A King Improved

In William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Alonso, king of Naples, is greatly changed by Prospero’s storm and the events that follow it. From the very beginning, the storm strips Alonso of his privileges as king. Following the storm, Prospero besets Alonso with trials that allow his goodness and good intentions to be seen. At the end, when he is forgiven by Prospero and when he discovers that Ferdinand is alive, Alonso is given a renewed faith in goodness. Prospero and his tempest reveal Alonso’s goodness and change his life for the better.

The changes to Alonso’s life begin in the ship where he begins to lose his sense of who he is. Although Alonso is the king and used to having his orders followed, he is told to get out of the way by the boatswain, his subordinate. The king is ordered around by someone that he should, and used to, order. The boatswain also explicitly says, “What cares these roarers for the name of king?” (Shakespeare and Holland I.i.13). By declaring that the storm does not care whether Alonso is a king or not, the boatswain makes it even more clear that royalty signifies nothing on the sea in a tempest. Alonso’s kingship, for which he committed his past crime, comes to mean very little.

On the island, Prospero provides trials to see whether Alonso’s kingly ambitions still control him. He seeks to reveal Alonso’s true self by testing his intentions. Specifically, by putting him on a seemingly uninhabited island, Prospero tests whether Alonso still has ambitions that would lead him to commit unjust actions. Several characters have visions of ruling the island, or of using the circumstances to their material and political gain. By contrast, Alonso does nothing but lament the death of Ferdinand. The illusion of the loss of his son sends him into despair. Rather than defend himself against Sebastian’s accusations, Alonso humbly agrees that it is his fault that his son is dead. Furthermore, he regrets his actions, saying, “Would I had never / Married my daughter there! For, coming thence, / My son is lost and, in my rate, she too” (Shakespeare and Holland II.i.83–85). He would rather have forgone a political match than to have lost his children. These trials reveal Alonso’s intentions to be good because his family means more to him than his rule. His kingship, which signified little on the ship, becomes even less important.

Alonso’s despair over the loss of his family and his new attitude towards his position make him open to repentance, which in turn allows his faith in goodness to be renewed. Because he is depressed and has little regard for the kingship for which he committed his past wrongdoing, it is easy for Alonso to repent of the crime. The fact that he is repentant shows that he knows what he did was wrong - a victim of his own self-deception. Because he believes that he Prospero died as a result of his evil actions, he loses his faith in goodness. When he sees and is forgiven by Prospero, his faith in goodness is restored. He says, “And since I saw thee, / Th' affliction of my mind amends, with which / I fear a madness held me” (Shakespeare and Holland V.i.114–116). The knowledge that Prospero is alive and will be restored to his proper place makes him realize that his wrongdoing is remedied. When Alonso finds out that his son is still alive, and that he also has a new daughter, it renews his faith in goodness further still.

By putting Alonso in certain circumstances and creating the illusion of loss, Prospero makes him humble, depressed, and open to repentance, and thereby changes his life for the better. He reveals Alonso to be a good man who made a bad choice in the past. Alonso’s repentance, his subsequent forgiveness, and the reunion with his son renew his belief in goodness. This, in turn, renews the audience’s faith in goodness because they see Alonso repent for his past deeds and become a better man, which no other character does. Alonso provides a positive example of change for the play’s audience, giving them a renewed sense of goodness and hope.

Work Cited

Shakespeare, William, and Peter Holland. The Tempest. New York: Penguin Books, 1999. Print.