 Title page of the part in the First Folio | |
| Editors | Edward Blount and Isaac Jaggard |
|---|---|
| Author | William Shakespeare |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Shakespearean comedy Tragicomedy |
| Publication place | England |
The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, probably written in 1610–1611, and thought to be one of the last plays that he wrote alone. After the first scene, which takes place on a ship at sea during a tempest, the rest of the story is set on a remote island, where Prospero, a wizard, lives with his daughter Miranda, and his two servants: Caliban, a savage monster figure, and Ariel, an airy spirit. The play contains music and songs that evoke the spirit of enchantment on the island. It explores many themes, including magic, betrayal, revenge, and family. In Act IV, a wedding masque serves as a play-within-a-play, and contributes spectacle, allegory, and elevated language.
Although The Tempest is listed in the First Folio as the first of Shakespeare's comedies, it deals with both tragic and comic themes, and modern criticism has created a category of romance for this and others of Shakespeare's late plays. The Tempest has been put to varied interpretations, from those[1] [2] [3] that see it as a fable of art and creation, with Prospero representing Shakespeare, and Prospero's renunciation of magic signaling Shakespeare's farewell to the stage, to interpretations[4] that consider it an allegory of Europeans colonizing foreign lands.
- ^ Orgel 1987, p. 10.
- ^ Kermode 1958, pp. lxxxi–xxxii.
- ^ Alexander 1958, p. 4.
- ^ Alqaryouti, Marwan Harb; Ismail, Hanita Hanim (2018). "Deconstructing the Archetypal Self-Other Dichotomy in William Shakespeare's The Tempest". English Language Teaching. 11 (10): 139–144. doi:10.5539/elt.v11n10p139. ISSN 1916-4742. S2CID 56306086.