meets Alonso’s jester, Trinculo, and his drunken butler, Stephano. Stephano gives Caliban wine, and Caliban decides he has found a new god and master, and a way out of Prospero’s service: “Freedom, high-day! high-day, freedom!”
Act 3: Love and Punishment
Ferdinand carries logs for Prospero as a test. Miranda visits him, and they declare their love. “I am your wife, if you will marry me,” she tells him. Prospero, watching unseen, is delighted.
Caliban persuades Stephano to kill Prospero while he sleeps and take the island and Miranda for himself. When Ariel’s music frightens the drunken pair, Caliban comforts them: “Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises, / Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.” Elsewhere, spirits set a banquet before Alonso and his lords, but Ariel appears as a harpy, makes the feast vanish, and accuses Alonso, Antonio, and Sebastian of their crime against Prospero. Alonso is overcome with guilt.
Act 4: The Masque
Prospero blesses the engagement of Ferdinand and Miranda and presents a masque in their honor, in which spirits play the goddesses Iris, Ceres, and Juno. Suddenly he remembers Caliban’s plot and stops the performance, then reflects on how everything passes: “Our revels now are ended,” and “We are such stuff / As dreams are made on, and our little life / Is rounded with a sleep.”
Ariel hangs fine clothes outside Prospero’s cell. Stephano and Trinculo, arriving to kill Prospero, are distracted by the costumes, and spirits in the shape of hunting dogs chase them away.
Act 5: Forgiveness
Ariel tells Prospero that his captive enemies are pitiful to see. If a spirit “which art but air” can feel for them, Prospero decides, so can he: “The rarer action is / In virtue than in vengeance.” He resolves to give up his magic: “I’ll break my staff, / Bury it certain fathoms in the earth, / And deeper than did ever plummet sound / I’ll drown my book.”
He reveals himself to his enemies, forgives Alonso and Antonio, and reclaims his dukedom. He shows Alonso his son, alive and playing chess with Miranda. Miranda, seeing so many people for the first time, cries, “O brave new world, / That has such people in’t!” Caliban and the drunken servants are brought in, and Prospero accepts responsibility for Caliban: “this thing of darkness I / Acknowledge mine.” He promises Ariel his freedom once the ship is safely home. Then, alone on stage, he speaks the epilogue, asking the audience to release him with their applause.
Characters
The main figures in the play, and what drives each of them.
Prospero
The overthrown Duke of Milan, a scholar and magician who rules the island through his art. He is loving toward Miranda but harsh with his servants, and he spends most of the play planning his revenge, only to choose mercy at the end.
Miranda
Prospero’s daughter, raised on the island since she was not yet three. She is compassionate, frank, and innocent of the world, and she proposes to Ferdinand herself.
Ariel
An airy spirit whom Prospero freed from a cloven pine and who now serves him in exchange for a promise of freedom. Ariel raises the storm, plays the music, and carries out every plan, and at the end is set free.
Caliban
The son of the witch Sycorax and the island’s only native, whom Prospero has made his servant. Crude, resentful, and capable of startling poetry, he claims the island as his own. Many modern readers see him as a victim of colonization.
Ferdinand
Alonso’s son and heir, who falls in love with Miranda at first sight and gladly carries logs to win her.
Alonso and Antonio
The King of Naples and Prospero’s brother, who together overthrew Prospero. Alonso is tormented by guilt and grief for his son; Antonio shows no remorse and even plots a second usurpation, against Alonso.
Gonzalo
An honest old counselor who helped Prospero and Miranda survive their exile. Optimistic and kind, he is mocked by Antonio and Sebastian, and he is the one Prospero greets most warmly.
Stephano and Trinculo
Alonso’s drunken butler and jester, who join Caliban’s plot against Prospero and are chased away by spirit hounds. They are a comic version of the play’s serious plots to seize power.
Themes
The ideas that run through The Tempest and give it its lasting power.
Power and Control
Everyone in the play wants to rule something. Antonio took Milan; Sebastian wants Naples; Caliban and Stephano want the island. Prospero, who has more power than any of them, controls the whole plot with his magic. The play asks what he will do with that power, and he answers by giving it up.
Forgiveness
The Tempest sets up a revenge story and then refuses to finish it. Prospero has his enemies helpless, and chooses mercy: “The rarer action is / In virtue than in vengeance.”
Freedom and Servitude
Ariel longs to be free and reminds Prospero of his promise. Caliban calls himself a king made into a slave, and trades one master for another. Ferdinand happily accepts service for Miranda’s sake. Nearly every character is bound to someone.
Colonization
Prospero arrives on an inhabited island, takes it over, and teaches its native his language. “You taught me language; and my profit on’t / Is, I know how to curse,” Caliban answers. Written as England was founding colonies in the Americas, the play has become central to discussions of colonialism.
Key Quotations
The most famous lines in The Tempest, who speaks them, and what they mean.
“Full Fathom Five Thy Father Lies”
Ariel’s song to Ferdinand, Act 1, scene 2: “Full fathom five thy father lies; / Of his bones are coral made; / Those are pearls that were his eyes.” It tells Ferdinand his father has drowned and been transformed by the sea into “something rich and strange.” In fact, Alonso is alive.
