Reader Reviews for Tempest:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: The great Globe itself
Comment: "The Tempest" is Shakespeare's last great play, and in an oddly appropriate way it is very different from much of his earlier efforts. Unlike most of Shakespeare's work, "The Tempest" seems to have come mostly from the Bard's own mind, and does not have source materials from which Shakespeare lifted the plot. This may explain the weakness of the plot of the play, regardless it does not matter in the big scheme of things.
The play takes the form of following three separate groups on an enchanted isle. A group of foul noblemen, who gained power through the usurpation of the rightful ruler, a comic trio who stumble about in drunkenness and plot evil deeds (the play's comic relief) and the "lord" of the island (Prospero) and his faithful spirit world servants. When the three plots converge in the final act of the text Shakespeare gives the reader a satisfying conclusion, but one that still has a hint of sadness and darkness to it. The famous epilogue of the play spoken by Prospero (Now my charms are all o'erthrown...) leaves the reader with a plethora of questions and emotions. This epilogue is one of the most beautiful pieces in the entire canon.
It has become fashionable to make "The Tempest" a valedictory play for Shakespeare, and there are many moments in the text that can be read as Prospero speaking for him. At the play's conclusion Prospero frees his trusty servant Ariel (some say his muse), acknowledges the half human Caliban as "mine own" (some say his own dark nature) and gives up his magic powers (his talent). This is an appropriate reading, and a satisfying one for lovers of Shakespeare. Just be careful not to limit the text to just that interpretation.
I think the greater strength in the piece is its portrayal of the absolute humanity of forgiveness, and how lucky we as humans are to be able to practice it. The most poignant scene in Shakespeare begins at the beginning of Act V when Ariel tells Prospero that he would be moved to pity for the people that Prospero has entrapped on the island (with the plan of taking revenge) "were I human". This stunning declaration causes Prospero to recant his vengeful purposes, "the rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance." A grown up Shakespeare has lived a life and seen the capacity for good that humanity can engender. It is hard to imagine the man who wrote "The Tempest" as the same man who wrote the revenge blood fest "Titus Andronicus" so many years earlier. A mature work, from a mature playwright!
As for the Pelican Shakespeare series, they are my favorite editions as the scholarly research is usually top notch and the editions themselves look good as an aesthetic unit. It looks and feel like a play and this compliments the text's contents admirably. The Pelican series was recently reedited and has the latest scholarship on Shakespeare and his time period. Well priced and well worth it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Rather like a dream than an assurance
Comment: Many consider "The Tempest" to be the final play that Shakespeare wrote solo, which gives a certain bittersweet flavor to its story -- especially since the main character is a sorcerer who manipulates others to get the ending he desires. Shakespeare juggled a trio of main stories before tying them off in rare style, but it's Prospero and his final speech that are truly intriguing.
For many years, the exiled Duke of Milan Prospero has lived on a remote island with his young daughter Miranda. But when he discovers that his treacherous brother Antonio and his similarly treacherous friends are nearby on a sailing ship, he summons a storm that causes the ship to crash on the island.
And like a puppet-master, Prospero arranges this as he wants -- he sends his servant Ariel to haunt the men who betrayed him, he thwarts the machinations of his evil servant Caliban, and he pretends to treat Alonso's son Ferdinand badly while secretly matchmaking him with Miranda. In the end, everything will be as he desired.
"The Tempest" is a play with two different dimensions. On one hand, we have a simple story about a mage whose power allows him to manipulate everything in his little domain. And on the other, we have the story of a brilliant storyteller who arranges his own little worlds as he sees fit, and bids farewell to his role ("Now my charms are all o'erthrown/And what strength I have's mine own...")
And appreciated on its own, "The Tempest" is a brilliant play -- Shakespeare juggled the three main plotlines nicely, and brought a solid sense of resolution to the story. His rich dialogue is stunning ("But doth suffer a sea-change/Into something rich and strange/Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell..."), especially during Ariel's songs and Prospero's speeches. Even the insults are brilliant -- just try yelling "A pox o' your throat, you bawling, blasphemous, incharitable dog!" at someone you don't like.
Prospero is a rather unique character -- he rules over his little island with magical powers, sort of like a local demigod. Everything that happens on the island is because he wants it to be so, but he's a sad, benevolent figure rather than a tyrannical one. And Shakespeare sketches up an intriguing cast of characters, both mortal and immortal -- the ethereal, puckish Ariel and grotesque Caliban, the naive Miranda, and the contemptible trio of onetime conspirators.
