The Tempest

The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed written in 1610-1611; many critics believe it was the last play Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where the sorcerer Prospero, rightful Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place using illusion and skillful manipulation. He conjures up a storm, the eponymous tempest, to lure his usurping brother Antonio and the complicit King Alonso of Naples to the island. There, his machinations bring about the revelation of Antonio’s lowly nature, the redemption of the King, and the marriage of Miranda to Alonso’s son, Ferdinand.

    The Tempest did not attract a significant amount of attention before the ban on the performance of plays in 1642 and only attained popularity after the Restoration, and then only in adapted versions. In the mid-Nineteenth Century, theater productions began to reinstate the original Shakespearean text, and in the Twentieth Century, critics and scholars undertook a significant re-appraisal of the play’s value to the extent it is now considered one of Shakespeare’s greatest works.