The Tempest at a glance: A brief guide to the William Shakespeare play

First staged in 1611, The Tempest is widely thought to have been the last play the Bard wrote alone

Tim McMullan as Prospero in Dominic Dromgoole's The Tempest, (Globe Theatre)

Plot: The magician Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan, and his daughter, Miranda, are stranded on a godforsaken spit of land after being set adrift by his jealous brother, Antonio.

Reluctantly served by the spirit Ariel and the deformed Caliban, son of Sycorax the witch, Prospero raises a tempest to shipwreck a vessel carrying Antonio, King Alonso of Naples, his son Prince Ferdinand, Sebastian, the King’s brother, and the trusted Gonzalo.

Prospero works his magic on Ferdinand and Miranda and they fall in love. He thwarts Antonio and Sebastian’s plans to kill the King and, after messing everyone about, he decides to forgive those who have wronged him. The play ends with the voyage back to Naples and Prospero requesting a big round of applause.

Themes: Innocence; revenge; exploitation; magic.

Background: First staged in 1611, The Tempest is widely thought to have been the last play the Bard wrote alone. It may have been influenced by the wreck of the Sea Venture on Bermuda in 1609. For much of the 18th and 19th centuries, Caliban, not Prospero, was seen as the starring role; now the latter is coveted by the thespian elite. In 2000, Vanessa Redgrave played the character as neither a man nor a woman. Simon Russell Beale played a resentful Ariel in Sam Mendes’ 1993 RSC production.

Key characters

Prospero: enigmatic sorcerer

Ariel: captive spirit under Prospero’s charge

Caliban: monstrous, symbolic savage

Top lines

“You taught me language; and my profit on’t is, I know how to curse,” Caliban abuses Prospero, Act 1, Scene 2

“We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep,” Prospero reflects, Act 4, Scene 1

“Where the bee sucks, there suck I: in a cowslip’s bell I lie”: Ariel on himself, Act 5, Scene 1

“O brave new world, that has such people in’t!”: Miranda discovers men, Act 5, Scene 1