'The Tempest', penned by playwright William Shakespeare, as one of his last works circa 1612 is a story about many things: love, revenge, greed, politics, magic, and mystery. Even the notion of time plays a major role, and it is this aspect we shall be discussing in the following pages. Time plays a fairly large role in many of the ideas put forward in this rather wistful tale of one man's (Prospero) betrayal at the hands of his brother and his initial attempts at revenge. Essentially 'The Tempest' ends with the age-old moral that 'time heals all wounds' as he finally finds it in his heart to forgive his brother and bring the tale to a peaceful resolution. It is not just here however, that we find time to be a useful plot device. One should also pay attention to the various goings on within the play – such as Pospero's comments on the brevity of life - as well as the title of the play itself.
             To begin with we shall look at the title 'The Tempest' which serves to hold a double meaning. Whilst the word 'Tempest' of course can be seen to refer to the great storm that is used by Prospero to imprison his captives on the isle, as well as the 'tempest' of emotion invoked in the characters an the imbalance of power amongst them caused by the situation , there is another reason why 'The Tempest' is such an apt name. Indeed, why did Shakespeare not name it 'The Storm' or some other such synonym? I believe this stems from its sound. The word's first half is temp stemming from the Latin 'tempestas', mean time, and can also be seen in it's transition to English in 'tempo', which means time, in relation to speed or degree of movement in action. This serves as a further note to the viewer on the importance of time, both in the play's course as well as in it's underlying themes.
             The them...