The Tempest Summary

The Tempest is a play in five acts, unusual for Shakespeare in that it observes the classical unities of time, place, and action:

Structure at a glance

• Act 1. The storm and shipwreck; Prospero tells Miranda their history and commands Ariel
• Act 2. The stranded courtiers plot; Caliban meets the drunken Stephano and Trinculo
• Act 3. Ferdinand and Miranda fall in love; Caliban schemes to kill Prospero
• Act 4. A wedding masque celebrates the young couple; Prospero foils Caliban's plot
• Act 5. Prospero confronts and forgives his enemies, frees Ariel, and renounces magic

The entire action unfolds in a single afternoon on the island, giving the play unusual unity and momentum.

This summary of The Tempest by William Shakespeare opens with a violent storm at sea that wrecks a ship carrying Alonso, the King of Naples, his son Ferdinand, Prospero's brother Antonio, and others. The storm, however, is no accident: it has been conjured by Prospero, a powerful magician living on a nearby island. Years earlier, Prospero was the Duke of Milan until his brother Antonio, with Alonso's help, usurped his title and set him and his infant daughter Miranda adrift at sea. They survived and washed up on the island, which Prospero now rules with magic.

Prospero commands two servants: Ariel, an airy spirit he freed from imprisonment and who longs for liberty, and Caliban, the island's resentful native, whom Prospero has enslaved. Using Ariel's powers, Prospero ensures that the shipwrecked men survive but are scattered across the island, each group believing the others drowned. Prince Ferdinand is led to Prospero's cell, where he and Miranda instantly fall in love, exactly as Prospero hopes, though he tests Ferdinand by forcing him into labor.

As told in this The Tempest summary, the island becomes a stage for several intrigues. Among the courtiers, Antonio persuades Alonso's brother Sebastian to plot the king's murder, but Ariel foils them. In a comic subplot, Caliban encounters two drunken castaways, the butler Stephano and the jester Trinculo, and, mistaking Stephano for a god, urges them to kill Prospero and seize the island. Meanwhile, Prospero blesses Ferdinand and Miranda's union and stages a magical masque of spirits to celebrate, before suddenly remembering Caliban's murderous plot and dispelling the vision.

Prospero and Ariel thwart Caliban's drunken conspiracy and gather all of Prospero's enemies together, holding them in his power. With his foes finally at his mercy, and with the gentle Ariel urging compassion, Prospero must choose between vengeance and forgiveness, setting up the play's climactic resolution.

The Tempest ends with forgiveness, reconciliation, and Prospero's renunciation of magic. Having gathered his enemies, his brother Antonio, King Alonso, and Sebastian, within his power, Prospero chooses mercy over revenge. He reveals his true identity as the wronged Duke of Milan, forgives those who betrayed him, and reclaims his rightful dukedom. Alonso, overjoyed to discover that his son Ferdinand is alive, blesses the young man's betrothal to Miranda, uniting the families.

Prospero keeps his promise to Ariel and grants the spirit his long-desired freedom. Caliban and the drunken conspirators, Stephano and Trinculo, are exposed and rebuked, and Caliban resolves to be wiser. The ship, thought destroyed, is revealed to be safe, and the whole company prepares to sail back to Italy for Ferdinand and Miranda's wedding and Prospero's restoration.

Prospero then solemnly renounces his magic, vowing to break his staff and drown his book. In a famous epilogue, he steps forward and addresses the audience directly, saying his powers are gone and that only their applause can now set him free, lines many read as Shakespeare's own farewell to the stage. The conclusion of this summary of The Tempest is one of harmony and grace: betrayal gives way to forgiveness, exile to homecoming, and magic to the ordinary human world.

Here are some of the most famous quotes from The Tempest by William Shakespeare. These verbatim lines capture the play's themes of illusion, wonder, and forgiveness:

"We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep."

"O brave new world, that has such people in't!"

"Hell is empty and all the devils are here."

"Our revels now are ended."

"Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows."

These The Tempest quotes are widely quoted because they capture Shakespeare's meditation on the dreamlike nature of life, the wonder of discovery, and the power of illusion and reconciliation.