“In one voyage / Did Claribel her husband find at Tunis, / And Ferdinand, her brother, found a wife / Where he himself was lost; Prospero his dukedom / In a poor isle; and all of us ourselves / When no man was his own” (Act 5. Sc. 1. Lines 249 - 254).
In this passage, Gonzalo and the rest of the boat party have just discovered that both Prospero and Ferdinand are alive. Gonzalo speaks out to the group as a whole, and points out the many positive aspects to their being stranded on Prospero’s island. The reason for their journey was the wedding of Claribel, Alonso’s daughter, to a prince in Tunis. Because of that journey, the ship was brought into the clutches of Prospero and Ariel, and the men from Prospero’s past were placed upon the island in order for him to enact him form of justice for past events. These events led to the eventual meeting of Ferdinand and Miranda, something which Prospero had planned as a way to regain his lost power in Milan, as well as a way to gain favor in the eyes of the King of Naples, Alonso. And, because of this marriage, Prospero was eventually able to regain the kingdom and power he lost due to his brother’s betrayal. I think that this passage symbolizes how, although the initial journey and arrival on the island was filled with many negative prospects, in the end, there were also several very positive outcomes, giving the whole play a more positive tone.
~Megan
