Critical Appreciation Of The Tempest

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William Shakespeare, often called the English national poet, is widely considered the greatest dramatist of all time. Little is known about his personal life: probably born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon to a glove-maker and a woman who came from a prosperous family. He began his career as a writer and became a leading member of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. His works, such as Hamlet (1603), Romeo and Juliet (1597) and King Lear (1606), have influenced literature for over 400 years. As a poet, he wrote 154 sonnets and two long poems; as a playwright, he wrote 37 plays. Among those plays he created, we can find what will be the object of study of this project: The Tempest, written around 1611, believed to be the last play he wrote on his own. The plot is divided into a five-act structure: exposition, complication, climax, falling action and catastrophe. It relates the story of the magician Prospero, deposed Duke of Milan, who has been shipwrecked on an island with his daughter Miranda. Ariel, a spirit who had been imprisoned by the witch Sycorax, and the monstrous creature Caliban, the son of this latter, become Prospero’s servants. A storm, raised by Prospero’s magic powers, causes the shipwreck of the ship where his betrayer brother Antonio comes, accompanied by Alonso the King of Naples, his brother Sebastian and Alonso’s son Ferdinand, who soon falls in love with Miranda. After some obstacles he has to overcome to win the young lady’s company, they both announce their

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