The Tempest is one of Shakespeare’s most popular and highly regarded plays. The mysterious magician, the fantastical characters, the innocent ingénue, the delightful songs, and the rowdy physical humor all contribute to making this work charming and delightful to audiences all around the world.
At the center of the play and in control of all of the events is the enigmatic sorcerer or mage named Prospero. In several ways Prospero is like the title character in Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus. Both magicians value deep learning and esteem the power of magic, and both use their power to control the elements. And just as Doctor Faustus has the good angel and bad angel hovering about him as supernatural powers to influence or to affect his actions, Prospero has the goodly Ariel and the wicked Caliban to fulfill or to thwart his plans.
Yet, Prospero is also the opposite of Doctor Faustus as well. Faustus is a proponent of black magic or evil magic. His powers come from the devil Mephistopheles and from Satan himself. More importantly, he ultimately is unable to accomplish any of his plans or wishes. Prospero is a master of white magic. His powers come from learning and from his own inner abilities. And Prospero is able to control events and achieves the ends that he desires.
The intentions of the two playwrights were also quite on opposite ends of the spectrum. Christopher Marlowe was writing a Christian play to promote a Christian and moral purpose. Nearly twenty years later (in 1611) William Shakespeare was writing a secular play to promote a more universal message regarding the behavior of mankind.
Prospero is a complex character, and that complexity has led some critics to view him as an allegorical figure and other critics to see him as a symbol for Shakespeare himself. Audiences, however, can accept the character on his own terms and do not need to rely on extravagant theories of symbolism. Prospero enchants his audience and practically mesmerizes them just as he controls all of the events on his mysterious island.
Literary critics have also had some difficulty in determining the genre to which The Tempest belongs. Most critics today label the play as a romance, and many anthologies of Shakespeare’s works group The Tempest as a romance along with three other late plays by Shakespeare (Pericles, Prince of Tyre; Cymbeline; and The Winter's Tale).
The genre of the romance was highly popular in England during the Middle Ages. Many of the tales involving King Arthur and his knights are romances (which became popular in printed form in Thomas Mallory’s Le Morte d’Arthur in the 15th century), and notable earlier romances include King Horn from the 13th century and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight from the 14th century. These medieval romances focused on chivalric deeds of knights. They are primarily adventure stories, but they frequently included elements of courtly romance as well as supernatural characters or objects.
The romance genre continued into the Renaissance with certain changes by writers like Robert Greene and Thomas Lodge. The plots became more complex, and the writers placed a greater stress upon the emotions or sentiment of the main characters.
Plays based on these prose romances or plays bearing similar attributes could thus be called romances as well. However, Shakespeare himself never referred to The Tempest or The Winter’s Tale as romances. In fact, not until 1876, more than 250 years after Shakespeare wrote these plays, did critics start referring to the plays as romances. And the term is really unnecessary.
The critics have been largely inconsistent in defining and determining the category of romance. On the one hand, Robert Greene’s romance Pandosto is the source for Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale; on the other hand, Thomas Lodge’s Rosalynde (which was based on the medieval romance Gamelyn) is the source for As You Like It. Yet critics label The Winter’s Tale a romance and label As You Like It a comedy. Both plays could be called romances; and, just as easily, both plays could be called comedies.
In the Renaissance there are really only two categories of plays: tragedies (involving the tragic fall of the protagonist and thus ending sadly) and comedies (any play ending happily even though it may involve sad or serious events in the preceding action). The Tempest, then, is a comedy.
Yet, no matter what one may call The Tempest – romance or comedy or just a play – Shakespeare’s magical tale of the wizard Prospero and his innocent daughter Miranda – a tale of love and betrayal and usurpation and eventual redemption
– has intrigued and enchanted audiences for four centuries and will continue to intrigue and enchant audiences for many more centuries to come.