The Tempest

Inland, in a “cell” or cave, Prospero, who is a sorcerer and the overthrown duke of Milan, receives his daughter Miranda, who asks him to use his powers to stop the raging storm. She saw a nearby ship struggle on the roiling sea and then break apart. Prospero assures her that no harm has come to the people on board.

Prospero decides the time has come to explain to Miranda her real identity. She replies that she has never wondered why they live on this island, though Prospero has often begun to reveal their true story and then checked himself. She remembers vaguely that, at age three, she had “Four or five women once that tended me” (1.2.47).

Prospero agrees and tells her that 12 years ago he was the Duke of Milan, and she was his only heir. Prospero focused on his hobbies and ignored stately matters, leaving them in the hands of his beloved and trusted brother, Antonio. Over the years, though, Antonio grew fond of rule and conspired to overthrow Prospero and take the throne. With the aid of the army of Prospero’s old enemy the King of Naples, Antonio took Milan for himself and banished Prospero and his daughter to a leaky boat cast onto the sea.

Alonso’s counselor, Gonzalo, took pity on them and furnished the boat with food, clothing, and books from Prospero’s library. Strengthened by his love for his daughter, Prospero persevered, and fate set them on this island. He educated Miranda from his vast knowledge; a curriculum much better than she would have learned in court.

By good fortune, Prospero’s enemies have sailed nearby, and Prospero’s magic forced the ship to crash onto the island and place the usurpers in his power. His story finished, Prospero works a spell that causes Miranda to fall asleep.

Prospero calls for Ariel, a magical sprite, and asks if he has completed the task of bringing the ship to harbor and placing the passengers on land. Ariel answers that he rushed about the ship, glowing as if afire, and made the passengers go mad and dive overboard. All arrived ashore but are separated into groups as Prospero commanded, including Alonso’s son Ferdinand who sits alone. Ariel preserved the ship and brought it to a small cove, its sailors asleep inside. The rest of the fleet, thinking it saw the king’s ship sink, has “bound sadly home for Naples” (1.2.235).

Prospero thanks Ariel for his excellent work, but Ariel complains that Prospero has promised to free him from slavery. Prospero reminds Ariel that it was the witch Sycorax who punished Ariel for refusing to obey her most evil commands by magically confining him in a tree trunk for 12 years. After she died, it was Prospero who found and saved him. Prospero also found and nurtured Sycorax’s malformed son Caliban, whom Prospero now keeps as a slave. Prospero reminds Ariel that he can put the sprite back into a tree, but he also promises the sprite that if he performs well during the next two days, Prospero will free him.

Excited by the prospect of imminent freedom, Ariel asks what his final duties should be. Prospero commands him to shape himself “a nymph o’ the sea” (1.2.301) but remain invisible to all but themselves and await further orders.

Miranda awakens and wonders at her recent sleepiness. Prospero calls for Caliban. Miranda reminds her father that she thinks Caliban is a “villain”; Prospero, in turn, reminds her that the slave is useful to them. Caliban doesn’t want to report in; Prospero insults him and demands his attendance. Ariel darts in, shaped like a nymph; Prospero compliments him, then whispers in his ear; Ariel says, “it shall be done” and departs (1.2.318).

Caliban loudly wishes misfortune on Prospero and Miranda, and Prospero responds with a magic curse that will make Caliban suffer cramps and other ailments all night. Caliban bemoans how he once loved Prospero for his kindnesses, but now he’s enslaved within the cave. Prospero scolds him for lying, saying that Caliban tried to rape Miranda; Caliban replies that, had Prospero not stopped him, “I had peopled else / This isle with Calibans” (1.2.350-51). In an aside, Caliban says that Prospero’s magic is too powerful to defy. He shuffles off and attends to his chores.

Ariel, singing and playing music, flits invisibly near Ferdinand, who follows the sound but can’t find its source. The song disperses his sadness about the ship disaster. Ariel’s song describes King Alonso’s bones lying at the bottom of the sea, his eyes turned to pearls as the sea nymphs mourn him.

Ariel leads Ferdinand toward Prospero and Miranda. She wonders who he is; her father explains that he’s one of the shipwrecked passengers. Miranda is stunned by him: “I might call him / A thing divine; for nothing natural / I ever saw so noble” (1.2.418-20). Prospero quietly tells Ariel his work is excellent, and he’ll be freed in two days.

Ferdinand approaches them and asks who she might be, whether human or goddess; Miranda replies that she is a simple maiden. He introduces himself to them as the son of the King of Naples, whose death and the death of his retinue he mourns.

Prospero notices with satisfaction that his daughter and Ferdinand seem drawn to each other, but they’re moving too quickly—he wants them to struggle for each other and thereby truly value their budding relationship. He chides Ferdinand: “I fear you have done yourself some wrong” (1.2.443). Miranda protests her father’s interference: This is only the third man she has ever seen and “the first That e’er I sigh’d for” (1.2.445). Ferdinand replies that if she is truly a virgin he would like to make her the queen of his country.

Prospero accuses Ferdinand of spying for the King of Naples and plotting to take over the island. Ferdinand insists he isn’t, and Miranda declares that no deceit can come from such a man Nevertheless, Prospero insists and tries to imprison Ferdinand. Refusing such treatment, Ferdinand draws his sword, but Prospero uses magic to freeze the young man in place.

Miranda pleads with her father to free him, but Prospero chides her for her innocence; he insists that this young man is a bad one. She offers herself as bond for his freedom, but Prospero rejects this. Ferdinand, still immobilized, hopes only that he might glimpse Miranda from his prison cell. Prospero is pleased; their romance is growing properly. He calls for Ariel to follow him and do as he commands.