I agree, The Tempest is very weird. My guess would be that, unlike the other plays, this in one in which we are set down inside the "workshop" where meaning is created, and so there are all these variations on master-slave, creator-creature, dominion-colony going on. We see different webs in which people are caught, and the webspinner himself. To carry this off in a Christian society, Shakespeare obviously had to shift into natural magic -- he couldn't have God on stage the way Job or Milton does. But it does make the whole thing sort of minor league puppetry -- as opposed to Lear, where you feel that the universe is under investigation -- as flies to wanton boys are we to the gods, they kill us for their sport.. Prospero is a kind of minor league god. And, obviously one theme at the end is giving up that kind of power, which could be seen as a renunciation into ordinary life. To be blasphemous, it is a bit like Jesus walking out of the Garden of Gethsemane and settling down with Mary Magdalene as a house carpenter. This seems to be a solution that Shakespeare would see as equally as fine as being crucified and resurrected; and equally as religious. Not that he would have dared say that.

yours, Peter T.