Article
Limelight provides Tempest Summary/Study Guide
05.02.2009
Does the name Shakespeare strike fear into your very bones? Does it conjure up memories of English Lit classes where everybody else seemed to grasp the materiel but you? Let the Limelight Theatre's production of The Tempest put all your fears to rest.
Taking place in "real time", The Tempest is one of Shakespeare's most easily understood plays. And if you are still in doubt, St. Augustine Record reviewer Bob Feldheim was kind enough to provide a thorough and consise summary for our patrons.
The protagonist is Prospero, Duke of Milan, who is also a sorcerer. He has a beautiful daughter, Miranda.
Twelve years before the start of the play, Prospero’s wicked brother Antonio usurped Prospero’s title and banished both Prospero and Miranda (then only 3 years of age) and a slave, Caliban, to a remote island. Prospero is also served by a spirit, Ariel, who he rescued from imprisonment in a tree. Ariel is invisible to everyone except Prospero (and the audience).
As the play opens,Prospero – divining that his brother Antonio is on a ship passing close by the island – has raised a storm (the tempest of the title), causing the ship to founder and wash up on the island.
Accompanying Antonio are Antonio’s friend and fellow conspirator Alonso, King of Naples, and Alonso’s wicked brother, Sebastian; handsome son, Ferdinand; and old advisor Gonzalo.
Also surviving the shipwreck are crew members Stefano, a butler, and Trinculo, a jester; the boatswain and nymphs Iris, Ceres and Juno.
Prospero, using sorcery, separates the survivors into several groups. Alonso and his son, Ferdinand, separated from each other, believe the other to be dead.
Three plots then alternate throughout the play:
Caliban, Prospero’s slave, falls in with crew members Stefano and Trinculo, who are drunk. Their attempt to raise a rebellion against Prospero fails.
Prospero works to establish a romance between Ferdinand and Miranda. The two fall immediately in love, but Prospero worries that “too light winning may make the prize light” and so compels Ferdinand to become his servant to confirm the depth of his affection for Miranda. He also decides to give up his powers of sorcery after he exacts vengeance on his betrayers.
Antonio and Sebastian (the wicked brothers of Prospero and Alonso, respectively) conspire to kill Alonso and his advisor, Gonzalo, so that Sebastian can become king of
Conclusion: All the main characters are brought together before Prospero, who forgives Alonso and Antonio’s betrayal, and warns Antonio and Sebastian against further attempts at betrayal.
Before releasing Ariel from bondage, he charges Ariel to rehabilitate the ship and prepare proper sailing weather for the entire entourage’s safe return to
In his epilogue, Prospero invites the audience to use their applause to set him free, as well, from the island.