Stephano (The Tempest)

Play

The Tempest

Summary

King Alonso's drunken butler who survived the shipwreck on a barrel of wine and washes up on the island where Caliban mistakes him for a god descended from heaven. Together with Trinculo he forms a comic counterpart to the main political plot — his conspiracy with Caliban to murder Prospero and make himself king of the island directly mirrors Antonio's earlier usurpation, rendering it absurd. He is routed by Prospero's spirits and ends the play humiliated and hung over.

Notable Quotations

"Every man shift for all the rest, and let no man take care for himself; for all is but fortune." *(V.i)*

"The folly of this island! They say there's but five upon this isle: we are three of them; if th'other two be brained like us, the state totters." *(III.ii)*

Cross-references

• The Tempest — the play
• Romances (Late Plays)
• character_caliban — who worships him as a deity
• character_prospero — whose overthrow he plans
• character_antonio_tempest — his unwitting parallel in the main plot