The Tempest By William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) Essay, Research Paper

This unusual play – full of music, sorcery,

conspiracy, romance, comedy, and pathos belongs to the last period of Shakespeare’s

career. The odd, bitter-sweet drama embodies qualities of both tragedy

and comedy, though this and others of the final plays are usually classified

as romances.

In The Tempest, everybody, as Gonzalo notes,

leaves the island in a changed state: Alonso finally suffers the pangs

of guilt and begs forgiveness for his crimes against Prospero; Antonio

eventually humbles himself. These two villains are mirrored in a kind of

comic relief by Trinculo and Stephano, who are also led to repentance.

Since The Tempest is considered Shakespeare’s

final great play, many critics have suggested that Prospero represents

Shakespeare himself at the end of his work, that the magician’s final speech,

in which he renounces magic, is meant to symbolize the Bard’s farewell

to the theater before retiring to his Stratford home. The entire allegorical

plot, beginning with an oceangoing peril and subsequently spanning the

breadth of human emotions, ending in a scene of serenity and joy, may indeed

reflect and symbolize the writer’s reflections on his life.

At any rate, the play stands as one of

Shakespeare’s greatest works, possessing a strange, undefinable, composite

quality that sets it apart from all others.