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Spotlight: The Tempest, William Shakespeare
Ferdinand Courting Miranda by William Hogarth, oil on canvas, c. 1735
The Tempest is one of Shakespeare’s final plays and is a profound reflection on political authority, human nature, moral responsibility, and the possibility of reconciliation. The play centres on Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan, who was overthrown by his brother Antonio and cast adrift with his daughter Miranda. Having survived on a remote island for twelve years, Prospero has acquired mastery over the magical arts and commands the spirit Ariel as well as the island’s sole inhabitant, Caliban. When a storm of his own making shipwrecks his enemies on the island, Prospero gains the opportunity to punish those who betrayed him and restore his lost position. Instead, after testing their character and witnessing the love that develops between Miranda and Ferdinand (son of the King of Naples), he chooses forgiveness over revenge. Prospero renounces his magic, frees Ariel, and returns to Milan reconciled with his former enemies.
What makes The Tempest especially rich is that Shakespeare refuses to divide his characters neatly into heroes and villains. Prospero is wise and just, yet also controlling and at times vengeful. Ariel, meanwhile, embodies a longing for freedom and the tension between service and autonomy. Shakespeare invites the audience to judge each character with moral seriousness rather than simple approval or condemnation.
In the Hillsdale College professor Stephen Smith’s reading, Prospero’s journey is not merely political but moral: unlike Hamlet, who is consumed by indecision and revenge, Prospero learns moderation, prudence, and mercy. His true victory comes not from regaining power but from mastering himself. Shakespeare thus presents forgiveness as a higher form of strength than domination.
The Tempest is also famous for its reflections on art and illusion. Prospero’s magic resembles the playwright’s own creative power, and many readers see his renunciation of magic as Shakespeare’s farewell to the stage. The play’s haunting reminder that ‘we are such stuff as dreams are made on’ is suggestive of the fragility of human ambition and the transience of earthly power.
For students of the Western tradition, The Tempest is indispensable because it brings together enduring questions about justice, liberty, statesmanship, education, forgiveness, and the limits of power. It stands at the intersection of classical philosophy, Christian moral thought, and Renaissance humanism, making it one of the most intellectually rewarding works to engage with in the Western canon.
Verse: 'Past and Future’ by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
MY future will not copy fair my past
On any leaf but Heaven's. Be fully done,
Supernal Will ! I would not fain be one
Who, satisfying thirst and breaking fast
Upon the fulness of the heart, at last
Saith no grace after meat. My wine hath run
Indeed out of my cup, and there is none
To gather up the bread of my repast
Scattered and trampled ! Yet I find some good
In earth's green herbs, and streams that bubble up
Clear from the darkling ground, — content until
I sit with angels before better food.
Dear Christ ! when thy new vintage fills my cup,
This hand shall shake no more, nor that wine spill.
Published 1844, in ‘Past and Future’, Browning embraces the good that can be gleaned from this world whilst noting that total satisfaction will only be realised in the life to come.
Pensées
Chesterton’s Fence – ‘Let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate [is] erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, “I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.” To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: “If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.”’
Q: G.K. Chesterton in The Thing instructs his readers to think carefully before tearing something down. In our culture today where progress is an obsession — do you think we could do with a little more Chestertonian thinking?
Diversions
Canada’s history is being quietly erased, writes Geoff Russ.
Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest is on this summer at the Avon theatre in Stratford, ON.
A list of 7 stunning Canadian gardens for you to visit this summer.
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