The Tempest Study Guide

Characters

• SShip-MasterHe returns with the Boatswain behind Ariel, and the Boatswain reports his delight at finding the ship ready to sail.First appears: Act 1, Scene 1
• BoatswainBrought to the royal party by Ariel, he reports that the ship is sound and ready to sail and that strange noises woke the crew from their sleep below deck.First appears: Act 1, Scene 1
• MMarinersAccording to the Boatswain, strange noises wake the crew below deck, and they emerge to find the ship sound and ready to sail.First appears: Act 1, Scene 1
• AlonsoHe gives Prospero back his dukedom, asks forgiveness for his wrongs and rejoices to find Ferdinand alive and pledged to Miranda.First appears: Act 1, Scene 1
• SebastianPrivately warned that Prospero knows of the treason, he says in an aside that the devil speaks in Prospero and later joins Antonio in mocking Caliban and his companions.First appears: Act 1, Scene 1
• AntonioProspero forgives him and demands Milan back, but he offers no spoken apology and later jokes that Caliban could be sold.First appears: Act 1, Scene 1
• FerdinandRevealed playing chess with Miranda, he is reunited with Alonso and explains that he chose her when he believed his father dead.First appears: Act 1, Scene 1
• GonzaloEmbraced and thanked by Prospero for preserving him, he blesses the lovers and celebrates the voyage as a recovery of family, rule and the travellers' own selves.First appears: Act 1, Scene 1
• ProsperoWith his charms gone, he addresses the audience and asks its applause and forgiveness to release him.First appears: Act 1, Scene 2
• MirandaRevealed playing chess with Ferdinand, she marvels at the assembled company and receives Alonso's blessing on their match.First appears: Act 1, Scene 2
• ArielThe spirit's account of the prisoners' suffering moves Prospero to mercy, and after bringing the scattered company together Ariel receives a final charge to secure the voyage before becoming free.First appears: Act 1, Scene 2
• CalibanHe agrees to tidy Prospero's cell in hope of pardon, promises to seek grace and admits his folly in worshipping Stephano.First appears: Act 1, Scene 2
• AAdrianA member of Alonso's party who praises the island's air and Claribel as Queen of Tunis while Antonio and Sebastian mock the conversation.First appears: Act 2, Scene 1
• FFranciscoA member of Alonso's party who saw Ferdinand swimming strongly towards the shore and believes he reached land alive.First appears: Act 2, Scene 1
• TrinculoBrought before the royal party in stolen clothes, he complains of lasting discomfort and is sent away with Caliban and Stephano to tidy Prospero's cell.First appears: Act 2, Scene 2
• StephanoRecognised by Alonso as his drunken butler, he complains of cramp, is mocked for wanting to rule the island and is sent to tidy Prospero's cell with his companions.First appears: Act 2, Scene 2
• SThe ShapesStrange figures serving Prospero bring a banquet, politely invite the royal party to eat and return with mocking gestures to carry away the table after Ariel's warning.First appears: Act 3, Scene 3
• IIrisA spirit playing Juno's messenger in Prospero's entertainment, who summons Ceres and calls nymphs and reapers to celebrate the lovers' contract.First appears: Act 4, Scene 1
• CCeresA spirit appearing as Ceres in Prospero's entertainment, who asks whether Venus and her son are present and blesses the lovers with abundant harvests.First appears: Act 4, Scene 1
• JJunoA spirit playing the queen of the sky in Prospero's entertainment, who joins Ceres and sings blessings of honour, riches and lasting marriage for the couple.First appears: Act 4, Scene 1
• NThe NymphsSpirits appearing as water nymphs, who answer Iris's summons and dance with the reapers before Prospero interrupts the entertainment.First appears: Act 4, Scene 1
• RThe ReapersSpirits dressed as harvest workers, who join the nymphs in a dance and vanish when Prospero remembers the plot against his life.First appears: Act 4, Scene 1
• HThe HoundsSpirits in the shape of dogs and hounds, set on Caliban, Stephano and Trinculo by Prospero and Ariel to drive them away.First appears: Act 4, Scene 1

Chapter summaries

1. Act 1, Scene 1

   Thunder, urgent commands and repeated entrances put the audience aboard a ship in immediate danger. The Boatswain tells the royal passengers to keep below because their presence obstructs the sailors' work. Gonzalo appeals to his respect for rank, but the Boatswain asks what the sea cares for a king's name, making practical skill more useful than social position. Sebastian and Antonio answer with insults, and Antonio blames the crew for their danger. Gonzalo turns the threat of hanging into a joke: if the Boatswain is fated to hang, he cannot drown, so everyone aboard may yet survive. The wet mariners call for prayers, while offstage cries of splitting and farewells make the danger seem final; the scene ends without showing anyone's fate.

