Let's start by examining the following representative extract from William Shakespeare's The Tempest (Act 4, Scene I, Lines 148-158):
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Ye 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.
These lines are uttered by Prospero during the wedding masque that was organized by Ariel, Prospero’s spirit helper. Ariel summons his acquaintances from the spirit world and puts up a feisty entertainment show for the guests at the wedding party, so much so that Ferdinand, the prince of the Kingdom of Naples, declares that he would very much like to live forever on this magical island. Suddenly, during the masque, Prospero recalls the devious scheme by Caliban and his co-conspirators to take his life. It is at this point that Prospero utters the stirring words from the extract.
His words are sad – he rues the fact that he had come to believe in his own magic so much (the spectacular wedding masque put up by the spirit, Ariel and his cohorts) that, for a moment, he had forgotten about the real life that needed to be lived and protected. His speech emphasizes the pulchritude of this magical world that he has created out of nothing, and yet asserts that all this comes to nought because it is unreal and magical. This is ironical when we contrast this with the fact that it was Prospero himself who created this world for himself on the island so that the concerns of real life did not affect him.
Prospero’s mention of the “great globe” could be interpreted as a reference to the Globe Theater in London, a theater that used to stage Shakespeare’s plays and which most contemporary readers would, no doubt, have recognized. This reference also alludes to Prospero’s demonstrated ability to stage a show, to the way he controls events on the island, like an accomplished director.
The word “rack” which literally means “a mass of smoke” could be interpreted as a pun on “wrack,” or the original shipwreck with which this play began. This pun, and others like it in the play, fuses real-word theater with the magic realism of Prospero’s island. Towards the end of the speech, Prospero wistfully hints that when he gives up the magic and the island, the play will come to an end and the audience, like Prospero, will return to real life. No trace of life on the magical island will be left, not even of the shipwreck, because Prospero says that even that might have been an illusion.
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Ye 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.
These lines are uttered by Prospero during the wedding masque that was organized by Ariel, Prospero’s spirit helper. Ariel summons his acquaintances from the spirit world and puts up a feisty entertainment show for the guests at the wedding party, so much so that Ferdinand, the prince of the Kingdom of Naples, declares that he would very much like to live forever on this magical island. Suddenly, during the masque, Prospero recalls the devious scheme by Caliban and his co-conspirators to take his life. It is at this point that Prospero utters the stirring words from the extract.
His words are sad – he rues the fact that he had come to believe in his own magic so much (the spectacular wedding masque put up by the spirit, Ariel and his cohorts) that, for a moment, he had forgotten about the real life that needed to be lived and protected. His speech emphasizes the pulchritude of this magical world that he has created out of nothing, and yet asserts that all this comes to nought because it is unreal and magical. This is ironical when we contrast this with the fact that it was Prospero himself who created this world for himself on the island so that the concerns of real life did not affect him.
Prospero’s mention of the “great globe” could be interpreted as a reference to the Globe Theater in London, a theater that used to stage Shakespeare’s plays and which most contemporary readers would, no doubt, have recognized. This reference also alludes to Prospero’s demonstrated ability to stage a show, to the way he controls events on the island, like an accomplished director.
The word “rack” which literally means “a mass of smoke” could be interpreted as a pun on “wrack,” or the original shipwreck with which this play began. This pun, and others like it in the play, fuses real-word theater with the magic realism of Prospero’s island. Towards the end of the speech, Prospero wistfully hints that when he gives up the magic and the island, the play will come to an end and the audience, like Prospero, will return to real life. No trace of life on the magical island will be left, not even of the shipwreck, because Prospero says that even that might have been an illusion.
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