Alonso

Play

The Tempest

Summary

The King of Naples who aided Antonio in usurping Prospero's dukedom twelve years before and now suffers on the island believing his son Ferdinand has drowned. His grief and guilt make him genuinely penitent — unlike the impenitent Antonio — and his reunion with the living Ferdinand is the emotional center of the play's reconciliation scene. He represents the possibility of genuine remorse and transformation that the play holds out as an ideal.

Notable Quotations

"O, it is monstrous, monstrous! / Methought the billows spoke and told me of it; / The winds did sing it to me." *(III.iii)*

"I am hers. / But O, how oddly will it sound that I / Must ask my child forgiveness!" *(V.i)*

Cross-references

• The Tempest — the play
• Romances (Late Plays)
• character_prospero — who forgives him
• character_ferdinand — his son he believes dead
• character_gonzalo — his loyal counselor
• character_antonio_tempest — his co-conspirator in Milan's usurpation