2. Act 1, Scene 2

   Outside his island dwelling, Prospero answers Miranda's distress over the wreck by assuring her that nobody has been harmed. He tells her that he neglected government for study, enabling his brother Antonio to seize Milan with the King of Naples's support, while Gonzalo's supplies and books helped father and daughter survive their abandonment at sea. After Miranda falls asleep, Ariel reports carrying out Prospero's storm, separating the passengers safely and leaving the ship hidden with its crew asleep. When Ariel asks for liberty, Prospero recalls freeing the spirit from Sycorax's imprisonment in a pine, threatens another confinement and then promises release after two days. Caliban claims the island through his mother Sycorax and resents the loss of his freedom; Prospero defends his treatment by recalling Caliban's attempt to violate Miranda, which Caliban admits and wishes had succeeded. Their argument makes teaching language a disputed benefit, since Prospero presents it as kindness while Caliban values it as a means of cursing him. Ariel's music draws Ferdinand, who believes his father drowned, towards Miranda; Prospero's asides reveal his pleasure at their attraction and his decision to make the courtship difficult, even as he accuses Ferdinand of spying and magically prevents him from moving.

3. Act 2, Scene 1

   Elsewhere on the island, Alonso mourns Ferdinand despite Francisco's report of seeing him swim strongly towards land, and regrets Claribel's distant marriage to the King of Tunis. Gonzalo urges gratitude for their survival, while Sebastian blames Alonso for the loss and joins Antonio in mocking the attempts at comfort. Gonzalo imagines a commonwealth without trade, private boundaries, service or labour, but Sebastian points out that he still proposes to be its king. Ariel enters invisibly with music, and everyone except Antonio and Sebastian falls asleep, giving their promised watch over Alonso a murderous irony. Antonio treats Ferdinand as drowned and Claribel as too distant to claim Naples, then uses his own seizure of Milan as a model for Sebastian's advancement. Dismissing conscience, he proposes killing Alonso while Sebastian kills Gonzalo, and Sebastian agrees, offering to free Milan from tribute once he is king. Sent by Prospero to preserve the lives on which his project depends, Ariel wakes Gonzalo with a song; the conspirators invent an alarm about lions, and Alonso orders the party to move on and resume searching for his son.

4. Act 2, Scene 2

   Caliban enters carrying wood and describes the animal shapes in which Prospero's spirits torment him, so he takes the approaching Trinculo for another spirit. Trinculo first wonders whether Caliban is a fish and imagines making money by exhibiting him in England, then decides he is an islander struck by lightning and crawls under his cloak for shelter. Stephano arrives singing and drinking, sees four legs beneath the cloak and plans to recover the supposed monster and sell him. The audience knows that Trinculo is sheltering with Caliban, so Stephano's belief in a creature with two voices creates comic dramatic irony. Once Trinculo and Stephano recognise each other, they explain how they survived, but Caliban mistakes the wine for heavenly liquor and kneels to Stephano as a god. Despite Trinculo's mockery, Caliban promises food, fresh water, wood and obedience, while Stephano assumes the king is drowned and proposes inheriting the island with Trinculo. Caliban's closing song celebrates freedom even as it announces a new master, exposing the contradiction in his attempt to escape service by offering it to someone else.

5. Act 3, Scene 1

   Outside Prospero's cell, Ferdinand explains that his love for Miranda makes the humiliating labour of carrying logs a pleasure. Miranda arrives, believing her father busy with study, and offers to carry the logs herself, while Prospero watches at a distance unseen. She breaks her father's command by telling Ferdinand her name, and he praises her above the women he has known. Miranda admits how little she knows of other people but says that she wants no companion except him, and Ferdinand solemnly declares his love. Rejecting concealment, she proposes marriage and promises service even if he refuses her as a wife; he accepts with a comparison between his willingness and a captive's longing for freedom. Their shared language of service makes love a willing commitment amid the imposed labour, while Prospero's pleased observations give the audience knowledge the lovers lack. After they leave separately, he expresses his joy and returns to his book because he still has business to perform before supper.

