William Shakespeare was a creative playwright who wrote dozens of remarkable plays. He ingeniously drew from his life for inspiration. This was evident in his final play, The Tempest, into which he imbued his personal experiences. By doing so he was able to highlight the differences between illusion and reality through the actions of his characters.
Shakespeare used his characters, their actions, dialogue, settings, and references to the real world to create many layers of illusion. He illustrates the idea of illusion primarily through Prospero, who is an illusion himself, to manipulate and control the island and the people who chance upon it. Prospero demonstrates powers of illusion time and time again with his magic, and it first appeared after the shipwreck he caused. The people on board the ship were all separated across the island and each thought that they were the only survivors. Prospero allowed the reality that all of the passengers were safe, to escape the awareness of all the other characters but himself and his servant Ariel.
Shakespeare further uses magic to represent the element of illusion during the banquet scene in Act three. Here he used Ariel to create a grand banquet to tempt King Alonso and his men. The apparition causes them to lose sight of the gravity of their situation and deludes them into believing the fantastic. Antonio, Prospero’s usurping brother, demonstrates this delusion by stating that after seeing the feast appear out of thin air, he would believe anything, “I’ll believe both; And what does else want credit, come to me And I’ll be sworn ’tis true. Travelers ne’re did lie,…” (III,iii,27-29). However, Shakespeare also makes Alonso and his men remember the reality of their pasts when Ariel, as a harpy, makes the banquet vanish and reminds Alonso, Sebastian, and Antonio of their involvement in usurping Prospero. This was ironic because Ariel shows the truth to them through the guise of a mythical creature, which cannot exist in the real world.
The idea of illusion versus reality is continued to the end of the play, where Prospero resigns
his magical powers. Here Prospero is faced with the choice of continuing on the island with his powers and revenge or forgiving those who wronged him and moving back to the real world. Prospero is restored his dukedom when he chose to forgive Antonio, Alonso, and Sebastian. When he left the isle he was also leaving behind his world of illusion and power, for his magic could not exist in Milan. Prospero speaks of this trade off as he says good-bye to the island, “Now my charms are all o’erthrown, And what strength I have’s mine own,…Or sent to Naples, let me not, Since I have my dukedom got.” (Epilogue 1-6).
While Shakespeare showed the difference between illusion and reality within The Tempest, the play itself was also an illusion. Shakespeare imbued his play of magic and surrealism with the reality of his own life. Prospero is very much a mirror image of Shakespeare, and it seems as though he used Prospero to convey a farewell to his beloved theater. He makes references to the theater through Prospero’s dialogue when he says; “These our actors, As I foretold you were all spirits and, Are melted into air, thin air. And like the baseless fabric of this vision, The cloud capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself…” (IV,i,147-154). This quote not only emphasizes the presence of illusion in the play but it is also references the real parts of the theater; such as the actors pretending on stage, the sets, and most notably his play on “the great globe” alluding the world and his theater The Globe.
As a result of Shakespeare’s clever plays on words The Tempest contains many layers of both illusion and reality. This theme is engrained in the actions and words of the characters throughout the play. Through Prospero, Shakespeare added touches of his own life and experience, bringing a sense of realism to a play of magic and mysticism. Because Shakespeare’s play has so much meaning to it, The Tempest will continue to convey its messages of illusion and reality for many years to come.
