The Tempest with which the play opens is the result of Prospero’s control of the elements, where Prospero creates a storm at sea. Alonso, the king of Naples, is sailing home after the marriage of his daughter, Claribel, to the King of Tunis. During the voyage the weather suddenly deteriorates, and Alonso’s ship is separated from the rest of the fleet and driven towards an island. Miranda has seen this shipwreck and asks her father, Prospero, to help the victims, especially as he is the one responsible for carrying out the storm. Prospero has done everything to make sure that no harm comes to anyone and that he has used his magical powers entirely for her sake. However, once Prospero explains his tale from being usurped by Antonio, the audience are aware that the shipwreck fits well into his plan of vengeance as well. We are then introduced to Ariel, a magical spirit in service to Prospero, who has obeyed Prospero’s commands to separate Alonso’s ship from the rest of the fleet, causing them to believe that the king and his party had drowned. He has frightened the courtiers so that they have abandoned ship. He has seen to it essentially that each one of them is safe and that they are merely split up, confused and weariless. In particular this of Alonso’s son, Ferdinand, is alone as instructed by Prospero to Ariel.
This passage comes from the second scene of the first act and is significant in introducing the audience to the island and its dwellers. Prospero’s power is stressed and perhaps the audience is encouraged to think of Prospero as a godlike figure, whose power one admires but whose actions are not always understood.
Power is certainly thematic in the play, whether it is the power of the elements or Prospero’s control of them. It is possible that Shakespeare is questioning the use or value of political power.
Love, in its many forms, is thematic in The Tempest. This scene reveals the falling in love and the development of love between Miranda and Ferdinand, shown in their kindness to each other and their willingness to suffer for each other; as well as the love of a father for a daughter; and the interrelationship between love and power: Prospero plans the love in order to win back his dukedom; Ferdinand is willing to forgo his princedom if it means he can have Miranda. Shakespeare uses dramatic irony to give power to prospero to carry his plan on the couple. Miranda and Ferdinand take Prospero’s criticisms at face value:
‘Speak not you for him: he’s a traitor. Come;
I’ll manacle thy neck and feet together:
Sea-Water shalt thou drink; thy food shall be
The fresh-brook mussels, wither’d roots, and husks
Wherein the acorn cradled.
However, the audience realises that Prospero has arranged the meeting between Ferdinand and his daughter in the hope that they will fall in love and thus heal the breach between Naples and Milan. The punishment is created so that Ferdinand will not feel that Miranda is won too easily. Shakespeare gave power to Prospero to accomplish this, and this is an example of him using the magic and power for non-personal gain, but that of the love for his daughter and her happiness.
