The Tempest book cover

The Tempest

William Shakespeare · English text · 17,401 words

A storm brings a group of travelers to an island where Prospero has spent years shaping the lives around him. The play moves between spectacle, political repair, family conflict, and the difficult choice to release control.

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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.

Version note

Text source: the Standard Ebooks EPUB edition identified on this page. This site extracted the English text and retained the source edition’s chapter order. Public-domain status must be checked for the territory where the text will be distributed.