A Stranger to His State: Prospero’s Isolation through Art

Abstract

Richly imaginative and vividly engaging, The Tempest showcases some of Shakespeare’s most fantastical work. A dichotomy of art and nature in the play works to emphasize a variety of contrasts between civil and savage, freedom and bondage, and community and isolation, contributing depth of interpretation to an otherwise minimally complex plot. Standing at the heart of these oppositions, Prospero controls the play’s action as the conflict of art and nature revolves around his identity. Though he isolates himself by resisting human nature and instead pursuing the intellectual edification of his art, Prospero must reconcile both as aspects of humanity to attain the freedom to rejoin society.