"O brave new world, That has such people in't!" cries Miranda at the end of "The Tempest," and while not every character in it deserves a "brave new world," the play itself feels like a weekend trip into a magical world.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Shakespeare's play of the early 1600s gains immensely from contemporary readers' post-colonial lens
Comment: Shakespeare's play THE TEMPEST is, much like THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, a play where one is not quite sure whether to ascribe characterization to the ethnic stereotypes of the time or laud the playwright for looking beyond the prejudices of society to the universal equality of human beings. The plot of THE TEMPEST is generally about exiled duke and magician Prospero luring his enemies to his island to wreak vengence is entertaining enough, what remains with me after every reading is the interaction between Prospero and the indigenous islander Caliban. How, as Shakespeare has the reader ask, can Prospero blast his fellows for overthrowing him if the magician has done the same to Caliban? THE MERCHANT OF VENICE had Shylock giving a moving defence of his humanity before the jeers of Elizabethan society, but then he went back to being the Jewish villian that contemporary audiences would love to hate. Caliban gets that too, for although a European character muses on the possibility that primitive societies are superior to his own, Caliban is mostly exploited for a sort of comedy: watch as Prospero harasses and torments the foreigner!
Over the years I've seen certain conservative writers blast the tendency of contemporary readers to focus on the Prospero-Caliban relationship, seeing it as a manifestation of political correctness. Still, that's what makes THE TEMPEST intriguing and saves the play from being a fairly goofy account of conspirators getting their comeuppance through an elemental spirit playing tricks on them, and then two young people falling in love but being commanded not to get frisky.
I read the Bantam Classic edition of this work, which features some fine supplementary materials. The chapter on The Tempest in performance tracks the play's remarkable staging history, for Shakespeare's original work was usually extended operetta-style with music and dancing until the 20th century. Bantam also includes extracts from the 16th century works which served as an inspiration for Shakespeare's setting: Sylvester Jourdain's "A Discovery of the Bermudas", William Strachey's account of the same incident, and Baron Montaigne's essay on cannibals.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: The Tempest: Ambiguous
Comment: Title: The Tempest by William Shakespeare
Pages: 187 (including commentary and notes).
Time spent on the "to read" shelf: 2-3 years.
Days spent reading it: 1 evening.
Why I read it: I was reading some sci-fi books (Illium and Olympos by Dan Simmons) that used characters and plot points from the Tempest as a major element of the book. I figured it was about time that I read a classic Shakespeare and figure out why these characters were used and why someone might use them again in a sci-fi story.
Brief review: What an odd play. The Tempest is about a storm that causes a ship to basically wreck on an abandoned island. As we get into the play, we are introduced to the main character Prospero. Prospero has apparently caused this storm to happen and has plans for the people whom he has shipwrecked.
It's difficult to say if I liked this play or not. It was very difficult to read. I find Shakespeare brutally difficult to understand, and this play was no exception. His sentences and syntax are so difficult to read its hard to follow what exactly a character is talking about.
A major part of this play is Prospero's plans. We are never told explicitly what Prospero's actual plans are. He apparently changes them at some points in the play. He has no advisors and no confidants. The critical introduction to my version of the play says that is what makes this play unique amongst Shakespeare's plays. Prospero is an enigma. He's ambiguous. He's hard to pin down. And what are we to make of his "monster" Caliban, who serves Prospero but also wants to overthrow him? He repents, but are we to believe his repentance? What are we to understand about love as represented by Miranda and Ferdinand? Can love be setup? Can we recognize our true loves in a matter of minutes? Or seconds? Shakespeare has some unique insights into the nature of humanity, but some of his ideas ultimately seem forced or unnatural to me.
I realized once again, I'm not a big fan of Shakespeare. I'm sorry. I just do not think the effort of understanding is worth the payoff. I know, blasphemous, but that's my take on the Bard. I'll stick with my greek tragedies please.
Favorite quote:
Caliban: "Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,/ Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not./ Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments/ Will hum about mine ears; and sometimes voices/ That, if then had waked after long sleep,/ Will make me sleep again; and then, in dreaming,/ The clouds mehtought would open, and show riches/ Ready to drop upon me, that when I waked/ I cried to dream again."
Stars: 2.5 out of 5
Final Word: Ambiguous.
Customer Rating:
Summary: No active footnotes for Kindle
Comment: Penguin needs to take more care before putting out the Kindle editions of their Pelican Shakespeare plays to make sure they're all properly formatted. This Pelican Kindle edition of The Tempest doesn't have active footnotes for the Kindle, unlike their edition of The Merchant of Venice which I downloaded at the same time. Without active footnotes, you have to click through several pages to get to the information referred to and then click several pages back to where you left off reading. Not a fun way to read Shakespeare.
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