The Tempest Allusions & Cultural References

Shakespeare's shout-outs to, um, Shakespeare

• The big tempest in Act 1, Scene 1: The storms in King Lear and Macbeth
• Prospero's evil, power hungry brother Antonio: Claudius in Hamlet, Edmund vs. Edgar in King Lear, Oliver in As You Like It,Richard III in Richard III.
• The story of loss and recovery: Pericles, The Winter's Tale, Cymbeline
• Journey from court to the wilderness and back: A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It
• Prospero's obsession with controlling his daughter's sex life and choice of husband: Polonius and Ophelia in Hamlet.
• Prospero's Masque (a "play" within the play): The Mousetrap in Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado About Nothing, Henry IV Part 1
• Portrayal of Caliban as a dark "Other": Othello, Merchant of Venice, Titus Andronicus
• Surprise! Miranda's really a princess: Perdita's discovery of her royal status in The Winter's Tale
• Shipwrecks: Pericles, The Winter's Tale, The Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night
• Prospero's Magic: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Macbeth, Henry VI Part 2

Literature and Mythology

• Virgil, The Aeneid – Virgil presents the Widow Dido in the story of Dido and Aeneas (2.1)
• Ceres' loss of Persephone to Pluto in Roman mythology (4.1.89)

Historical References

• Montaigne, "Of Cannibals" (2.1)
• A Discovery of the Bermudas, Otherwise Called the Isle of the Devils, a travel log from Bermudas (1.2)
• "The great globe itself" (a reference to the Globe Theater) (4.1)