Main Attractions and Facts of The Tempest

➡ The Tempest is said to have been composed in 1610– 11. Since Shakespeare passed away in 1616, also his creation of somewhat later plays like Two Noble Kinsmen is believed to be co-composed with others. The Tempest is viewed as Shakespeare’s last solo work.

➡ The Tempest is set (as almost as we can decide on a play that happens in an imaginary world) in the Mediterranean Sea, among Spain and Italy.

➡ There are seven songs demonstrated in The Tempest, more than in any other Shakespeare’s play.

➡ Miranda has just 154 lines in the play; Prospero’s has 656, which is 32% of the lines in the play. This is a decent example of how characters who don’t gab are similarly important in character and plot.

➡ Shakespeare as often as possible drew on authentic figures or well-known stories as motivation for his plays. But for The Tempest, the most likely source is a point by point record of the wreck of the Sea-Venture, lost in Bermuda in 1609 on its approach to Virginia.

➡ Where would the island setting of The Tempest most likely be? As indicated by pieces of information in the content, right off the coast of Sicily.

➡ Since this is viewed as Shakespeare’s last play, Prospero’s mystical command of the island is prevalently read as Shakespeare’s command over his created stories and characters. This thought is mostly borne out in the discourse in Act 5 wherein Prospero revokes his magical capacities: “I break my staff… and down my book.”

➡ This could undoubtedly parallel the writer resigning from the enchantment of the stage. In pretty much every play, Shakespeare has his characters muse on how life and theatre are interwoven: People as performing artists, the world as a stage, changed identity through wearing camouflage, and so forth.; so this hearing of Shakespeare’s “voice” in Prospero’s words is very satisfying.

➡ In Shakespeare’s time, an epilogue was typical “a conventional expression of humility at the end of a play, apologizing for any inadequacy in the performance and asking for applause,” as defined by Shakespeare scholar linguist David Crystal

The epilogue to The Tempest, talked by Prospero, is a standout amongst the most well known in Shakespeare’s plays, along with Puck’s toward the end of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and Rosalind’s toward the end of “As You Like It”.

Think About The Text

Q.1 What did Miranda first think Ferdinand was and why? Were Ferdinand and Miranda”s love at first sight true?
Ans. At first, Miranda thought that Ferdinand was a spirit. She thought so because she did not expect a human being having the beautiful features Ferdinand was in possession of. Moreover, she had never seen any handsome young man. She had only seen her father namely Prospero and Caliban.
Ferdinand and Miranda’s love was definitely the love at first sight.

Q.2 Why did Prospero pretend to think that Ferdinand was a spy?
Ans. Prospero was very happy to see that Miranda and Ferdinand were in love with each other. Ferdinand‘s love could be false. So, in order to test his love, he pretended to think that Ferdinand was a spy. He wanted to be sure whether Ferdinand really loved Miranda.

Q.3 What was the task that Prospero gave Ferdinand?
Ans. Prospero assigned Ferdinand the job of piling up heavy logs of wood.

Q.4 What made Ferdinand’s labour seem light?
Ans. Miranda’s presence made Ferdinand’s labour seem light.

Q.5 What were the King and his party doing the meantime?
Ans. The king and his party were all wandering about on the island. In fact, they were searching for Ferdinand who was detached from them during the shipwreck

Q.6 Why were they amazed to see Prospero?
Ans. They were amazed to see Prospero alive because they had thought he would have died twelve years ago in the old and damaged ship in which they had put him and his daughter to perish at sea.

Q.7 Justify Prospero”s statement, “I have lost my daughter…”
Ans. Prospero told the king that he too had lost his daughter in the tempest. He was right in the sense that he had lost his daughter to Ferdinand. Miranda and Ferdinand had fallen in love with each other and they were going to get married.
Thus, Prospero no more possessed his daughter. She was now in the possession of Ferdinand, who was going to be her husband.

Q.8 Why did Prospero give up his magic powers?
Ans. He gave up his magic powers because he had no further use of them. He had achieved whatever he wanted. He got his Dukedom back from his brother Antonio and King of Naples. Moreover, his daughter was also happily settled with Ferdinand who was a young and handsome man and above all loved her too much.

Q.9 What was Ariel”s the last service to his master?
Ans. Ariel last service to his master Prospero was that he created favourable winds in the sea. The favou.rable winds helped the ship on which Prospero and his party were in sailing to Naples.

Read Also: The Tempest I

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