Tempest Synopsis

Twelve years before the play begins, Antonio, helped by the King of Naples, Alonso, usurped his brother Prospero’s dukedom of Milan and put Prospero and his child Miranda to sea in a rotten boat. They reached a far-off island where Prospero resorted to the books on magic that a loyal lord, Gonzalo, had sent with him. He freed Ariel, an ”airy spirit” whom the dead witch, Sycorax, had imprisoned in a cloven pine, and he attempted to educate the witch’s son, the deformed Caliban. When Caliban sought to rape Miranda, Prospero made him into a slave.

Prospero tells the story to his daughter just after the raising of a magical storm that has cast upon the island Alonso and Antonio with Alonso’s son Ferdinand, his brother Sebastian, and attendant lords. Ariel leads Ferdinand to Prospero’s cell; there the youth falls in love with Miranda, and Prospero sets him to the hardest of menial tasks. The King (Act II) believes that Ferdinand is drowned; Antonio and Sebastian plan to murder Alonso, but thanks to the invisible Ariel, the deed is prevented. Stephano and Trinculo, Alonso’s butler and jester, are involved drunkenly with Caliban.

Aided by Ariel (Act III) Prospero uses his magic art to baffle the royal party. Agreeing to the betrothal of Miranda and Ferdinand, he summons a masque for them (Act IV). Later (Act V) he decides to abandon his revenge, to forgive his enemies, and break his magic staff. Then he reveals himself, demands back his dukedom, shows Ferdinand at chess with Miranda, sets Ariel free, and speaks a wistful epilogue before sailing home.

Shakespeare has obeyed the “unities” here: the action of The Tempest is on a single day and in the same place.

-The Pocket Companion to Shakespeare’s Plays by J C Trewin