Prospero the Playwright

Magic and Pageantry in Shakespeare’s Tempest

Edmund Dulac, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Prospero loses his dukedom, usurped by his brother Antonio, and is left to die at sea with his daughter Miranda. Shipwrecked upon an unknown island, Prospero learns magic from a collection of books and plans his revenge. While Prospero’s newfound power is coercive, allowing him to enslave the native Caliban and the spirit Ariel, his magic possesses…