kids encyclopedia robot

The Tempest facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts
William Hamilton Prospero and Ariel
Prospero and Ariel from a painting by William Hamilton

The Tempest is one of William Shakespeare's last comedies. The story is set on an island where a magician called Prospero and his daughter live.

They are on this deserted island because of Prospero's brother, Antonio, and the King of Naples, Alonso, banishing Prospero and his daughter. Prospero takes revenge and with his magic and he makes Alonso and Antonio along with other characters become stranded on the island. Many events take place on the island but almost everyone feels guilty and sorry for their actions. In the end they head back to Milan, Italy, thanks to Prospero's spirit, Ariel.

Main characters

  • Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan, who is a magician
  • Miranda, Prospero's daughter
  • Ariel, an airy spirit who used to be a slave of Sycorax
  • Caliban, a savage and deformed slave
  • Alonso, King of Naples
  • Ferdinand, son of Alonso
  • Sebastian, Alonso's brother
  • Antonio, Prospero's brother, the usurping Duke of Milan
  • Gonzalo, an honest old councillor
  • Adrian and Francisco, lords
  • Sycorax (unseen), a deceased sorceress and mother of Caliban, who was banished to the island before Prospero arrived and enslaved the spirits on the island, including Ariel.

Prospero sets up Ferdinand and Miranda and they fall in love.

Parallels with Forbidden Planet

The 1956 science fiction film Forbidden Planet set the story on a planet in space, Altair IV, instead of an island.

Professor Morbius (Walter Pidgeon) and his daughter Altaira (Anne Francis) are the Prospero and Miranda figures (both Prospero and Morbius having harnessed the mighty forces that inhabit their new homes). Ariel is represented by the helpful Robbie the Robot, while Sycorax is replaced with the powerful race of the Krell. Caliban is represented by the dangerous and invisible "monster from the id", a projection of Morbius' psyche born from the Krell technology instead of Sycorax's womb.

Images for kids

  • George Romney - William Shakespeare - The Tempest Act I, Scene 1

    The shipwreck in Act I, Scene 1, in a 1797 engraving by Benjamin Smith after a painting by George Romney

  • Prospero and miranda

    Prospero and Miranda from a painting by William Maw Egley; ca. 1850

  • Rowe Tempest

    A depiction from Nicholas Rowe's 1709 edition of Shakespeare's plays of the stage direction of the opening of the 1674 adaptation

  • Sylvester Jordain - Discovery of the Barmudas

    Sylvester Jourdain's A Discovery of the Barmudas

  • First-page-first-folio-tempest

    The first page of The Tempest, printed in the First Folio of 1623

  • Millais ferdy

    Ferdinand Lured by Ariel by John Everett Millais, 1850

  • George Romney - Lady Hamilton (as Miranda) 2

    Oil sketch of Emma Hart, as Miranda, by George Romney

  • Drury Lane Playbill - The Tempest

    A playbill for a 1757 production of The Tempest at the Drury Lane Theatre Royal

  • Angelica Kauffmann 007

    Miranda and Ferdinand by Angelica Kauffman, 1782

  • Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Caliban

    A charcoal drawing by Charles Buchel of Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Caliban in the 1904 production.

  • The Tempest, OVO, St Albans, June 2014

    Caliban rants at Prospero while Ariel looks on, in a 2014 production by OVO theatre company, St Albans, UK

  • Shakespeare's Heroines - Miranda

    "Miranda" by Frederick Goodall, from the Graphic Gallery of Shakespeare's Heroines

  • William Hogarth 017

    William Hogarth's painting of The Tempest ca. 1735.

  • Alexandrov Caliban

    Fyodor Paramonov as Caliban, Maly Theatre (Moscow), 1905

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: La tempestad (teatro) para niños

kids search engine
All content from Kiddle encyclopedia articles (including the article images and facts) can be freely used under Attribution-ShareAlike license, unless stated otherwise. Cite this article:
The Tempest Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.