The Last Play of Shakespeare: The Tempest

The assertion that The Tempest is the last play of Shakespeare is not quite true. It would be much true to say that The Tempest is Shakespeare's last play which he wrote alone. It is recorded that his genuine last play was Two Noble Kinsmen which he co-wrote with John Fletcher.

The Tempest is a revenge play written by Shakespeare and tells the story of a powerful magician by the name of Prospero. Before he takes the profession of a magician, Prospero was once the Duke of Milan and he was obsessed with the knowledge that being a duke wasn't as interesting as books. Prospero's brother Antonio takes advantage of his brother's lack of interest in the dukedom and usurps his brother's rights, forcing Prospero to run away from Milan with his daughter Miranda. Prospero and Miranda escape Milan with a raft and they land on an island where they are greeted by the original resident of the island, Caliban. 

Caliban generously welcomes the guests and shows them the island so that they will know where the food is and where they can sleep. As Prospero tours the land, he encounters a spirit called Ariel who was trapped in a cloven pine tree by an evil witch. Prospero frees Ariel and takes Ariel to his service. Years go by, and Prospero gets more and more powerful and plots his revenge on his brother Antonio. In the meantime, Caliban who once welcomed Prospero and Caliban into the island tries to molest Miranda and gets enslaved by Prospero. Caliban curses a lot. He curses both Prospero and Miranda for capturing the island and curses himself for welcoming them in the first place. 

Even though this is a revenge play where Prospero uses magic and his wit and manages to take revenge on his brother and obtains power by marrying her daughter to King Alonso's son Ferdinand, the anti-colonialist approach of the play kind of takes the attention away from the revenge theme of the play. As Prospero and Miranda come to the island after being exiled, they are welcomed by Caliban who is untouched by civilization and who is generous, naive, and pure. He shows the island and the best of everything to them. With their arrival, Caliban loses his sovereignty on the island as it passes to Prospero who makes Caliban his subject/slave. Before Caliban, Caliban's mother Sycorax was the first master of Ariel and holder of the power which comes from witchcraft/magic. In a way, Prospero takes both the island and the magical power from Sycorax who was the first non-human master of the island. As he takes the island from Caliban and takes the magical power by saving Ariel. In this sense, Prospero is the colonizer and Caliban is the welcoming inhabitant.