Prospero is happy to see that his plan for his daughter’s future marriage is working, but decides that he must upset things temporarily in order to prevent their relationship from developing too quickly. He is the only man Miranda has ever seen, besides Caliban and her father. Miranda and Ferdinand are immediately smitten with each other. Ariel, invisible, enters playing music and leading in the awed Ferdinand. Prospero sends Caliban to fetch firewood. Caliban curses Prospero, and Prospero and Miranda berate him for being ungrateful for what they have given and taught him. Miranda awakens from her sleep, and she and Prospero go to visit Caliban, Prospero’s servant and the son of the dead Sycorax. After Ariel assures Prospero that he knows his place, Prospero orders Ariel to take the shape of a sea nymph and make himself invisible to all but Prospero. Sycorax died, leaving Ariel trapped until Prospero arrived and freed him. Before Prospero came to the island, a witch named Sycorax imprisoned Ariel in a tree. Prospero chastises Ariel for protesting and reminds him of the horrible fate from which he was rescued. Ariel, who is a captive servant to Prospero, reminds his master that he has promised Ariel freedom a year early if he performs tasks such as these without complaint. He then made sure that everyone got safely to the island, though they are now separated from each other into small groups.

Prospero and Ariel’s discussion reveals that Ariel brought the tempest upon the ship and set fire to the mast. Only now, Prospero says, has Fortune at last sent his enemies his way, and he has raised the tempest in order to make things right with them once and for all.Īfter telling this story, Prospero charms Miranda to sleep and then calls forth his familiar spirit Ariel, his chief magical agent. Prospero and his daughter arrived on the island where they remain now and have been for twelve years. Kidnapped and left to die on a raft at sea, Prospero and his daughter survive because Gonzalo leaves them supplies and Prospero’s books, which are the source of his magic and power. The story goes that Prospero was the Duke of Milan until his brother Antonio, conspiring with Alonso, the King of Naples, usurped his position. He reveals to her that he orchestrated the shipwreck and tells her the lengthy story of her past, a story he has often started to tell her before but never finished. Prospero assures her that everything is all right and then informs her that it is time she learned more about herself and her past. Miranda asks her father to do anything he can to help the poor souls in the ship. Miranda and Prospero stand on the shore of their island, looking out to sea at the recent shipwreck. Lightning cracks, and the mariners cry that the ship has been hit. The royal party and the other mariners, with the exception of the unflappable Boatswain, begin to fear for their lives. A storm strikes a ship carrying Alonso, Ferdinand, Sebastian, Antonio, Gonzalo, Stephano, and Trinculo, who are on their way to Italy after coming from the wedding of Alonso’s daughter, Claribel, to the prince of Tunis in Africa.

The tempest pdf