One way to read this play—and I know it has been read this way already—is to view Prospero as Shakespeare. He is the magician or writer who brings the characters together, and in many instances is the one who tells their stories. Shakespeare as the writer is the magician of the theater, controlling the characters with his will, making them do what he wants.
Early in the play, Prospero seems like an unlikely hero. He’s pushy, demanding, uncompromising, and he lies, as well as telling very one-sided accounts of events. One could assume that this is very comparable to the creative process.
It is the end of the play, however, where Prospero asks the audience to forgive him and clap in order to set him free, that the reading of Prospero as a stand in for Shakespeare seems most obvious.
Was this his last play?