6. Act 3, Scene 2

   Stephano drinks with Caliban and Trinculo, treats Caliban as his subject and orders him to kneel while repeating his request. Invisible Ariel interrupts Caliban's account of losing the island, and the others mistake the spirit's words for Trinculo's, provoking threats and a beating from Stephano. Caliban proposes killing Prospero during his afternoon sleep and insists that his books must first be seized because, he says, they give him command of spirits. He also offers Miranda's beauty and the prospect of children as inducements, and Stephano agrees to murder Prospero and make himself king with her as queen. Trinculo approves the plot, while Ariel resolves to tell Prospero, so the audience knows that the conspirators' conversation has been overheard. When Ariel plays their song on a tabor and pipe, Stephano and Trinculo are frightened, but Caliban describes the island's harmless music and dreams of riches with tenderness. Stephano imagines the music as a benefit of his expected kingdom, and the conspirators postpone their attack to follow the sound.

7. Act 3, Scene 3

   Gonzalo and Alonso stop to rest, and Alonso abandons hope of finding Ferdinand alive while Antonio and Sebastian privately agree to exploit the party's weariness to murder Alonso and Gonzalo that night. With Prospero watching invisibly from above, strange Shapes bring in a banquet and invite the travellers to eat, prompting Gonzalo to praise their manners despite their unusual bodies. Just as Alonso agrees to eat, Ariel appears as a harpy amid thunder and lightning and makes the banquet disappear. Claiming to speak for Fate, Ariel accuses Alonso, Sebastian and Antonio of expelling Prospero and his child, makes their swords useless and threatens continuing punishment unless they feel sorrow and reform their lives. Prospero praises Ariel for following his instructions exactly, declares his enemies in his power and leaves to visit the lovers, exposing the accusation as a performance he has directed. Alonso hears his offence in the sounds of sea, wind and thunder, takes Ferdinand's supposed death as punishment and declares that he will join his son beneath the sea. Sebastian responds with a challenge to fight the fiends and Antonio supports him, while Gonzalo compares their guilt to a slow poison and asks the younger men to follow them before their desperation causes harm.

8. Act 4, Scene 1

   Outside his cell, Prospero tells Ferdinand that his hardships tested his love, gives his approval to the match and warns that sex before the marriage ceremony would bring discord. Ferdinand promises restraint, and Prospero summons spirits to entertain the couple with a performance in which Iris, Juno and Ceres celebrate chaste love, marriage and plentiful harvests. Nymphs and reapers dance, but Prospero suddenly remembers Caliban's murder plot and dismisses the spirits, alarming Ferdinand and Miranda. He compares the vanished performance with the eventual dissolution of buildings, the world and human life, then acknowledges his troubled mind and sends the couple into his cell. After the entertainment, Ariel reports leading the drunken conspirators through thorns into a foul pool, and Prospero orders him to fetch clothes as bait. The invisible pair watch Caliban urge the murder while Stephano and Trinculo become absorbed in stealing the garments, exposing how easily their ambition gives way to greed. Prospero and Ariel set spirits shaped as hounds on all three, and Prospero orders further bodily torments before declaring his enemies at his mercy and promising Ariel freedom after more service.

9. Act 5, Scene 1

   Outside his cell, Prospero hears Ariel describe the prisoners' distress and chooses reason and compassion over revenge. He renounces his magic, promises to break his staff and drown his book, and uses music to restore the royal party's senses before presenting himself as Duke of Milan. Alonso yields the dukedom and asks pardon, while Prospero forgives Antonio but demands Milan back and privately tells Antonio and Sebastian that he will not expose their treason at this time. Prospero then reveals Ferdinand and Miranda playing chess, reuniting father and son and allowing Ferdinand to explain their match to Alonso. Miranda marvels at the company, although it includes the men Prospero has just condemned, while Gonzalo celebrates the recoveries brought by the voyage. Ariel brings the Master and Boatswain, who reports the ship ready for sea, then brings Caliban, Stephano and Trinculo before the company in stolen clothes. Caliban repudiates his worship of Stephano and accepts the task of tidying the cell in hope of pardon; Prospero invites the royal party to rest, hopes to see the lovers married in Naples before returning to Milan, and gives Ariel one final task before freedom.

10. Epilogue

    Prospero addresses the audience directly, saying that his charms are gone and his remaining strength is faint. Although he has recovered his dukedom and pardoned the deceiver, he presents himself as a captive whom the audience can either confine or send to Naples. His request for help from their hands invites applause, while their breath becomes the wind needed to fill his sails. Saying that his project was to please, he connects the imagined voyage with the audience's response to the performance. Without spirits or enchanting art, he turns instead to prayer and mercy. His final appeal asks the listeners to grant the forgiveness that they themselves would seek, extending the play's concern with pardon to the people watching it.

Key quotes