Tempest

themes

1. power and control

2. colonialism and other

3. magic, illusion and metadrama

4. revenge and justice

5. individuality, freedom and confinement

power and control

•Magical power: Prospero uses magical powers to control the island and its inhabitants, including Ariel and Caliban.

•Political power: The play also deals with legitimate versus illegitimate power, seen in Prospero’s loss of and desire to reclaim his dukedom.

•Colonial power: Prospero's domination over Caliban mirrors colonial relationships, European control over native populations

The play opens with the power of nature shown by the storm, against which the power of the king and his nobles is useless.  The storm is being controlled by Ariel who is being controlled by Prospero. Prospero’s power as Duke of Milan was taken from him by Alonso and Antonio and now he uses his powers, obtained through magic, to control them and everyone else on the island. What Prospero can’t control is how people feel.

colonialism and other

•Caliban, often seen as a symbol of the colonized subject, challenges Prospero’s authority and reflects cultural conflict.

•The play questions what it means to be ‘civilized’ and exposes the imposition of European values on other cultures.

•Miranda and Prospero both have contradictory views of Caliban’s humanity in 1.2. On the one hand, they think that their education of him has lifted him from his formerly brutish status. On the other hand, they seem to see him as inherently brutish.

•Caliban claims that he was kind to Prospero, and that Prospero repaid that kindness by imprisoning him (see 347). In contrast, Prospero claims that he stopped being kind to Caliban once Caliban had tried to rape Miranda ( 347–351).

magic, illusion and metadrama

•Central to the play’s action, magic is both a tool of manipulation and a symbol of power.

•Illusion vs Reality: Supernatural events blur the line between reality and illusion, raising questions about perception and truth.

•The play itself is a metaphor for theatrical illusion. Prospero’s control of events mirrors that of a playwright, obscuring the line between art and life.

Shakespeare's tale of Prospero's Island is inherently theatrical, unfolding in a series of spectacles that involve exotic, supra-human, and sometimes invisible characters that the audience can see but other characters cannot.

The play is a multi-sensory theater experience, with sound, and especially music, used to complement the sights of the play, and all of it interwoven by the author with lyrical textual passages

What gives the play most of its hypnotic, magical atmosphere is the series of dreamlike events it stages, such as the tempest, the magical banquet, and the wedding masque.

Accompanied by music, these present a feast for the eye and the ear and convince us of the magical glory of Prospero’s enchanted isle.

revenge and justice

•Driven by a desire for revenge, Prospero's journey moves toward reconciliation, showing a moral evolution.

individuality, freedom and confinement

•Ariel seeks liberation from servitude, highlighting the desire for freedom.

•Caliban resents his enslavement, giving voice to the oppressed.

colonial power is unstable

Prospero appears to be the powerful colonizer: he controls the island, commands Ariel, enslaves Caliban, and stages events through magic. However, Willis argues that this power is never fully stable. Prospero’s authority constantly requires surveillance, punishment, and theatrical control.

You can argue that colonial rule in The Tempest depends on force and performance rather than natural legitimacy. Prospero must repeatedly prove his authority because it is fragile.

Useful example: Prospero’s control over Caliban depends on threats, language, and punishment, not consent.

caliban exposes the violence of colonization

Caliban is central to the colonial reading of the play. He claims the island originally belonged to him: “This island’s mine.” His dispossession makes Prospero’s rule look like an act of conquest rather than rightful government.

Willis shows that Caliban is represented through contradictory colonial stereotypes: he is called savage, deformed, lustful, childish, and rebellious. But he is also eloquent, sensitive to beauty, and capable of political awareness.

So, an exam argument could be: Shakespeare does not allow Caliban to be reduced to a simple “monster.” His complexity challenges the colonial discourse that tries to dehumanize him.

play both supports and questions Prospero’s authority

A balanced argument is important. Willis does not say the play is simply anti-colonial. The ending partly restores Prospero’s authority: Caliban repents, Ariel is freed, and Prospero returns to Milan.

