The Tempest Themes

The Tempest, is sometimes known to be the last major play written by the Bard of Avon. This is a rather complicated play with many different themes. And like many of his other plays, could be performed with many different interpretation. This story follows Prosper, the rightful ruler of Milan, and his daughter Miranda whom have both been sent away by Prosperous own brother on a battered up boat, to fortunately land on an island where they survived for 12 years. The usurper himself, his followers, and Alonso, the man who helped, the usurper to get rid of Prosper, hyperlinked onto the island Prosper lived on.
They were separated into 3 groups at first, but ended up finding their way to each other. This is when Prosper forgave both his brother and Alonso. In the end, they all returned to Naples where Miranda married Ferdinand, the son of Alonso. There are many themes in this play, and several different types of love is of of them. The first type of love, is romantic love. The most obvious, and perhaps the most commonly seen theme in the works of Shakespeare. In this case, this love is seen teen Miranda and Ferdinand.
They first meet in Act 1 Scene II. It was love at first sight. Even before Miranda had her first conversation with Ferdinand, she said, “l might call him/ A thing divine, for nothing natural/ I ever saw so noble” (l, it, 420-422). Miranda is praising Ferdinand, and calling him a good man even though she doesn’t know him at all, yet alone, enough to Judge his character. A little further on in the story, Miranda challenges her father’s decision of making Ferdinand do hard labor when Prosper accused Ferdinand to be a spy.

We know by now that Prosper can become rather intimidating when his orders are defied. From this we can understand just how strong this love (at first sight) was. Parental love is another form of love that which we can observe in this play. Most of the parental love is seen between Prosper and Miranda. One of the many heart warming line is spoken by Alonso in act four. “Have given you here a third of mine own life,] Or that for which I live; who once again/ I tender to thy hand,. All thy vexations” (VI, I, 3-5).
Alonso treasures three things in his life: his study, Milan, and Miranda. This line continues to say that all of the trouble Ferdinand was put through was merely a test Prosper did to make sure he was the right man for his beloved daughter. He loved Miranda so much, that he needed to make sure, by using extreme measures, that the attraction between Miranda and Ferdinand was more than Just a part of Alonso ‘art’. Ferdinand and Alonso have moments in which we can observe said theme. Majority of the love between them appear in the form of mourning.
This is because both father and son believes that the other did not survive the shipwreck. For example, during Ferdinand first conversation with Alonso, he said “Who with mind eyes, en’ ere since at ebb, behold/ The King my father wracked” (l, I’, 428-439). Ferdinand is saying that he has not stopped crying since the shipwreck that took his father’s life. Fraternal love is something we rarely see in this play. In the beginning when Prosper finally opens up to Miranda about his past, he said, “Of all the world I loved,
The Tempest Themes By Billy-Patterson and to him put ” (l, ii, 69) This may be the one and only time in which Prosper speaks of Antonio so dearly. He loved, and therefore trusted Antonio to take good care of his dukedom. However this brotherly bond was ruined when Antonio decided to betray Prosper and usurped the latter’s position as the duke of Milan. Prosper himself described this betray as ‘perfidious’ and called him a ‘false uncle’ which can be translated to become ‘a corrupt uncle’.
It is quite devastating to understand the act that the special bond between the brothers had turned into something that is filled with distaste and resentment. In conclusion, this play has talked about numerous aspects of love. Romantic love, specifically love at first sight, between Ferdinand and Miranda. Parental love between Alonso and Ferdinand, and Prosper and Miranda. And finally fraternal love between Ferdinand and Antonio. The Tempest touches on many different themes throughout the play, but it still brings light to the many different existing aspects of love.