The Tempest Act V Journal Entries

Chloe Wrote:
After reading this last act and the epilogue I developed an opinion of Prospero and his plan. It seems kind of childish now that I think about. I understand he was upset over his position being taken from him and unrightfully so. However his whole plan was pretty malicious. It was pointless he did it just to seek revenge and play games with them. In the end it really had no beneficial result. He was just able to scare them enough to get back his title. He was in no way being the better or bigger person. It was very dramatic and strung out for no reason. But I guess that is what makes this play what it is, it has to be a little bit dramatic and extravagant. If it wasn't than it might not be Shakespeare.

Katie Wrote:
I could not believe that Prospero actually felt bad for the king, the king’s brother, his brother, and Gonzalo after Ariel told him what state they were in. I like Ariel felt bad for Gonzalo, he is so nice. Seeing how bad Prospero felt showed us another side of him. It was nice of him to send Ariel to release them and for him to break the spell and allow them to feel like themselves again. Prospero really seems to be feeling bad and sorry for everything he has done. I could not believe he quit magic and let Ariel go. This play ended up having somewhat of a happy ending. The characters forgave each other and said sorry for their actions and for going against each other. Over all this plays language was extremely complicated to get through but as time went by, I got more comfortable with the language and it was easer to understand. Over all I must say I really enjoyed this play.

Mereani Wrote:
This play is a comedy so therefore in Shakespeare’s world it is to end happily, but I can’t convey the same feelings, when reading the end. I felt more sorry for Prospero, than happy and the ending did not end tie all the loose ends as I had intended it to. Because since this was a comedy I thought it would a happy ending; but instead the ending was ambiguous left open to even more possibilities. It does not give us the audience any closure for some of the characters since; for example Antonio and Sebastian sound like they do not at all have repented for their sins. They even make fun of Caliban (Caliban must really look strange for people to keep calling him a fish-like man), and talking about selling him at the market for money, they’re really jerks. Also I would like to know what happens to Caliban, does he stay at the island or travels all the way back to Nepal.

Prospero seems really lonely at the ending and I can’t help feel really sorry for him, because he has lost all motivation such as nothing to strive for like a goal that he had before, nothing to occupy him, since he has given up all his celestial powers. At the epilogue I was expecting some closure but its not to be found there, instead we see Prospero confessing that he is weak without his powers and can’t summon spirits and seems to directing his speech to everyone, as in the characters of the play and the audience. So I like The Tempest but I am very dissatisfied with the ending, because as I stated before I don’t really know what happens to the characters after the whole 3 hours on the island.

Everett Wrote:
Act V, the end of the play, was so far from what I had ever expected. From my very limited understandings of Shakespeare, he usually writes drama, filled with death and murder and a lot of suspense. The ending of The Tempest was so... happy and unrealistic, I can hardly believe it is the same author as the one I've known.

Everyone, absolutely everyone in that play ends up happy with exactly what they could hope for. No one has any dislike, even the strong rivalries between Alonso and Antonio with Prospero was cured in Act V. Prospero earns back his Dukedom, Alonso finds his son alive and well, about to marry, Ariel and Caliban are set free both leaving on good terms with Prospero, and Stefano and Trinculo are just set free, forgiven for the evil attempts.

If you ask me, it was all a little cheesy. The fact that is was just sooooo happy and fairy tale was a little irritating. Besides that, I found it to be a little rushed and abrupt. It seems like the conclusion was just stated without any detail or explanation.

I also wonder what Prospero had originally intended to do with Alonso and his crew. He had their ship destroyed and sent them to his island for some purpose, and I doubt it was to just forgive them right away. I could be wrong, and maybe we do know what he planned to do whether it was keep them prisoners or kill them, I just might have missed it. Even though I managed with most of the speech, I struggled a little and few lines throughout the play were just too complicated to begin to understand. Like everyone else said in class, I really got used to the language though compared to how I was at the beginning, not feeling the urge to look it up online every other sentence. Either the speech just became a little more straight forward or I just got comfortable with Shakespeare’s writing.

Bobby Wrote:
After finishing reading The Tempest, I found it full of surprises. Before reading the play, I thought it would end up like Hamlet, in which everyone dies. But it turns out that everything worked out for the best. Still I was sort of disappointed with the ending; I felt that though the ending may give the audience a sense of closure, it was a little plain. I thought it was supposed to be a tragedy. From the rest of the plays that Shakespeare wrote that I know, I guess that since this was his last play, he wanted to do something different.

Prospero was the character that surprised me the most. For so long he was portrayed as the mastermind behind everything that it was implied that he was evil. Yet at the end he ends up forgiving everyone. Though his dukedom is restored, I feel he failed to do anything significant. What was the point of all his actions? I might have missed something important. Despite all that, I enjoy reading The Tempest and it is something worth reading.