A Jungian Interpretation of The Tempest Shakespeare's The Tempest lends itself to many different levels of meaning and interpretation. The work can be seen on a realistic level as a story of political power and social responsibility. It can be seen as an allegory examining the growth of the human spirit. The Tempest investigates marriage, love, culture. It is the symbol of man's superior rational instincts over his natural animal tendencies. This is a game of repentance, power, revenge and destiny that can also be seen as fantasy, dream, imagination, metaphor or magic. The Tempest should be allowed to represent many points of view, even ones that the author was not consciously or unconsciously aware of. aware when he wrote it. One perspective does not invalidate the others. I propose to illustrate The Tempest as a play about what happens in the protagonist's mind. To be more specific, it is about Prospero's growth, maturation and individuation. Shakespeare, in a sense of which he could not have been aware, was anticipating Freud and Jung. His servants, Ariel and Caliban, are the agents of synchronicity. By synchronicity I mean meaningful coincidence; an acausal principle that relates the inner mind to the external world; a vehicle through which the ego, if open, can glimpse the Self. In Jung's terms, it is strongest when there is an emotional attachment and when there is an element of risk or death. When the subject is ready to learn, the unconscious mind can influence physical reality. By individuation I mean "becoming a unique and homogeneous being... becoming oneself... entering into individuality." 1To begin to show how this process occurs in Prospero, I would like to challenge some traditional views of the character. Many critics believe that Prospero is in complete control of everything that happens on his island. He is seen as omniscient, with a perfect plan in place, often seen as calm, good, as the primary force of reason and logic, and the highest qualities of man. I don't dispute any of this. Prospero is an extraordinarily talented, wise, and mature man who is in control of himself and his environment, but he is not perfect. This is a play that shows the growth and education of its characters, but more importantly the growth and education of Prospero himself. At the beginning he is a struggling man, a bitter man, a tyrannical and vindictive man; not God, unless he is the cruel anthropomorphic God of the early Old Testament.