Background
The Tempest is one of Shakespeare’s late plays, often read as a romance. Its island can feel like a refuge, a stage, and a place of confinement at once; shifts in music, entrances, and performance keep changing how the audience sees it.
Reading notes
- Ask who has the power to direct events in each scene, and who gets to speak back.
- Watch how music and theatrical tricks affect the characters as well as the audience.
- As the play approaches its ending, consider what forgiveness asks of both the person who grants it and the person who receives it.