'You taught me language, and my profit on't / Is I know how to curse' — Caliban's bitter retort exposes the violence embedded in 'civilising' missions. Language, ostensibly a gift, becomes a tool of domination; Caliban's only use for it is to articulate his own oppression.

Shakespeare engages with the contemporary debate about whether indigenous peoples are inherently noble or inherently savage — Caliban embodies both perspectives, capable of extraordinary poetic beauty ('the isle is full of noises') and of plotting murder, resisting any single interpretation.

'The great globe itself... shall dissolve' — the play constantly draws attention to its own theatricality. By making Prospero a figure for the artist, Shakespeare explores the power and limitations of art: it can transform perception, create wonder, and prompt moral reflection, but it cannot permanently alter reality.

'A devil, a born devil, on whose nature / Nurture can never stick' — Prospero insists that Caliban cannot be improved by education, but the play complicates this view. Caliban's poetic language and genuine love for the island suggest that 'nature' possesses its own dignity that 'art' cannot fully comprehend or contain.

'Thou shalt be as free / As mountain winds' — Prospero's promise to Ariel frames freedom as the ultimate reward, yet the play reveals that freedom is always relational and conditional. Even Prospero, the most powerful figure, is not truly free until he forgives his enemies and relinquishes control.

The play systematically builds toward revenge, then subverts the expectation — Prospero's choice to forgive redefines strength as restraint rather than punishment. However, the forgiveness is ambiguous; Antonio never apologises, and Caliban is merely 'acknowledged', raising questions about whether true reconciliation has been achieved.

The repetition of usurpation plots across different social registers demonstrates that illegitimate ambition is a universal human failing — Shakespeare questions what makes power legitimate at all, since Prospero's own authority over the island was itself established through dispossession of Caliban.

'I have given you here a third of mine own life' — Prospero defines Miranda as his possession and her marriage as a political transaction. Shakespeare reflects Jacobean patriarchal norms but also exposes their restrictiveness; Miranda's famous line 'O brave new world' reveals both her wonder and her sheltered naivety.

'These our actors... were all spirits and / Are melted into air' — the play draws a sustained parallel between magic and theatre. Both create convincing illusions that affect audiences emotionally, but both must end. Shakespeare suggests that the power of art lies not in permanence but in the transformative experience it provides.

'Now my charms are all o'erthrown, / And what strength I have's mine own' — Prospero's renunciation of magic mirrors Shakespeare laying down his pen. The epilogue becomes a meditation on the artist's relationship with the audience: without their continued engagement ('your good hands'), the artist's life's work simply vanishes.

'He is as disproportioned in his manners / As in his shape' — yet Antonio and Sebastian's treachery is arguably worse than anything Caliban does. Shakespeare destabilises the civilised/savage opposition by showing that European 'civilisation' produces its own forms of savagery, making the label a tool of power rather than a description of reality.