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.