The Tempest Metaatheater Essay

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Metatheater is a term used to describe the situation in theater when the author of the play talks about theater and drama in the play itself. Examples of this phenomena can be found in The Tempest, last play written by William Shakespeare. The next passage is a monologue by Prospero in scene 1, act 4 of the play.
Prospero, a magician, addresses the theatrical nature of the play as he acknowledges the fact that him and the rest of the characters are nothing but actors “these our actors”, and claims that they will be dissolved into air as soon as the play finishes “our revels are now ended. These our actors … were spirits, and are melted into air”. He also uses vision to refer to their story “baseless fabric of this vision” , meaning an spectacle,