This play utilizes several points of view in order to accomodate the format in which the story is written. Most frequently, the characters speak from a first person point of view; however, occasionally, they vary the point of view, speaking from a third person point of view as they discuss other characters. Also, the stage directions that are incorporated into the play are given in third person. The point of view of Aime Cesaire's "A Tempest" is mostly limited; however, this seems to change when the viewpoint of the play is given to Prospero. Due to Prospero's powers and knowledge of the prophetic sciences, the point of view seems to be omniscient, or nearly so, when the play is told from Prospero's viewpoint. Additionally, the point of view of this play is fairly reliable, though sometimes, it is intentionally unreliable. One example of this is when Caliban attempts to recruit Stephano and Trinculo to help him overthrow Prospero. At this point, Caliban obviously lies about his loyalty to Stephano as King of the Island in order to enlist their services.
The point of view is important because the format of the story is a play which makes a different point of view difficult. The play contains very little exposition; in fact, the only exposition appears in the form of the stage directions which appear sporadically throughout the text. "A Tempest" consists primarily of dialogue with an occasional monologue by the characters, used to convey their thoughts. The distribution of exposition and dialogue is important because the format of a play makes it very difficult to include a large amount of exposition without becoming tedious through the utilization of a narrator. Since "A Tempest" is written in the format of a play, the author relies primarily on dialogue to convey his plot. The viewpoint of the play varies. The viewpoint given is mostly that of Prospero or Caliban; however, the viewpoint occasionally veers to include the viewpoints of Alonso, Ariel and Antonio.
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