Prospero Humiliated: Protestant Theology in The Tempest

Abstract

The storm that opens Shakespeare's The Tempest is natural by all accounts until the start of the second scene. The Master, the Boatswain, and all the cast and crew aboard King Alonso's ship battle against what appear to be natural forces, real movements of the sky and the sea. As is revealed in the second scene, however, reality is not always what it seems. Shakespeare's cunning turn of natural to supernatural sets the stage for a play that will dive deep into the foaming, seething waves of England's seventeenth-century religious debate. The complexity of Prospero's character is at the heart of this play, and the magician's power, his humiliation and his redemption are the subjects of this article. The understanding of redemption that I will operate under has been drawn from Reformation theology, and while I draw from John Calvin and William Perkins at times, I take an especially close look at the writing of Martin Luther. Martin Luther's understanding of theology, his phraseology, his favourite metaphors, and his translation and accompanying interpretation of the gospel were accessible to the people of Shakespeare's England. While I do not seek to prove that Shakespeare is a Lutheran or that he has an affinity for Luther's doctrine, I am convinced that a careful study of The Tempest will reveal that Luther's “gospel for the masses”, and particularly Luther's understanding of Christian redemption, are worked out within the conflict of the play.