Beginning of Essay
The Tempest, written in 1611, was one of William Shakespeare's last plays. It has a combination of superb characters, interesting settings, and a good plot line—all held together by the running theme of magic, and its ever- present importance. A closer examinati ....

Middle of Essay
.... so-called witches. It contained one chapter of approximately twenty pages describing what we might view as unsophisticated, old-time magic tricks. One would assume that it was this text, and texts succeeding this (The Art of Juggling, written by Samuel Ridd in 1610 also presented a few how-to's of magic) were probably not only what suggested the idea of using magic as a them to Shakespeare, but in addition, provided methods as to how the magic in the play might be accomplished. Despite the fact that in retrospective analysis it is fairly clear that witches were nothing more that magicians with a slightly different presentation, audiences were no ....