Idealism And Realism In Shakespeare's The Tempest

Idealism and realism are both exemplified through the characters in The Tempest. Gonzalo brings idealism into the story with his optimistic personality, while, Caliban and Stephano represented realism by how they were easily enslaved by human nature. Though, people can often agree that the book contains both ideas, there are differing views on whether or not the conclusion to the book is idealistic or realistic. People often assume that Prospero is acting in service to revenge or vengeance throughout the play, which may not be necessarily true. If vengeance was Prospero’s motive, there might have been more of an incentive to sink the ship along with its passengers at the beginning. Shakespeare makes it easy for you to put yourself in Prospero’s shoes and expect that he would want what is natural to man, revenge. The audience finds themselves wanting Prospero to enact justice on his enemies. The audience tends to get caught up in this, only to find themselves disappointed when they do not get the revenge plot they were expecting. Shakespeare creates an illusion that urges the reader to think a certain way. Revenge may have not been Prospero’s intention, but forgiveness, making the conclusion of The Tempest believable because It ends realistically. Shakespeare introduces Prospero as the main character and gives some detail to his background. Prospero was the Duke of Milan until his bother overthrew him, leaving him totally out of control. This causes the audience to