Artists have always risked punishment for telling the truth. The first ancient Greek plays that we know of were meant to poke fun at rulers and expose their hypocrisy. Playwrights like Aristophanes faced threats and censorship. Since then, playwrights have tested their powers by telling hard truths that run counter to the piety demanded by an era of moral absolutism.
By 1610, Puritan hostility to theater was at its peak. The preacher William Crashaw called theater “the devil’s own pastime, mocking the sacred” and categorized “the devil, the Papists, and the playboys” as England’s “three great enemies.” Puritan writer John Speed called Shakespeare “this Papist and poet” and branded him a Jesuit sympathizer.
TempestShakespeare’s last complete play, set on a deserted island. Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, summons a storm to draw his enemies together, but the real storm lies within. The sorcerer who once ruled illusions learns to unleash his anger, free those who were bound, and forgive those who wronged him. Ariel’s song disappears, Caliban’s curse is softened, and Prospero’s final act is one of mercy rather than domination.
For the religious leaders of the time, mercy was a sin, and Shakespeare was one of those cursed.
Political struggles often lack imagination. When guardrails fail and certainty collapses, what we achieve is revenge rather than vision, control rather than understanding. Shakespeare knew that the best way to fight back was through imagination.
Prospero suggests that life itself is an illusion. “We are like dreams are made, and our little lives end in sleep” (4.1.156-158). His most memorable line may be his simplest. “This darkness I recognize as mine.” (Act 5, Scene 1)
Tempest is Shakespeare’s most self-conscious play. It’s not about magic, it’s about letting go – the price of power, forgiveness, and control. A common problem even deeper than free speech or political excess is the loss of imagination.
At the beginning of the modern era, Francis Bacon believed that by exposing false ideas to the light of reason, we could live in the light of day. However, reason separated from imagination proves to be fruitless. What once inspired moral consciousness has degenerated into spectacle and ideology, forms that require imagination but lack conscience. When everything can be named, measured, and classified, meaning becomes indexical and mystery becomes mere mathematics.
As theologian and cultural critic Nathan Scott puts it: A longing wild prayer When our imagination declines, so does our ability to respond morally. Without it, we cannot feel the pain of others or find a way to make things right. But imagination divorced from conscience creates its own dangers: propaganda, spectacle, and ideologies that promise visions while serving power. Scott argues that the spiritual crisis of our time stems from an instrument of progress designed to strengthen the imagination rather than diminish it, that is, to direct it toward forms of falsehood rather than moral truth.
Tempest It shows how imagination becomes moral knowledge. The magic is ethical and confronts the corruption of power through self-awareness and liberation. Prospero lets go of control, forgives his enemies, acknowledges “the presence of darkness,” and shows a deeper resistance. It’s not just about rebelling against authority, it’s about overcoming yourself.
In the epilogue, Prospero completely breaks the frame. He stands helplessly in front of the audience and asks for applause: “Free me with your generosity.” The sorcerer who once commanded storms and spirits is now dependent on the strangers before him. Prospero’s epiphany only comes in the final act when he concludes that “acts of virtue are rarer than acts of revenge.” (Act 5 Scene 1)
Shakespeare’s final paradox is that real power lies not in control and domination, but in the humility to seek mercy and the grace to show it.
In his last solo work, written in an age of religious conformity and moral conviction, Shakespeare shows that conscience and creativity are inextricably linked, that imagination transcends magic, and that acceptance of uncertainty is essential and that this acceptance forms the very basis of freedom.
Still, Shakespeare never makes the solution too simple. Prospero’s freedom depends on forgiveness, but forgiveness itself remains conditional and depends on the audience’s applause and willingness to participate in the act of grace. A magician cannot free himself. Liberation requires community, reciprocity, and the very human fetters he was trying to escape.
We experience our own storms of fear, anger, and false beliefs of control. Shakespeare knew that the work of freedom begins from within.
The Tempest is not a political fable or policy. It is a moving testimony of grace. Rebuilding institutions and restoring traditions begins with restoring the ability to see each other as fellow actors in the same play.
The curtain may rise again and, like Shakespeare, we may find that the last play is not the last word.
notes and reading
Tempest: Text and performance — David L. Hurst (1984). Stage production and interpretation Tempestexplores how different directors and actors approached the themes of their plays. Hirst is known for his scholarly works on Shakespeare and modern drama. He was affiliated with the University of Birmingham, UK.
“But this wild magic / I hereby shun.” — Act 5, Scene 1. ariel He is an “airy spirit” who serves Prospero as a magical agent throughout the play.
A life of imagination: revealing and creating the world — Jennifer Anna Gosetti-Ferrensei (2020). The study of imagination, which is at the core of human cognition and everyday experience. Gosetti-Ferrensei is a professor of philosophy at Johns Hopkins University.
Hostage to Fortune: The troubled life of Francis Bacon — Lisa Jardine and Alan Stewart (1999). Explore Bacon’s work on the intrigues, patronage, and politics of the time. Jardine was a historian of science at Jesus College, Cambridge. Stewart is director of the Oxford Francis Bacon Project.
Wild Prayer of Longing: Poetry and the Sacred Written by Nathan A. Scott Jr. (1971). How art and literature mediate the sacred, consciously or not. Scott (1925-2006) was a theologian and literary critic, founder of the field of religion and literature, and president of the American Academy of Religion.
Catastrophe: National Myths and America’s Battle—Richard Slotkin (2024). When political factions treat their narratives as uncontestable, the imaginative flexibility necessary for democratic pluralism is lost. This is the historical perspective on the loss of imagination that this discussion addresses.
no kings
broken joy
Approximately 2+2=5
Source: 2 + 2 = 5 – williamgreen.substack.com
