SHAKESPEARE’S  
use of the
supernatural  in 

 THE TEMPEST

  . iNTRODUCTIOn .
William Shakespeare is a playwright, poet and actor known as the greatest
writer in the English language and the world's greatest dramatist. He is often
called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". In his career he has
written 39 plays, 154 sonnets, 3 long narrative poems, some other verses , etc.
He was born in April, 1564. With whatever evidence there is connects him
firmly to Stratford-upon-Avon. He was marries to Anne Hathaway in 1582 in
the same place of his birth. By the early 1590s, he was the managing partner in
a popular theatre company, Lord Chamberlain’s Men. In 1599, he was a partner
of a theatre company which he started with a few others partners called The
Globe. Known throughout the world, Shakespeare first started as an actor and
then later got into writing play. Shakespeare's writings capture the range of
human emotion and have been celebrated for more than 400 years. And yet, the
personal life of William Shakespeare is somewhat a mystery. 
Though little is known about William Shakespeare's personal life, his works
such as "Hamlet," "Romeo and Juliet," and "King Lear," have influenced
literature and theater for over 400 years. A few of his tragedy plays are
“Hamlet”, ”Julius Caesar”, “Macbeth”, etc. Some of his famous comedy plays
are “The Merchant Of Venice”, ”As You Like It”, ”The Tempest”, etc. Some of
his history plays are “The Henry V”,” The Henry VIII”, ”King John”.
“The Tempest” is one of the most famous plays written by Shakespeare’s
career. In short , the story of “The Tempest” is about magic, betrayal, love and
forgiveness. It is set on an island somewhere near Italy with the main characters
Prospero, the one-time Duke of Milan, and his beautiful daughter, Miranda, live
with a spirit called Ariel and a strange wildman called Caliban .Prospero who
uses magic to conjure a storm and torment the survivors of a shipwreck,
including the King of Naples and Prospero’s treacherous brother, Antonio.
Prospero’s slave, Caliban, plots to rid himself of his master, but is pevented to
do so by Prospero’s spirit-servant Ariel. The King’s young son Ferdinand,
thought to be dead, but falls in love with Prospero’s daughter Miranda. Their
celebrations are cut short when Prospero confronts his brother and reveals his
identity as the usurped Duke of Milan. The families are reunited and all conflict
are resolved. Prospero grants Ariel his freedom and prepares to leave the
island.-

Use of supernatural
. in the tempest .
 William Shakespeare had widely used supernatural elements in this play.
This says that during Shakespeare time many people believed in the existence of
supernatural elements and powers. Magic is important in “The Tempest”
because basically without it there is no play. Shakespeare uses the magic make
the audience believe that magic does really exist. The Tempest is often
described as the writer’s most magical play. In The Tempest, magic is an art
form that fills the play with a sense of wonder and a whole lot of spectacle. This
lends itself to a concept developed throughout The Tempest magic is an art
same as that of a playwright.

The Tempest allows Prospero to enjoy the kind of power that was so

suddenly taken away from him when he was usurped as Duke of Milan.
Prospero can exercise control over others, just as if he were back in Italy.  The
power of magic presented is seen as acceptable as it moves from the common
notion of magic as a force to promote greed and ambition. Although Prospero
uses magic to control the natural and the supernatural worlds, the play also
suggests his art is distinct from the kind of black magic practiced by the witch
Sycorax. Although the play goes out of its way to differentiate Prospero's
studied art from Sycorax's black magic, at times, the play makes us wonder if
Prospero and Sycorax don't share more in common. Prospero does indeed have
a magic book, which is essential to his magic. Prospero did all well using
supernatural power without harming either any other people or his enemy.

Ariel is another supernatural factor in the play. Ariel is an air angel who
can only be seen or heard by Prospero. Prospero released Ariel who was
imprisoned in a tree by Sycorax, a wicked witch, with his magic and made him
to work under him as his servant to do whatever he wants and whenever he
wants it. Ariel has special powers like he is invisible to everyone except for
Prospero, he can fly, influence the weather, control other people’s movement,
etc. Ariel also pranks characters in the play by dragging the people into a pool
that smelled bad by playing a particular music. Ariel created all of incidents
which came to the ship using his supernatural power with the from his mast
Prospero. Prospero ordered Ariel to make a storm in the sea when his enemies
are shipping after going back from the wedding. Prospero praised his spirit for
what he has done well. Everyone on the ship behaved mad people. All of them
jumped into the wild oceans out of fear except the sailors. The sailors left the
ship when it seemed to be burning because of Ariel's flames. The first person
who jumped into the sea is Ferdinand, the son of the King of Naples.

The supernatural also has a dramatic purpose. For example, Ferdinand

and Miranda do not fall in love with each other under the influence of
Prospero's magic, but Prospero's magic only brought them together which made
their love much more spontaneous and meaningful
 . conclusion .
The Tempest is a comedy play with a lot of themes including supernatural
incidents, human superiority, the illusion of justice etc. which are its
ornaments. When we look at the conflicts between the characters in the play
such as Antonio or Prospero and Alonso, we see that in order to be more
powerful they are ready to anything. They are seeking for more power than the
power they already have. Throughout the play, the master-servant distinction is
highly emphasised and plays a major role in regards to who had the power and
who fell short of the power, where Prospero had an advantage with the art of
magic. This proves that there is a huge relation between social status and power.
But , by the end of the play Prospero sets Ariel free from his slavery.

The illusion of justice in the play is referred to the dukedom that he was
expelled from after his brother usurps his powers, but the rest of the play is
about Prospero taking the powers back from Alonso which proves that justice is
done if Prospero gets his throne back. This means that justice means happy
ending that Prospero deserves.

Many of Shakespeare’s play have similar themes or morals, like I felt that
the moral of this play has a similarity towards the moral of the ”The Merchant
Of Venice” that karma is real and it won’t stop until it reaches back to you.