joeturner 's review for:

The Tempest by William Shakespeare

4.5

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The Tempest was one of Shakespeare last plays to be written and it finds The Bard in a very magnanimous mood. It's essentially a tale of revenge, with our protagonist, Prospero, devising a scheme (through the use of his magic powers and spirit-servants) to punish the nobleman who usurped his dukedom. The revenge is not the bloody kind however - here Prospero goes out of his way to allow the men who wronged him to repent. Some do - notably Gonzalo, the most noble of the group - where others remain unrepentant. The actions of the noblemen is mirrored by that of the monster Caliban (Prospero's slave), and two drunken, low-born members of the party. Most of the humour in the play comes from the scenes featuring Caliban and his consortium of clowns. Caliban is one of the play's more interesting character - a barely-human monster of low intelligence who nevertheless waxes poetically about the beauties of his native island. (Caliban seems to me like a clear inspiration for Tolkien's Gollum). The other key character is, of course, Prospero, who wields his magic to play the other characters like puppets. Many critics have made the obvious point that Prospero represents The Bard himself; the play even features a play-within-the-play to drive the point home. It's all very ingenious even if in the end it doesn't quite achieve the dramatic heights of Shakespeare's very best works.