But the play also questions whether Prospero’s authority was morally justified. His rule over Caliban and Ariel is coercive, and his “civilizing” project has clearly failed to produce harmony.

This gives you a strong exam point: The Tempest is ambivalent. It participates in colonial thinking while also revealing its contradictions.

Antonio functions as Prospero’s dangerous double

Willis argues that Antonio is not just a political villain; he reflects a darker version of Prospero himself. Both men are associated with ambition, control, and domination.

Antonio’s attempted usurpation shows that the real threat to political order does not only come from Caliban, the colonized “other.” It also comes from within European power structures.

Essay point: Shakespeare links colonial disorder to political disorder in Europe. The island becomes a place where the corruption of Milanese politics is exposed.

the Other is necessary to colonial identity

Colonial discourse defines itself against an “other”: civilized versus savage, ruler versus subject, master versus slave. Willis shows that Prospero’s identity as ruler depends on figures like Caliban and Antonio, who embody what he claims to reject.

This means Prospero needs the “other” in order to define himself as legitimate, rational, and civilized. But because Caliban and Antonio mirror parts of Prospero’s own violence and ambition, the distinction between civilized ruler and savage rebel becomes unstable.

Caliban’s final repentance is not a simple resolution

At the end, Caliban says he will “be wise hereafter” and seek grace. A simple reading might see this as his moral conversion. Willis, however, suggests that the ending is more troubling.

Caliban’s repentance may show that colonial authority has successfully contained him. But it may also feel forced or theatrical, leaving the audience uncertain whether real justice has been achieved.

Exam point: the ending restores order, but it does not erase the violence and dispossession on which that order was built.

Caliban is a “creature”, not simply a monster

Lupton begins by asking what a “creature” is. A creature is something created, dependent, unfinished, and vulnerable. Caliban’s identity is therefore unstable: he is not fully animal, not fully human, and not simply demonic.

This gives you a strong exam point: Caliban’s importance lies in his in-between status. He challenges fixed categories such as human/inhuman, civilized/savage, natural/political, and subject/object.

Caliban exposes the limits of humanism

Lupton argues that Caliban tests the idea of universal humanity. The play asks whether “humanity” truly includes everyone, or whether some beings are excluded from it.

Miranda’s famous line — “O brave new world / That has such people in’t” — seems to celebrate humanity, but Caliban complicates that vision. He is part of the island’s world, yet he is not easily accepted into the community of “people.”

Essay point: The Tempest questions whether humanism is genuinely universal or secretly based on exclusion.

Caliban is linked to political power and legal exclusion

Lupton connects Caliban to political theory. A “creature” is often someone who lives under power but is not fully protected by law. Caliban is ruled by Prospero, punished by him, and forced to serve him, but he has little legal or political recognition.

This means Caliban represents a form of life that is governed but not included. He is subject to authority without being treated as a legitimate political subject.

Useful exam phrase: Caliban reveals the violence of sovereignty because Prospero’s power over him depends on exception, coercion, and exclusion.

Caliban’s language makes him more than a savage

Like many critics, Lupton pays attention to Caliban’s language. Caliban is not merely brutish or comic. He has some of the most beautiful poetry in the play, especially when he describes the island’s “noises, / Sounds and sweet airs.”

This matters because his poetic speech interrupts Prospero’s attempt to define him as a mere slave or monster. Caliban’s imagination proves that he has interiority, memory, desire, and aesthetic sensitivity.

Essay point: Caliban’s poetry resists his dehumanization.

Caliban’s claim to the island is a claim to origin and belonging

Caliban repeatedly insists that the island was his before Prospero arrived. Lupton treats this not only as a colonial claim but also as a deeper claim about creation, inheritance, and belonging.

Caliban’s statement “This island’s mine” is therefore crucial. It shows that he has a history before Prospero’s rule. Prospero tries to reduce Caliban to a servant, but Caliban remembers another order of ownership and identity.

