Gonzalo

Play

The Tempest

Summary

The honest old counselor of Naples who long ago provisioned Prospero's exile boat with food, clothes, and crucially his books. On the island, Gonzalo's irrepressible optimism and goodness are satirized by Antonio and Sebastian but ultimately vindicated — he is the one who recognizes and articulates the miracle of the play's resolution. His imagining of a utopian commonwealth, drawn from Montaigne, is both gently mocked in context and genuinely utopian in aspiration.

Notable Quotations

"Had I plantation of this isle, my lord... / I' the commonwealth I would by contraries / Execute all things." *(II.i)*

"Was Milan thrust from Milan, that his issue / Should become kings of Naples? O, rejoice / Beyond a common joy!" *(V.i)*

Cross-references

• The Tempest — the play
• Romances (Late Plays)
• character_prospero — whose survival he made possible years before
• character_alonso — the king he serves
• character_antonio_tempest — whose cynicism contrasts with his goodness