“This Island’s Mine, by Sycorax My Mother”
Caliban, Act 1, scene 2, to Prospero. He inherited the island from his mother, and Prospero took it from him. When Prospero first came, Caliban loved him and showed him all its secrets.
“You Taught Me Language”
Caliban, Act 1, scene 2: “You taught me language; and my profit on’t / Is, I know how to curse.” The only use he has found for his masters’ language is to curse them with it.
“Be Not Afeard; the Isle Is Full of Noises”
Caliban, Act 3, scene 2, calming Stephano and Trinculo. The island’s music gives delight and does no harm, and sometimes, after dreaming of riches falling from the clouds, he has woken and “cried to dream again.” It is some of the most beautiful poetry in the play, spoken by the character others call a monster.
“We Are Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On”
Prospero, Act 4, scene 1, after ending the masque: “We are such stuff / As dreams are made on, and our little life / Is rounded with a sleep.” The spirits have melted into air, and one day the whole world, “the great globe itself,” will vanish the same way.
“The Rarer Action Is in Virtue Than in Vengeance”
Prospero, Act 5, scene 1, deciding to forgive. Revenge is common; mercy is rare, and nobler.
“I’ll Drown My Book”
Prospero, Act 5, scene 1, renouncing his “rough magic.” He will break his staff and drown his book of spells deeper than any sounding line has reached.
“O Brave New World”
Miranda, Act 5, scene 1, seeing the nobles for the first time: “How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, / That has such people in’t!” She is looking at a group that includes the men who tried to kill her father. Aldous Huxley took the phrase for the title of his novel Brave New World.
Language and Form
How Shakespeare builds the play, and the techniques that make it work.
A Single Afternoon
Unlike most of Shakespeare’s plays, The Tempest takes place almost entirely in one location, the island, and its action is tightly compressed. The twelve years of backstory are told, not shown, and the action moves as if Prospero were running the clock.
Music and Spectacle
The play is full of music. Ariel’s songs lead characters where Prospero wants them, and the harpy scene and the masque of goddesses bring spectacle onto the stage.
Prospero as Playwright
Prospero stages the storm, directs the lovers, and presents a masque with spirits for actors. Many readers see him as a figure for Shakespeare himself, and his farewell to magic as Shakespeare’s farewell to the theater.
Caliban’s Two Voices
Caliban swings between harsh curses and lyrical blank verse about the island’s beauty. The contrast makes him far more than the monster other characters see.
A Closer Reading: “Set Me Free”
The play is about a man who holds everyone else captive, and it ends with that man asking the audience to release him.
For five acts, Prospero is the island’s jailer. Ariel serves him on a promise of freedom that keeps getting postponed; when Ariel reminds him, “Thou didst promise / To bate me a full year,” Prospero answers with anger. Caliban is penned in a rock. Ferdinand is made to haul logs. The nobles are driven mad and held “spell-stopp’d” in a charmed circle. Even Caliban’s drunken dream of escape, “Freedom, high-day!”, is only a new master.
In the last act, Prospero lets them all go. He forgives the nobles. He sends Ariel off with evident regret, “I shall miss thee: / But yet thou shalt have freedom,” and finally, “to the elements / Be free, and fare thou well.” He breaks his staff and drowns his book. He even owns Caliban, “this thing of darkness,” as his responsibility rather than his possession.
Then comes the epilogue, and the roles reverse. “Now my charms are all o’erthrown, / And what strength I have’s mine own, / Which is most faint.” Without his magic, Prospero is stuck on a bare stage, and only the audience can free him: “release me from my bands / With the help of your good hands.” The last words of the play are a prisoner’s plea: “As you from crimes would pardon’d be, / Let your indulgence set me free.” The man who spent the play controlling every life on the island ends it asking for exactly what he finally gave Ariel. Freedom, the play suggests, is something that can only be given, never taken, and mercy is the only magic that works on the magician himself.
Common Questions
The questions readers ask most often about The Tempest, answered briefly.
What Is The Tempest About?
Prospero, the overthrown Duke of Milan, has lived for twelve years on an island with his daughter, Miranda. When his enemies sail nearby, he uses magic to shipwreck them on the island, where he controls their fate. Instead of taking revenge, he forgives them, reclaims his dukedom, and gives up his magic.
Is The Tempest a Comedy?
It was printed among the comedies in the First Folio, but it is usually grouped with Shakespeare’s late “romances,” plays that mix danger and suffering with magic, reunion, and forgiveness.
Who Is Caliban?
The son of the witch Sycorax and the island’s original inhabitant, whom Prospero has made his servant. He claims the island as his birthright and plots with two drunken servants to kill Prospero.
Was The Tempest Shakespeare’s Last Play?
Not quite. It is thought to be the last play he wrote alone, but he later collaborated on others, including Henry VIII and The Two Noble Kinsmen. Its themes of farewell have made many readers treat it as his goodbye to the stage.
What Does “We Are Such Stuff as Dreams Are Made On” Mean?
That human life is as insubstantial and temporary as a dream, and ends in the sleep of death. Prospero says it after dismissing the spirits who performed his masque.
Related Reading
Three pages that take The Tempest further.