Exam argument: Caliban’s memory challenges Prospero’s authority because it reveals that Prospero’s rule is not natural but imposed.

Caliban is associated with both Genesis and the “creaturely” world

Lupton connects Caliban to biblical and theological ideas, especially creation, Adam, and the flood. Caliban is close to the earth, animals, fertility, and bodily life. He represents a world of creaturely existence before or outside stable political order.

This does not simply make him inferior. Instead, it makes him a figure through whom the play explores what it means to be created, embodied, dependent, and mortal.

Essay point: Caliban’s creatureliness is not just degradation; it is also a reminder that all humans are vulnerable created beings.

Caliban’s final repentance does not fully solve his exclusion

At the end, Caliban says he will “be wise hereafter / And seek for grace.” A simple reading might see this as his conversion or moral correction. Lupton’s argument suggests something more complex.

Caliban’s final movement toward “grace” may appear to bring him into a human or Christian order, but his status remains unresolved. He is still marked as different, and the play does not clearly show what place he will have after Prospero leaves.

Exam point: the ending does not fully integrate Caliban. His creaturely difference remains a problem the play cannot completely resolve.

Prospero is an Orpheus figure

Simonds connects Prospero to the Renaissance myth of Orpheus, the musician whose song could charm animals, move trees, civilize wild people, and create social harmony.

Prospero does not literally play a harp, but he controls the island through Ariel’s music, charms, masques, and theatrical spectacle. Like Orpheus, he uses art to transform disorder into order.

Exam point: Prospero’s magic is not only supernatural; it is also aesthetic and political. His art attempts to govern the island by producing harmony.

music represents political harmony

For Simonds, music in The Tempest symbolizes the ideal of a well-ordered state. Renaissance political thought often imagined good government as harmony: different social parts working together like notes in a musical composition.

The article’s visual examples, such as the emblem of the Temple of Harmony on page 5, reinforce this idea: harmony represents cosmic, moral, and political order.

Essay point: Shakespeare uses music to imagine society as a composition in which disorder must be tuned into concord.

Prospero must reform himself before he can reform others

Simonds stresses that the play is not merely about Prospero controlling other people. It is also about Prospero learning self-government.

At the beginning, Prospero is angry, vengeful, and controlling. By the end, he chooses mercy over revenge. His political success depends on his ability to master his own passions.

Exam point: The Tempest suggests that legitimate rule begins with self-discipline. A ruler who cannot govern himself cannot govern others justly.

Ariel’s music disciplines disorder

Ariel’s songs guide, confuse, punish, and transform the characters. Ferdinand is led by music; Alonso is made to confront guilt; Stephano, Trinculo, and Caliban are distracted and controlled by Ariel’s tabor.

This music works like political discipline. It exposes disorder and redirects characters toward repentance or containment.

Essay point: Ariel’s music is Prospero’s political instrument. It converts chaos into a controlled theatrical and moral order.

Caliban complicates the Orpheus model

A key strength of the article is that Simonds does not treat Prospero’s civilizing power as completely successful. Caliban is sensitive to the island’s music — especially in his famous speech about “noises, / Sounds and sweet airs” — but he is not fully reformed.

Caliban’s response to music proves he is not merely a brute. Yet his rebellion also shows the limits of Prospero’s art.

Exam point: Caliban both supports and challenges Prospero’s Orpheus-like role. He can appreciate harmony, but he resists being fully incorporated into Prospero’s political order.

play contrasts harmonious and disorderly music

Simonds distinguishes between different types of music. Ariel and Prospero are associated with ordered, Apollonian, civilizing music. Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo are linked to drunken, Bacchic, disorderly noise.

This contrast matters politically. Harmonious music represents reason, temperance, and social order; drunken music represents appetite, rebellion, and misrule.

