true to its name the tempest begins on a boat in the middle of a raging storm off the coast of an island near italy to make matters worse this boat is carrying some very important passengers on their way home from a wedding alonzo the king of naples his son ferdinand his brother sebastian and other nobles including antonio the duke of milan and the courtier gonzalo for some reason they decide that the best course of action is to harass the poor crew who are struggling to keep them afloat but despite their angry curses and threats the boat splits in the water and sinks watching this terrible storm from the safety of their island is prospero and its daughter miranda it turns out that prospero is a powerful magician who is responsible for conjuring the storm and sinking the ship but he reassures his daughter that nobody was hurt he decides that now was the right moment to tell her the story of how they ended up on this mysterious island and reveals that he was once the duke of milan however because he spent a lot of time studying magic instead of watching his back his wicked brother antonio usurped his title with the aid of king alonso and forced him to leave in a shabby little boat with miranda who was just three years old thanks to his friend gonzalo he was able to take his precious books and enough supplies to get them to this island where they have been living for about 12 years incredibly all the main players involved in prospero's exile are at last within his reach and he is determined to resolve his past misfortunes once and for all two other characters also live on the island a sprite named ariel who was imprisoned in a tree by a witch because he was too gentle nature to be of any use to her and caliban the son of said witch who according to prospero does not have a human shape both characters now serve prospero although ariel is more like his right-hand man while caliban does menial tasks like fetching water and hauling wood with miranda put under a sleeping spell ariel tells prospero how he carried out his instructions to sink the ship but did not harm anyone aboard he has helpfully divided the ship's passengers into groups around the island and the king's son ferdinand has been cast ashore alone believing he is the only one left alive led by ariel's magical fairy tunes he is brought before prospero and as soon as he sees miranda they fall madly in love prospero is wary of ferdinand's sudden affections and decides to test him he accuses the young prince of being a spy and imprisons him despite his daughter's desperate pleas unaware of his son's fate king alonso has washed ashore in a different group consisting of his brother sebastian antonio the duke of milan and some lesser nobles the king is afraid that ferdinand has drowned so they all begin to search for him until ariel who is invisible to them casts a sleeping spell on the entire group apart from sebastian and the dastardly antonio who immediately concoct a plan to kill the king so that sebastian can take the throne they draw their swords to off the whole party while they sleep but in the nick of time ariel wakes them and the plot is foiled meanwhile caliban prospero's servant is doing some back-breaking labor for his master which he is unsurprisingly not too happy about he spies the king's jester trinculo who has wandered ashore and hides from him under his cloak trinculo notices caliban but assumes he is dead and decides to shelter from an approaching storm under the same cloak soon after the ship's butler stefano enters drinking and singing he is confused by the huddled mound and pours his drink into the mouths of caliban and trinculo which gets them both a bit tipsy caliban who has never been drunk before instantly hails stefano as a god and promises to help him thrive on the island throughout all this mischief ferdinand has been forced to do grueling work for prospero but despite this he seems happy because he gets to see miranda they meet while prospero is supposedly sleeping although he's actually spying on them and miranda proposes to ferdinand who happily accepts prospero is pleased by their engagement as he sees that the young couple's love is genuine elsewhere on the island ariel is busy monitoring the other two groups of survivors he overhears the drunken trio of caliban stefano and trinculo plotting to take over the island by stealing prospero's magic books and killing him before he can deal with this problem however ariel returns to the king's group who are still searching for the missing ferdinand they come across a magnificent feast that prospero has magically conjured up but before they can eat a single bite ariel appears in the form of a harpy and accuses king alonso sebastian and antonio of being wicked men confused and terrified the three guilty men leave the scene as quickly as possible now that he's engaged to miranda ferdinand is released from his servitude and prospero uses his magic to conjure up a celebratory mask with dancing spirits to bless their union in the middle of this happy interlude prospero suddenly remembers that caliban is on his way with trinculo and stefano to carry out his not so brilliant plan to murder him this kind of job is right up ariel's alley so he lures the three conspirators with some beautiful clothing and finery and then sets a pack of spirit hounds on them to frighten them away at last it is time for prospero to confront the men who have wronged him so ariel leads the king's group before him for his big reveal they are shocked of course to find him alive after all these years and king alonzo is truly repentant for his part in prospero's exile he promises to restore him to his former title of duke of milan and in return prospero forgives all three men antonio and sebastian are suspiciously quiet which probably means they have not learned any real lessons but there is more happy news as prospero explains that ferdinand is alive and engaged to his daughter they plan to return to naples for the wedding so ariel disappears to prepare the ship and gather the crew finally it is the turn of the sorry trio caliban trinculo and stefano who have been tormented by prospero's magic for their plotting in the spirit of forgiveness he lets them off after some stern words and ariel is freed from his servitude after being given the final task of providing calm seas for the journey home the play ends with prospero addressing the audience directly where he reveals his intentions to give up magic forever he asks us to forgive his earlier actions and to release him at last from the island so that he can retire in peace that's it for this summary guys stay tuned for follow-up analysis videos in the coming weeks see you next time