The End!? (Tempest)

Well the last two acts were in interesting read. To me it kind of seemed to end on a simple happy note. The supposed bad guy turned a new leaf. All was forgiven. Love flourished. Everything tied in a nice little bow. It doesn't seem like a typical Shakespearean ending, with death and dramatic twists etc.
So you have Prospero win. He gathers everyone. All truth is revealed. He renounces his powers and gets his dukedom reestablished. You find that the Boatswains are all alright and the ship is ready to go (pg. 161). Prospero deems everything that occurred as "happened accidents." (pg. 163) I feel that he sugar coated that. I mean he caused a tempest that threw everyone on a island. I think it was more than a little incident/coincidence.
What I really want to talk about is the magic in the story, or should I say "art". If you notice no one really gets hurt from the magic happening in the pages. You have a storm. Everyone gets on the island. Clothes dry. Some are asleep. Nothing really dangerous happens. I was kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop. I was expecting a death or sacrifice. At least that is what I pair magic with now after reading Kors/Peters. But this magic was very indirect and sneaky. It was demonic magic or blood sacrifices. It was elemental. The water and air. It is curious to note that Prospero calls his art "rough magic." (pg. 149, line 59)

 His perception is that this was really powerful and scary stuff that he was doing. In reality, if you take what read in other readings, magic can get a whole lot darker and scarier. It is interesting to see his perception of his magic. I like how he coins it "art". If you think of art you think visuals, feelings, interpretation, eccentricities, colors etc. It kind of seems parallel to how is magic works. The entire time Prospero is guiding everyone in places or positions he needs them to be in. He uses the senses as a way to manipulate others. Such as seeing shapes. He also plays on emotions like love (or lust), anger, greed, fear, kind of how art plays with our emotions based on how we look and interpret them.


Overall, I thought this was a odd way to end a story like this. It seemed so simple and to neat. If someone threw me over a boat, had me seeing shapes, chased by dogs (spirits), etc, I wouldn't be so keen to just chalk it up to a sorry.