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Setting
In The Tempest, the setting takes place on an island. The play is set over the course of maybe one or two days, in the 13th
century.
The setting of Hamlet is in the Kingdom of Denmark. The play is set over anywhere from a month to about three months,
in the 14th century.
Play Type
There is a major difference of play type of The Tempest and Hamlet. Hamlet is more of a tragedy because in the end, basically
every single character who was in the play winds up dead, including the protagonist title character Hamlet. Whenever nearly
every character dies in a play its a depressing ending because the reader/audience gets so emotionally attached to the characters
that they want to see the best thing happen for that character. In Hamlet, the audience want to see him get his revenge of
Claudius, but they don't want to see him get it and then not be able to enjoy it and die right after he fulfills what he wanted
to do since the beginning of the play.
Unlike Hamlet, The Tempest is more of a funny comedy type of play. Prospero spends the whole entire play playing this
big prank on Alonso and Antonio so that he can get his revenge for them usurping his dukedom from him. It is very comical
to see Prospero be able to do whatever ever he wants to the visitors of the island and in the end making Alonso say that he
is sorry for forcing him out of his kingdom.
Themes
A common theme for both of these plays is revenge. In Hamlet, Hamlet wants to and is ordered to seek revenge for his fathers
death by killing Claudius. He spends the entire play plotting out his revenge, and then finally as the climax he finally gets
it, only to enjoy it for a few moments before he dies as well. In the Tempest, Prospero does something similar to what Hamlet
does. Throughout the entire play Prospero carries out his revenge on Alonso and Antonio who usurped him from his kingdom prior
to the begging of the play. However unlike Hamlet who seeks revenge by killing Claudius, Prospero only wants to make the people
who sinned against him suffer by showing them what he has had to go through.
Another common theme in both the Tempest and Hamlet is the idea of a power struggle. In Hamlet Claudius wanted to have
power so much that he killed his own brother and married his brothers wife so that he could have that power. As for in the
Tempest, Caliban believes that he is the owner of the island because his mother was exiled to the island and was the first
one on it. Prospero believe he owns it because he saved Caliban who becomes his slave, and also because he is the only one
on the island who has power, both magically and politically (although he was already usurped of that position). Then Gonzalo
wants to bring an almost anarchist government to the island of which he wants to rule, which really makes no sense at all.
The major differences in themes is death. In Hamlet almost everyone dies a tragic death. Death is also discussed amidst
the play in Hamlet's famous "To be or not to be" speech where he discusses that people would not want to go through
the agony of life if they were not afraid of what happens after death. As with The Tempest the theme of death does not show
up at all during the play. If anything it is the theme of life because Prospero could have easily of killed Alonso and Antonio
along with the rest of their party with his powers and the tempest of which we summoned, but he decided to keep them alive
so that he could meet them face to face and also make them suffer at the same time.
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