‘Thy father was the Duke of Milan and / A prince of power’ (Prospero, 1:2)

Prospero was a powerful man before arriving on the island.

‘And these, mine enemies, are now knit up / In their distractions. They now are in my power’ (Prospero, 3:3)

Power is important to Prospero and he enjoys having power over his enemies.

‘I must obey. His art is of such power / It would control my dam’s god Setebos / And make a vassal of him’ (Caliban, 1:2)

Caliban is scared of Prospero because his magic is even more powerful than anything his mother’s god could do.

‘Never till this day / Saw I him touched with anger, so distempered’ (Miranda, 4:1)

Prospero is usually calm but can become angry.

‘this famous Duke of Milan / Of whom so often I have heard renown’ (Ferdinand, 5:1)

Prospero was thought of as a good duke when he ruled Milan.

‘O, I have suffered / With those that I saw suffer’ (Miranda, 1:2)

Miranda doesn’t like to watch people suffer.

'Tis a villain, sir, / I do not love to look on’ (Miranda, 1:2)

Miranda does not like being near Caliban.

‘What foul play had we that we came from thence? / Or blessed was’t we did?’ (Miranda, 1:2)

Miranda seems at home on the island, saying it could be a blessing they were stranded there.

‘I do not know / One of my sex, no woman’s face remember / Save from my glass, mine own’ (Miranda, 3:1)

Miranda has never seen another woman.

‘But you, O you, / So perfect and so peerless, are created / Of every creature’s best’ (Ferdinand, 3:1)

Miranda is beautiful, even compared to the women Ferdinand would have known at court in Naples.

‘This my rich gift’ (Prospero, 4:1)

Miranda has a close relationship with her father, who values her.

‘I come / to answer thy best pleasure, be’t to fly / To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride / On the curled clouds, to thy strong bidding task / Ariel and all his quality’ (Ariel, 1:2)

Ariel is willing to obey Prospero and has many skills.

‘I have done thee worthy service / Told thee no lies, made no mistakings, served / Without grudge or grumblings.’ (Ariel, 1:2)

Ariel doesn’t usually complain about serving Prospero.

‘I must / Once a month recount what thou hast been / Which thou forget’st’ (Prospero, 1:2)

Ariel owes Prospero for his freedom but Prospero has to remind him of this every month.

‘For thou wast a spirit too delicate / To act her earthy and abhorred commands, / Refusing her grand hests, she did confine thee’ (Prospero, 1:2)

Ariel disobeyed Sycrorax and was imprisoned for it.

‘My industrious servant, Ariel’ (Prospero, 4:1)

Ariel is hard working.

‘This island's mine by Sycorax my mother / Which thou tak’st from me’ (Caliban, 1:2)

Caliban should have ruled the island but Prospero took it from him.

‘I’ll be wise hereafter / And seek for grace. What a thrice-double ass / Was I to take this drunkard for a god’ (Caliban, 5:1)

Caliban is quite gullible and believes Stephano is a god. He asks forgiveness for this at the end of the play.

‘Abhorred slave / Which any print of goodness wilt not take / being capable of all ill’ (Miranda, 1:2)

Caliban is hated by Miranda and Prospero.

‘A most ridiculous monster to make a wonder of a poor drunkard’ (Trinculo, 2:2)

Caliban does not look human, but like a ‘monster’.

‘A devil, a born devil, on whose nature / Nurture can never stick, on whom my pains / Humanely taken, all, all lost quite lost / And as with age his body uglier grows / So his mind cankers’ (Prospero, 4:1)

Caliban is seen as naturally bad by Prospero who thinks he grows worse as he gets older.

‘Sitting on a bank / Weeping again the King my father’s wreck’ (Ferdinand, 1:2)

Ferdinand is close to his father.

‘The very instant that I saw you did / My heart fly to your service, there resides / To make me slave to it and for your sake / Am I this patient log-man’ (Ferdinand, 3:1)

Ferdinand falls in love with Miranda instantly and is willing to be her father’s slave.

‘This gallant which thou seest / Was in the wreck, and but he’s something stained / With grief, that’s beauty’s canker, thou mightst call him / A goodly person’ (Prospero, 1:2)

Ferdinand seems a good and gallant person.