Essay point: the play uses musical contrast to dramatize the difference between legitimate order and chaotic appetite.

mercy is stronger than force

By the end of the play, Prospero succeeds not through punishment alone but through forgiveness. Simonds connects this to Renaissance emblems of Orpheus and political clemency, where persuasion and mercy are superior to violence.

Prospero’s renunciation of vengeance is therefore central. He becomes a better ruler when he stops relying only on coercive magic.

Exam point: The Tempest presents political harmony as the result of mercy, not mere domination.

ending is idealistic but fragile

Simonds acknowledges that Prospero’s success is partly theatrical and temporary. Caliban’s reformation is uncertain, and the harmony created on the island may not last beyond the play’s conclusion.

The article’s final point is that Prospero’s Orphic success is “illusory” as a complete political solution, but it still reflects Shakespeare’s artistic dream of harmony and reform.

Essay point: the play offers a vision of political harmony while also revealing how difficult that harmony is to sustain.

Caliban is human, but his humanity is constantly attacked

Höfele notes that the play does give evidence that Caliban is human. Prospero says the island had “a human shape” before he arrived, meaning Caliban. Miranda also says Ferdinand is the third man she has seen, which implies that Caliban was the second.

But this humanity is never secure. Caliban is treated as animal-like, enslaved, confined, and described as deformed.

Exam argument: Caliban is human “on probation.” The play grants him humanity but continually threatens to withdraw it.

Caliban is treated as a marketable curiosity

A major argument in the article is that Trinculo and Stephano immediately see Caliban’s commercial value. Trinculo imagines exhibiting him in England for money, while Stephano imagines presenting him to an emperor.

This connects Caliban to early modern practices of displaying unusual bodies, monsters, and exotic “wonders.”

Essay point: Caliban is not only oppressed; he is commodified. His difference becomes something to be looked at, owned, sold, and exhibited.

Pedro Gonsalvus provides a historical parallel

Höfele compares Caliban to Pedro Gonsalvus, a real sixteenth-century man with congenital hypertrichosis, whose face and body were covered with hair. Gonsalvus was given to the French king in 1547 and later became a courtly curiosity.

The comparison is not that Shakespeare directly based Caliban on Gonsalvus. Höfele says there is no evidence for that. Instead, Gonsalvus belongs to the same early modern culture of wonder that shaped how figures like Caliban could be imagined.

Essay point: Caliban emerges from a world where unusual human bodies were interpreted as monsters, marvels, natural curiosities, and courtly spectacles.

the island is like a theatrical wonder cabinet

Höfele describes The Tempest as resembling a wonder cabinet: a collection of exotic sights, sounds, monsters, marvels, and rare objects.

Caliban is at the centre of this wonder cabinet. He is both a living character and an object of display. His body invites curiosity, interpretation, and imaginative reconstruction.

Caliban’s appearance is deliberately impossible to settle

Höfele stresses that the play never gives us a stable physical image of Caliban. The descriptions contradict one another. If all the references were taken literally, Caliban would be an impossible mixture of species.

This matters because every stage production must invent a Caliban. Theatre turns his textual uncertainty into a visible body.

Exam point: Caliban is not just written by Shakespeare; he is continually re-created by performance, costume, art, and audience imagination.

Caliban’s confinement

Höfele also emphasizes the language of confinement. Prospero’s “cell,” Caliban’s rock, and the island itself all suggest enclosure. Caliban belongs both to the wide world of exploration and to enclosed spaces of collection, study, and display.

Exam point: Caliban is trapped not only politically by Prospero but also conceptually by the systems that classify and exhibit him.

indigenous people are erased by the metaphor of land as woman

When Ralegh imagines Guiana as a virgin female body, the actual Indigenous peoples of Guiana disappear from the picture. The land replaces its inhabitants.

This is one of Montrose’s most important points: gendered metaphor helps colonial discourse erase native possession. If the land is imagined as an untouched woman, then Indigenous societies are treated as if they do not truly own or inhabit it.

Exam point: the feminization of land enables the erasure of Indigenous political and cultural presence.