Jim Bywater

Look, this is my opinion - right?
Bill Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST is like the Windows Millenium computer operating system. Y'know - "We've spent all this money developing the next generation of our OS we had better publish it. I know it's not brilliant but we've got to recoup".
I think THE TEMPEST is 'work-in-progress'. Shakespeare observed what was going on in society at large, devised a poetic setting in which to 'paint the picture' and discovered that there was no plot to speak of - simply a set of elements which were either in flux, or were constants.
NOTHING HAPPENS!!! There is no action - no physical state-of-things that is attacked, defended or changed. There is no struggle through which the 'combatants' learn something about themselves and each other.
To my mind it's a description of the way God, (whoever she is) was working in the time between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Like Prospero, she was changing her attitude (or mind) from 'An eye for an eye' to 'Peace and Reconcilliation'. THE TEMPEST is set in Prospero's cell on an island; it could be set in Nelson Mandella's cell on Robin Island.
Maybe Shakespeare's intention was to develop a trilogy - the first part, "Prospero's Fall", set in Milan. The second part, "Prospero's Return", set on his island. The third part, "Prospero's Second Fall"back in Milan. It would be like a collection of "ROCKY" movies in which Prospero is the winner every time but against terrible odds. I wonder if Stallone would be interested? This idea's copyrighted, by the way. How do you spell that - copywrighted?