The Tempest

Prospero's island: shipwreck, magic, and forgiveness in the play that closes Shakespeare's solo canon.

Specifications & Metrics

author

William Shakespeare

type

Romance / tragicomedy

era

Jacobean (c. 1610–1611)

language

Early Modern English

setting

An unnamed Mediterranean island

source text

Reports of the Sea Venture wreck (1609); Montaigne's 'Of Cannibals'

acts

5 acts

Relative Scale in Plays

Core Principles & Analysis

• Probably the last play Shakespeare wrote alone, staged in 1611.
• The shipwreck echoes contemporary reports of the Sea Venture on Bermuda.
• Postcolonial criticism made Caliban and Prospero's island a central modern debate.

Sources

• Wikipedia: The Tempest