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At its heart, The Tempest is built on nature. It was inspired by European exploration into distant and unknown continents and by the wondrous stories that travellers carried back from the sights they found there. The island referenced in the play is positioned somewhere between North Africa and Italy, meaning it lies on one of the busiest global trade routes, bringing exotic items and commodities to Europe from Asia and the Middle East. Playing on this tension, the island is presented as being at the crossroads between unsulliedNot spoiled. natural beauty and greedy commodificationTurn something into a product to sell. . The characters find themselves on differing sides of this divide, with some looking to profit from the island's goods and even from Caliban, and others appreciating and being inspired by the charms of the landscape.

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Magic was still very stigmatised in the period in which The Tempest was written. In 1604, James I had passed a statuteA written law. against witches which tightened the laws against magic of any kind. Meanwhile, "witches" were still burnt at the stake due to fear and paranoia. The whole island represents magic, and each of the inhabitants has some relationship with sorcery. In Prospero's case, it is a magic learned through books and study, where in Caliban's case it is an inherited skill, though Prospero's magic is often depicted as beneficial where Caliban's is seen as "black magic".

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For some readers, The Tempest is an allegoryA story or poem that has a hidden moral or political meaning.  of European discovery in the "New World". The shipwreck tropeA recurring theme, especially in fiction. Damsels in distress, for instance, are a common trope in fairy tales and old-fashioned romances. was popular in Elizabethan-era travel writing, by which Europeans would land on an unfamiliar continent and deal with its inhabitants, who they viewed as dangerous and uncivilised. They saw it as their duty to Europeanise (or "civilise") these societies, often through violence and servitude. After all, for them, Europe was the "civilised world", with fully-fledged social and legal structures and hierarchies which needed to be replicated elsewhere. Prospero builds a kind of pseudo-civilisation on the island, but it is built on the servitude he demands from both Caliban and Ariel. And the conflict between civilisation and "barbarism", some argue, is played out in the inherently colonial relationship between Prospero and Caliban.

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Caliban is described in the play as a "savage" whose "vile race" lacks the natural charms of the other, more "civilised" characters. He is depicted as a foul monster, where Prospero is generally treated as benevolentWell-meaning and kind. and warranted in his actions. And whilst Prospero learns magic through the scientific method of the advanced world, Caliban inherits black magic from his mother's native practice. Post-colonial readings of The Tempest have focused on this dynamic, arguing that Caliban is treated as a "defiant subject under European rule" who is dehumanised by writer, characters and audience alike in order to justify his oppression by Prospero. Symbolic of this is his name, Caliban, an allusion to "cannibal", which was one of the prevailing stereotypes about natives of the New World, based on a practice found amongst the native people they discovered in Brazil. In portraying natives of to-be-colonised countries as violent, amoral savages lacking in culture or values, European explorers could justify uprooting their communities and forcing their inhabitants into servitude or killing them. In 1969, Black writer and activist Aime Cesaire authored a rewriting of The Tempest which more explicitly characterises Caliban as a colonial subject and shows his resistance to Prospero.

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A struggle for power is the force that most moves the plot of the play. Caliban attempts to overthrow Prospero with help after Prospero overthrows him. Antonio and Alonso plot to get rid of Prospero, after which Antonio and Sebastian plot to kill Alonso. At one point, the characters even contemplate the impossibility of constructing a world which is equal and not based on hierarchy.

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