In Shakespeare's play, The Tempest, Prospero,
the Duke of Milan, was usurped by his brother Antonio
and cast adrift on the sea with his child, Miranda.
Their barely sea-worthy vessel was washed ashore on an island
previously populated by Sycorax, a witch, and
now inhabited by her son, Caliban, a deformed savage
whom Prospero teaches and uses as a slave.

Prospero's learning and magic arts release Ariel from
her inprisonment in a tree and the spirit agrees to
serve the magician out of gratitude. After twelve years
on the island, a ship bearing his brother Antonio
together with the king of Naples and his son Ferdinand,
is caught in a tempestuous storm whipped up by Prospero
and wrecked on the island. Although the passengers are
unharmed, they are separated and believe one another to
be drowned. Ferdinand and Miranda are magically drawn
together by the enchantments of Ariel, fall in love and
married. Ariel, obeying Prospero's orders, torments
Antonio and the King of Naples until they repent of their
cruelty.

The families are reunited and the ship is magically restored
in order to carry Prospero and the others back to Italy.
The magician's final acts on the island are to renounce
his arts and drown his books and to set Ariel free.
Caliban is left, as before, the island's sole inhabitant.