tempest by william shakespeare
The Tempest is an interesting play written by the famous, William Shakespeare. ... Shakespeare started to write toward the end of his career about magic and fantasy set in far-off lands. ... It is probably simplest to think of Ariel as androgynous-that is, neither male nor female) So Prospero and Ariel conjure up a huge storm (the tempest), and try and steer the ship towards the island so that his daughter and himself can return back to civilization. ... Prospero is the main character of The Tempest, he is the most powerful and he manipulates everything. From the start of the play he engineers the tempest that brings the other characters to his island, and after that he uses his magic to control where they go. ... I also think that Prospero is like a "stand-in" for Shakespeare, saying goodbye to his career in the theater using Prosperos magic as a way to refer to the magic of the stage. ... Prosperos power of illusion as being a metaphor for the illusion of theater, and his magic and power over other people may be linked to the power, which the playwright himself-Shakespeare-has in creating worlds and characters. ... Shakespeare is stopping his writing and saying goodbye through Prospero, when he lays his magical arts forever down and says a final farewell to an audience whom loved him. It is as if these final lines are the final ones that Shakespeare ever wrote for the stage.