The Tempest: Character Mind Map & Summary
Shakespeare’s The Tempest: the key characters of the island and the shipwrecked court, the three plots, the most-quoted lines, an act-by-act summary and the exam facts.
The Character Mind Map
Tap any name to open the details.
Prospero
The rightful Duke of Milan, overthrown by his brother Antonio twelve years ago and cast adrift with his baby daughter Miranda. On a remote island he has mastered magic. When his enemies sail past, he raises a storm to bring them into his power. In the end he chooses forgiveness over revenge, gives up his magic and returns home.
We are such stuff / As dreams are made on, and our little life / Is rounded with a sleep.Ending: forgives, frees Ariel and speaks the Epilogue
🏝️ The Island
Prospero’s householdMirandaProspero’s daughter
Role: Raised on the island, she has seen no man but her father and Caliban. She falls in love with Ferdinand at first sight.
O brave new world, / That has such people in’t!Engaged to Ferdinand
ArielAn airy spirit · Prospero’s servant
Role: Once imprisoned in a cloven pine by the witch Sycorax, freed by Prospero, whom he must now serve. He raises the storm, sings and performs Prospero’s magic, and longs for freedom.
Full fathom five thy father lies…Set free
CalibanSon of the witch Sycorax · Prospero’s slave
Role: Claims the island as his by inheritance. Prospero taught him language but enslaved him after he tried to attack Miranda. Often read as a symbol of the colonised native.
You taught me language; and my profit on’t / Is, I know how to curse.
👑 The Royal Party
Shipwrecked from NaplesFerdinandPrince of Naples · Alonso’s son
Role: Believes his father drowned. Prospero tests his love by making him carry logs.
Engaged to MirandaAlonsoKing of Naples
Role: Helped Antonio overthrow Prospero. Grief for his “lost” son brings him to repentance.
AntonioProspero’s brother · Duke of Milan
Role: The usurper. On the island he urges Sebastian to murder Alonso. He never truly repents.
SebastianAlonso’s brother
Role: Tempted by Antonio to kill his brother and seize the crown of Naples.
GonzaloHonest old counsellor
Role: Secretly gave Prospero food, clothes and his precious books when he was set adrift. Dreams of an ideal “commonwealth” on the island.
🍷 The Comic Plotters
Drunk and foolishStephanoAlonso’s drunken butler
Role: Caliban worships him as a god because of his wine. They plot to kill Prospero and make Stephano king of the island.
TrinculoAlonso’s jester
Role: Shelters from a storm under Caliban’s cloak.
Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.
Memory Hook: Master & 2 Servants
Prospero’s two servants are opposites. Critics love to compare them.
3 Plots on One Island
Two plots against power mirror Prospero’s own story of betrayal. Prospero’s magic defeats both.
Famous Lines: Who Says What
The lines most often asked about in exams.
Act-by-Act Summary
The plot in five quick stops.
Act 1The Storm
- Prospero’s storm wrecks Alonso’s ship. He tells Miranda their history; Ariel reports that everyone is safe but scattered. Ferdinand meets Miranda.
Act 2Plots Begin
- Antonio persuades Sebastian to kill Alonso, but Ariel stops them. Caliban meets Stephano and Trinculo and takes Stephano as his new master.
Act 3Love & Guilt
- Ferdinand and Miranda pledge love. The drunk plotters plan Prospero’s murder. Ariel, as a harpy, accuses the “three men of sin”.
Act 4The Masque
- Prospero blesses the engagement with a masque of goddesses, breaks it off suddenly (“Our revels now are ended”) and routs Caliban’s gang.
Act 5Forgiveness
- Prospero forgives his enemies, reveals the lovers playing chess, frees Ariel, gives up his magic and asks the audience to set him free in the Epilogue.
Must-Know Exam Facts
Quick points for UGC NET, SET and PGT.
Date & Place in the Canon
Written c. 1610–1611; performed at court on 1 November 1611. Often called Shakespeare’s last solo play and seen as his “farewell to the stage”. It is the first play in the First Folio (1623).
Sources
Accounts of the wreck of the Sea Venture off Bermuda (1609), especially William Strachey’s letter; Montaigne’s “Of Cannibals” (Florio’s translation) for Gonzalo’s commonwealth; Ovid’s Medea for Prospero’s “Ye elves” speech.
The Unities
One of only two Shakespeare plays that keep the classical unities (with The Comedy of Errors): one place, and action taking about the same time as the performance.
Genre
A romance or late play, with Pericles, Cymbeline and The Winter’s Tale: loss, magic, reconciliation and a new generation.
Rewritings & Readings
Robert Browning’s poem “Caliban upon Setebos” (1864); W. H. Auden’s The Sea and the Mirror; Aimé Césaire’s Une Tempête (1969), a postcolonial rewriting that takes Caliban’s side. “Caliban” is often read as an anagram of “cannibal”.
Key Themes
Power and colonisation, forgiveness vs revenge, freedom and servitude, magic and art, and illusion and theatre.
100+ Key Works of English Literature
All the character mind maps in one printed book.
