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César Solares

Mr. Gian Parham

English B

13 May 2020

The Tempest As a Comedy

Comedy is the type of entertainment which consists of jokes and satirical sketches, which

intends to make the audience laugh and cheer up. Comedy can be found in a vast branch of

entertainment, including dramas. Comedic dramas are made to make the people laugh, and

overall to elevate their mood. A world-renowned playwright named William Shakespeare created

comedic plays throughout his career: one of his famous comedic plays is called The Tempest.

Elizabethan people surely accepted it as a comedy, but modern scholars are not. They decided to

change it to a romance because it “deviates significantly from Shakespeare’s other comedies”

(The Tempest: Genre) Although this may be true, The Tempest is still a comedy. William

Shakespeare’s The Tempest is still considered a comedy because it contains many aspects that

common comedies had. It contains a happy outcome, it contains misunderstandings that are

resolved throughout the play, and it mocks a controversial topic.

The tempest is a comedic drama because it ends with a happy outcome. From the

beginning of the play, Prospero wanted to get back his dukedom which is the reason as to why he

set up his entire plan. In Act V scene I, Prospero unleashed Alonso and his men from his spell.

Alonso then saw Prospero and said, “This must crave(And if this be at all) a most strange story.

Thy dukedom I resign, and do entreat Thou pardon me my wrongs” (116-119). Alonso gave his

dukedom back to Prospero because he felt remorse from exiling him. Prospero at last got his
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dukedom back and respect of the others. Comedic dramas commonly contain a marriage at the

end; this is also the case for The Tempest with the future marriage of Miranda and Ferdinand. In

act III scene I, Ferdinand and Miranda started to reveal their feelings towards themselves.

Miranda asked if she could be his wife, and Ferdinand responded with, “My mistress, dearest,

and I thus humble ever” (88). This event promises the future of Miranda and Ferdinand to have a

happy ending. In act V, even Alonso recognizes the marriage and does not oppose. The happy

ending that the drama had may not cause the audience to laugh, but it embraces the concept of a

complete resolution. This idea of complete resolution applies a cheerful tone to the play, which is

an essential aspect of a comedy. Therefore, these two events cause The Tempest to have a happy

ending, which is a feature that comedic dramas have.

Another aspect that The tempest has is the misunderstandings that each group of

characters face throughout the plays. There several misunderstandings in the play, like Alonso

thinking that Ferdinand drowned, and Ferdinand thinking that Alonso drowned. The biggest one

would be with the misunderstanding of Stephano and Trinculo, where they think that everyone

drowned. Adding the fact that the scenes where this duo appear are the most humorous of the

play, act II scene II is the scene that marked their absurd goal. After Caliban convinced Stephano

to rule the island, Stephano mentioned, “I prithee now, lead the way without any more talking.—

Trinculo, the king and all our company else being drowned, we will inherit here.—Here, bear my

bottle.—Fellow Trinculo, we’ll fill him by and by again” (174-177) Because they think that no

one came out alive except for them, they decided to become the king of the island. Thanks to the

help of dramatic irony, the audience already know that the plan will not happen. This gives a

sense of humor because the boasting that the drunken duo has through their arc will be for

nothing at the end. As mentioned before, comedies often end up with complete resolution, which
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means that all misunderstandings that each character groups were cleared at the end, including

the drunken duo’s.

Aside the happy endings and comedic mistakes, comedic plays often used allegory

which made Elizabethan people laugh. This can be the case in The Tempest with the drunken duo

of Stephano and Trinculo. In act III scene II, Stephano starts acting like a real king and started

ordering Trinculo and Caliban. There are certain lines that show how Stephano behaved, where

Caliban said, “How does thy honor? Let me lick thy shoe” (21) and where he threatens Trinculo

and says, “Trinculo, keep a good tongue in your head. If you prove a mutineer, the next tree”

(34-35). Stephano can be said to behave as a cartoon tyrant; he finds pleasure in seeing people

degrading themselves, and he threatens others with the death penalty if they somewhat oppose

him. Around in the Elizabethan era, many monarchs around Europe often behaved like

monarchs. The humorous approach of a drunken man becoming a tyrant helped Elizabethans

relief from what their current situations by mocking their current political system. Therefore, The

tempest contains allegories of monarchs who abuse their power, which is a common literary

device that comedies had.

In conclusion, The Tempest by William Shakespeare is still a comedy play. It contains a

happy ending for non-antagonist characters, it contains misunderstanding that (thanks to

dramatic irony) makes the play humorous, and contains allegories where it portrayed a

cartoonish tyrant. Even though the play is now classified as a romance, people must not forget

the reason as to why it was (and it still is) a comedy. Do you believe that it should stay as a

comedy?
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Works Cited

Parham, Gian. The Tempest Act III Scene II. May 2020,

https://app.schoology.com/page/2513064260. PowerPoint Presentation

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. The Tempest. Cambridge :Harvard University Press,

1958.

“The Tempest: Genre.” SparkNotes, SparkNotes,

www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/tempest/genre/. Accessed 13 May 2020