Annotated Passage (Act V sc. i)

Updated Theme Statement - The Tempest

  Shakespeare implies that forgiveness is a naturally occurring, sub-conscious desire that can lead to the moral salvation of any person when acted upon and expressed in the face of the greed for power.

Theme Statement - The Tempest

  Through one of Shakespeare’s last plays, the Tempest, Shakespeare aims to portray to the audience how close those of power and the even-more-powerful acts of forgiveness truly are. This is shown through how the magician Prospero, the most powerful character, has an epiphany at the end of the play and decides to spare those who wronged him in favor of forgiving them for their acts of cruelty to him. He slowly understands how valuable forgiveness is from his experiences, alike the ones from his only daughter, Miranda, when she finds the love of her life, the prince and son of the wrong-doing king of Naples, Ferdinand, who Prospero decides to allow Miranda to marry. Prospero also learns forgiveness from his spirit servant, Ariel, a powerful being who Prospero had freed from the curse put on him by his former master for disobeying orders in favor of his own morals; those very same morals were shown in the end of the play when he tries, and succeeds, at convincing Prospero that the ones who wronged him should not die but should be forgiven, showing how Shakespeare closely ties those with power with the even-more-powerful acts of forgiveness.