Theme of the tempest

Theme and Motifs

The Tempest is overtly concerned with its own nature as a play, frequently drawing links between Prospero's Art and theatrical illusion. The shipwreck was a "spectacle" "performed" by Ariel; Antonio and Sebastian are "cast" in a "troop" to "act"; Miranda's eyelids are "fringed curtains". Prospero is even made to refer to the Globe Theatre when claiming the whole world is an illusion: "the great globe... shall dissolve... like this insubstantial pageant". Ariel frequently disguises himself as figures from Classical mythology, for example a nymph, a harpy and Ceres, acting as the latter in a masque and anti-masque that Prospero creates.

Early critics saw this constant allusion to the theatre as an indication that Prospero was meant to represent Shakespeare; the character's renunciation of magic thus signalling Shakespeare's farewell to the stage. This theory has fallen into disfavour; but certainly The Tempest is interested in the way that, like Prospero's "Art", the theatre can be both an immoral occupation and yet morally transformative for its audience. Magic was a controversial subject in Shakespeare's day. In Italy in 1600, Giordano Bruno was burnt at the stake for his occult studies, and John Dee, an Englishman and student of supernatural phenomena, died in disgrace in 1608. Outside the Catholic world, in Protestant England, where Shakespeare wrote "The Tempest," magic was also taboo. While not emulating his great aunt, the Bloody Queen Mary, it must be remembered that King James I - under whose rule "The Tempest" was written - both had a Catholic wife and oversaw the translation of the King James Bible. Yet, not all magic was considered evil. Several scientists took what they called a more "rational" approach to the study of the supernatural, determined to discover the workings behind unusual phenomena. Henricus Cornelius Agrippa was one such scientist, who published in De Occulta Philosophia his observations of "divine" magic. Agrippa's work influenced Dr. John Dee, an Englishman. Both Agrippa and Dee describe a kind of magic similar to Prospero's-one that is based on 16th-century science, rationality, and divinity, rather than the occult. When King James took the throne, Dee found himself under attack for his beliefs, but was able to defend himself successfully by explaining the divine nature of his profession. Shakespeare is also careful to make the distinction that Prospero is a rational, and not an occultist, magician. He does this by providing a contrast to him in Sycorax. Sycorax is said to have worshiped the devil and been full of "earthy and abhored commands". She was unable to control Ariel, who was "too delicate" for such dark tasks. Prospero's rational goodness enables him to control Ariel where Sycorax can only trap him in a tree. Sycorax's magic is frequently described as destructive and terrible, where Prospero's is said to be wondrous and beautiful. Prospero seeks to set things right in his world through his magic, and once that is done, he renounces it, setting Ariel free.