# The Tempest — Character guide

> Key figures in The Tempest by William Shakespeare.

- [Prospero](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_tempest_se/characters/prospero.md): Prospero was Duke of Milan until his brother Antonio, entrusted with governing while Prospero pursued his secret studies, took the dukedom and set him adrift with the infant Miranda. Twelve years later, he has become a m
- [Ariel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_tempest_se/characters/ariel.md): Ariel was freed from the torment of the witch Sycorax by Prospero, but the rescue came with a term of service, and the spirit now carries out every task from shipwreck to enchantment with inventive, elemental flair. The 
- [Caliban](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_tempest_se/characters/caliban.md): Caliban claims the island as his inheritance from his mother Sycorax and insists Prospero took it from him by sorcery, a grievance sharpened by his daily labor and Prospero's contempt. He is at once brutal and eloquent, 
- [Miranda](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_tempest_se/characters/miranda.md): Miranda has lived since age three in a cell with Prospero, knowing nothing of courts or dukedoms until he finally tells her who she is. Her compassion is immediate and unguarded, and when she sees Ferdinand she declares 
- [Ferdinand](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_tempest_se/characters/ferdinand.md): Ferdinand believes his father Alonso has drowned and finds himself alone on an island where a strange old man and a beautiful daughter are his only company. Prospero accuses him of spying and sets him to carry logs, a hu
- [Antonio](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_tempest_se/characters/antonio.md): Antonio governs Milan in Prospero's absence and, by Prospero's account, remakes the state's officers and favorites until he is the ivy sucking the life from his brother's princely trunk. He shows no remorse on the island
- [Sebastian](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_tempest_se/characters/sebastian.md): Sebastian is the King of Naples's younger brother, stranded with the court party on Prospero's island and quick to trade grief for gallows humor. He spars with Antonio in asides that turn Gonzalo's every comfort into a p
- [Alonso](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_tempest_se/characters/alonso.md): Alonso arrives on the island as a father hollowed out by loss, having just married his daughter Claribel to the King of Tunis before the sea took his son. He tries to command the boatswain during the tempest and is told 
- [Gonzalo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_tempest_se/characters/gonzalo.md): Gonzalo is the loyal courtier who smuggled Prospero and Miranda out of Milan with provisions and books, and he spends the island scenes trying to comfort Alonso with talk of fresh garments and sweet air. Sebastian and An
- [Stephano](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_tempest_se/characters/stephano.md): Stephano stumbles out of the wreckage clutching sack and quickly becomes the center of the play's low comedy, trading songs with Trinculo and accepting Caliban's worship as his due. He dreams aloud of a kingdom where he'
- [Trinculo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_tempest_se/characters/trinculo.md): Trinculo is the court's fool, washed ashore alone and delighted to find a monster he can exhibit for profit back in England. He falls in with Stephano's makeshift kingdom, flattering him as 'O king Stephano' while pocket
- [Ceres](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_tempest_se/characters/ceres.md): Goddess of agriculture, who appears in the masque celebrating Ferdinand and Miranda.
- [Adrian](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_tempest_se/characters/adrian.md): A lord attending Alonso, who comments on the island's strangeness.
- [Sycorax](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_tempest_se/characters/sycorax.md): The deceased witch and mother of Caliban, who imprisoned Ariel before Prospero.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_tempest_se/characters