1. PROVIDENCE AND PATIENCE
Prospero tells Miranda (Act I, Scene II) that they reached the island “By providence divine”- that is,
through the guidance and benevolence of God. Though there are few direct references to God in The Tempest, this highly Christian theme permeates the play. Ferdinand phrases it briefly in Act V: “Though the seas
threaten, they are merciful.” The Tempest is a play about a storm that turns into a blessing. There are times
in all our lives when things may look bleak, even desperate; but a good Christian trusts in the wisdom and
mercy of God to bring things to a happy end.
If Prospero represents the workings of providence (he raises the storm and offers the blessing),
Gonzalo is the good Christian, the man of faith. (His speech in Act V, Scene I, is the great summation of the
providence theme.) Another name for this faith is patience: Gonzalo patiently endures doubt and hardship because his faith sustains him. His firm belief in a just God convinces him that no matter how bad things look,
they’ll turn out for the best. Alonso, in contrast, is the impatient man, rebuffing Gonzalo’s attempts to console him. Because he lacks faith in providence, he insists that Ferdinand is dead and that searching for him is
useless. He refuses to believe a just power oversees events, and this doubt signifies a lack of trust in God.
2. FORGIVENESS AND REPENTANCE
The Tempest is clearly a play about reconciliation. What isn’t clear is whether Prospero intends from
the beginning to forgive his old enemies or whether his mercy is a last-minute decision. The fact that he
plans from the first to marry Ferdinand to Miranda would suggest that he had planned a reconciliation with
Ferdinand’s father, Alonso, all along. On the other hand, however, you can point to the anger that grips Prospero until the end; if he were planning to forgive from the beginning, wouldn’t he already have overcome his
anger? Those who think he decides only late in the play to forgive, focus especially on Ariel’s description,
early in Act V, of Alonso and his party in distress, which may be the turning point in prompting Prospero to
pity and mercy. But Prospero’s words here lead to a further confusion. “They being penitent,” he tells Ariel,
is all he wanted- which is essentially what Ariel told the “three men of sin” in his harsh speech near the end
of Act III, Scene III. Alonso asks for Prospero’s pardon and expresses remorse for his crimes to Miranda as
well. Antonio and Sebastian, however, give no hint that they’re penitent, when even the bestial Caliban is
declaring he’ll “be wise hereafter/And seek for grace.”
Then why does Prospero forgive these unremorseful villains? That’s one of the mysteries of the play.
(Even God forgives only sinners who repent.) It may be that Shakespeare considers humanity so depraved
that if you only forgave those who deserved it, then nobody would ever be forgiven. Or he may think that the
forgiveness itself is what’s important, regardless of whether the forgiven party deserves it; as Prospero says,
“The rarer action is/In virtue than in vengeance” (Act V, Scene I). But if that’s the case, where does justice fit
in-isn’t it also right to punish criminals, especially unrepentant ones? This is a question to which Shakespeare
doesn’t provide the answer. What advice might you give to Prospero regarding Antonio and Sebastian?
3. KNOWLEDGE AND ORDER
Shakespeare uses education to contrast Miranda, who has a “high” nature, with “low”-natured Caliban. Miranda’s education nurtures her into a fine, moral, and chaste young woman. But Caliban, as Prospero
complains in Act IV, Scene I, is a creature “on whose nature/Nurture can never stick”; his education only
makes him dissatisfied with his low status. As Caliban says, his main profit from learning language is knowing how to curse.
Prospero made the same mistake with Caliban as he had made with Antonio: he failed to keep them
in their proper places, and his leniency gave both of them a taste for a station higher than their own. Shakespeare’s audience had a highly developed sense of order- the King ruled by divine right, aristocrats were
people with high natures, and the poor drudged at their low station because God intended it that way. Trying
to rise above your station was doing exactly what got Satan expelled from heaven.
Knowledge, though precious, can be dangerous if it interferes with order. Adam and Eve ate from the
tree of knowledge because they wanted to be “as gods.” Prospero, too, lost his dukedom because he neglected governing for studying. Prospero’s book may be the source of his power on the island, but he must learn
the proper place of knowledge on the scale of values if he is to be a truly wise ruler.
4. BEAUTY AND VIRTUE
Much is said about beauty in The Tempest. Miranda in particular is taken with the way people look.
She falls in love at her first sight of Ferdinand’s “brave form”, and later, when she beholds Alonso and his
nobles, she cries,
O, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world
That has such people in’t! (Act V, Scene I, lines 181-184)
Miranda associates beauty with “goodliness” not only because of Ferdinand, but also because her
main image of evil has been Caliban-who, as Prospero informs you in Act IV, Scene I, grows uglier as his
mind cankers. Caliban’s mother, the “foul witch Sycorax, was equally deformed, “grown into a hoop” with
“age and envy” (Act I, Scene II).
Shakespeare’s audience believed in a connection between physical and moral beauty; the body, they
thought, was a reflection of the soul. (According to Genesis, after all, God created humanity in his own image.) But they weren’t quite as naive as Miranda, and neither was Shakespeare: the “goodly creatures” she
extols include Antonio and Sebastian, who may look noble but aren’t. The theme of beauty-equals-virtue
works on a simple, fairy-tale plane in the Miranda-Ferdinand scenes, but before the play is over Shakespeare
reminds you that reality isn’t as neat.
5. CHASTITY AND APPETITE
A contrast in The Tempest is made between Ferdinand, who praises chastity, and Caliban, a creature
of uncontrolled desire. (See especially the beginning of Act IV, where Prospero lectures Ferdinand on the
subject.) Prospero must learn to control his own appetites, especially for knowledge, and to control his anger.
Ferdinand promises to be chaste before marriage with Miranda, and yet is caught embracing (or kissing) her
before the engagement party festivities begin. Later, when he has the chance to "break her virgin knot" when
they are alone together in Prospero's cell, they are discovered instead playing chess. Do intellectual pursuits
overcome basic desires?
Though Caliban is the prime example of appetite run amuck, Shakespeare also offers Stephano (a
drunkard) and Trinculo- who plan murder, rape, and robbery- as well as Antonio and Sebastian, as horrible
examples of what uncontrolled appetites can do to people.
6. PURIFICATION THROUGH SUFFERING
Another important theme might be called purification through suffering. Prospero, in his long exile,
has more than atoned for whatever mistakes he might have made when he ruled Milan. Ferdinand must suffer through Prospero’s tests before he can win Miranda’s hand. Most significantly, Alonso must undergo the
suffering that Prospero has designed for him before Prospero can find it in his heart to forgive him. Prospero
has created a Purgatory for Alonso and his companions on the island; only after they’re purged is he ready to
show them his benevolent side.
7. NATURE VS. NURTURE
Another important theme explored by the characters in the play is the concept of nature vs. nurture.
Prospero is convinced that Caliban's evil nature as the son of a witch cannot be overcome by the nurturing
(civilizing) that he and his daughter attempted to accomplish. Miranda teaches Caliban about the moon and
the stars, and Caliban repays her by trying to rape her. In the same way, although Prospero forgives Alonso
who was involved in overthrowing him as Duke of Milan, he does not believe that Antonio, his own brother,
will change from his ambitious nature. Instead of forgiving Antonio outright, he warns him–essentially
blackmails him–that he will tell Alonso that Antonio tried to kill him if he doesn't behave in the future. Prospero believes that Antonio's ambitious nature cannot be redeemed by kind words and forgiveness.