‘I might call him / A thing divine, for nothing natural / I ever saw so noble’ (Miranda, 1:2)

Ferdinand is immediately attractive to Miranda.

‘There’s nothing ill can dwell in such a temple’ (Miranda, 1:2)

Ferdinand is good looking.

‘They say there’s but five upon this isle. We are three of them. If the other two be brained like us, the state totters’ (Trinculo, 3:2)

Trinculo does not have a very high opinion of either his own intelligence or that of Caliban and Stephano.

‘Though thou canst swim like a duck, thou art made like a goose’ (Stephano, 2:2)

Trinculo is unsteady on his feet, like a goose.

‘I will not serve him, he’s not valiant’ (Caliban, 3:2)

Trinculo is not impressive to Caliban, who doesn’t want to serve him.

‘Trinculo is reeling ripe’ (Alonso, 5:1)

Trinculo is also drunk by the end of the play.

‘If I can recover him and keep him tame, and get to Naples with him, he’s a present for any emperor’ (Stephano, 2:2)

Stephano is greedy and thinks he can make money from selling Caliban.

‘Prithee do not turn me about, my stomach is not constant’ (Stephano, 2:2)

Stephano is already drunk when he meets Trinculo .

‘I do begin to have bloody thoughts’ (Stephano, 4:1)

Stephano is prepared to kill Prospero until he is distracted.

‘That’s a brave god and bears celestial liquor. I will kneel to him’ (Caliban, 2:2)

Stephano uses the drink he has to make Caliban worship him.

‘Is not this Stephano, my drunken butler?’ (Alonso, 5:1)

Stephano is often drunk.

‘Old lord, I cannot blame thee / Who am myself attached with weariness / To the dulling of my spirits. Sit down and rest. / Even here will I put off my hope’ (Alonso, 3:2)

Alonso is determined to find his son and cares for Gonzalo.

‘I will stand to and feed / Although my last, no matter since I feel / The best is past’ (Alonso, 3:3)

Alonso becomes reckless when he thinks he has lost his son.

‘The King of Naples, being an enemy / To me inveterate’ (Prospero, 1:2)

Alonso is Prospero’s long term enemy.

‘Sir, you may thank yourself for this great loss / That would not bless our Europe with your daughter / But rather lose her to an African’ (Sebastian, 2:1)

Alonso’s choices as a ruler are not respected by his brother.

‘Here lies your brother / No better than the earth he lies upon / If he were that which now he’s like, that’s dead’ (Antonio, 2:1)

Alonso’s rule in Naples is not secure.

‘O that you bore / The mind that I do, what a sleep were this / For your advancement’ (Antonio, 2:1)

Antonio is opportunistic.

‘I am right glad that he’s so out of hope’ (Antonio, 3:2)

Antonio has no sympathy, even for Alonso who believes his son is dead.

‘in my false brother / Awaked an evil nature, and my trust / Like a good parent, did beget of him / A falsehood in its contrary as great / As my trust was’ (Prospero, 1:2)

Antonio betrayed Prospero, even though Prospero thinks he treated him well.

‘Thy case, dear friend / Shall be my precedent: as thou got’st Milan / I’ll come by Naples’ (Sebastian, 2:1)

Antonio is trusted by Sebastian and uses his trust to persuade him to kill his brother.

‘You brother mine that entertained ambition / Expelled remorse and nature.’ (Prospero, 5:1)

Antonio is motivated by personal ambition, according to Prospero.

‘You have cause / So have we all, of joy, for our escape / Is much beyond our loss’ (Gonzalo, 2:1)

Gonzalo is positive and tries to see the good in their situation.

‘I can go no further sir / My old bones aches’ (Gonzalo, 3:2)

Gonzalo is old and struggles to walk around the island.

‘A noble Neapolitan, Gonzalo / Out of his charity, who being then appointed / Master of this design, did give us, with / Rich garments, linens, stuffs, and necessaries / Which since have steaded much’ (Prospero, 1:2)

Gonzalo helped Prospero and Miranda to escape Milan and gave them provisions.

‘Look, he’s winding up the watch of his wit’ (Sebastian, 2:1)

Gonzalo is not quick witted, something Sebastian finds humorous.

‘O good Gonzalo / My true preserver and a loyal sir / To him thou followest’ (Prospero, 5:1)

Gonzalo is loyal, both to Prospero and to Alonso.