The Tempest - William Shakespeare
Discovery is found throughout Shakespeares final play, it is seen mostly how ever through each of the unique characters and their stories of their time on the island. One of the main characters of the play is Propero, an exile sent to an island with his daughter, his discoveries are some of the most important of the entire play, they essentially create the story. Prosperso is known to be wise and powerful and he strives to be just that, it is what makes his identity and it is this power that ultimately he has to let go of.
Prospero, in the end of the story, renounces his powers and forgives those who banished him from his home and life. The question is why, why would someone give up that sort of power over the very elements of Earth? To put in short, Prospero discovers something that saves everyone, he discovers that there really isn't much point, that life is too short to hold a grudge and carry put revenge.
Act 4 Scene 1 Lines 146-158 is the scene where Prospero explains what his actions mean, as seen in this quote:
"Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, And like this insubstantial pageant faded Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff, As dreams are made on; and our little life, Is rounded with a sleep."
Here he very plainly says, nothing really matters, we and all we own are going to eventually fade away. This is the discovery that changes alot of what Prospero believes in and his identity changes from a wise and powerful man to just a man.
Another example of discovery in this play is the discovery made by the passengers of the wrecked ship, when they find that the man that they had all had involvement with banishing, was alive and the one who had trapped them on the island. This discovery itself triggered more discoveries within these characters, new feelings and ideas such as guilt, remorse and fear.
"All three of them are deperate. Their guilt,, like poison given to work a great time after, now 'gins to bite the spirits. I do beseech you, that are of suppler joints, follow then swifty, and hinder them from what this ecstasy may now provoke them to" Act 3 Scene 3, Line 105-110.
GONZALO
At the time these characters must have been thinking that they would be punished but instead, they were forgived completely and those previous feelings were put into question, even though they had taken a man away from his home, he had forgiven them which is also one of the big concepts of this story.
MIRANDA
O, I have suffered
With those that I saw suffer! A brave vessel,
Who had, no doubt, some noble creature in her,
Dash'd all to pieces. O, the cry did knock
Against my very heart! Poor souls, they perished.
Had I been any god of power, I would
Have sunk the sea within the earth or ere
It should the good ship so have swallowed, and
The fraughting souls within her.
Compassion and forgivness is found all throughout the play, not just at the end and through all different characters, this quote in particular is Miranda wishing her father to show mercy upon those aboard the ship. Prospero however is not compassionate or forgiving by nature but because of these influences by other characters, it changes something within himself and in turn set off a self-discovery by Prospero that changes his aims and purpose. completely.
