How does Shakespeare's presentation of the island and its atmosphere in "The Tempest" allow for the exploration of moral and psychological issues?

The moral and psychological issues which imbue the island in “The Tempest” are exemplified by the attitudes expressed toward the island by the play’s characters. Following the storm and shipwreck of Act One Scene One, Gonzalo, Caliban, Alonso and Sebastian comically explore the non-atmospheric nature of the island. Alonso spends the bulk of the tempest believing that “my son is lost”, and mourning his death. Without their impromptu arrival on the island as a result of the eponymous tempest, this terror would not exist. Thus the island subjects its inhabitants to the psychological trauma of loss, which can be seen through Alonso’s morose attempts to come to terms with the loss of Ferdinand. Here Shakespeare not only explores the human psyche, but creates comedy through use of dramatic irony. Alonso’s despair is compounded by the isolation of the island, and comes accompanied by his terror of the “fearful country”. When Sebastian reinforces the distaste the privileged bare for the island, describing the air as “rotten”, the irony of Sebastian’s rotten character and inability to see the beauty of the island is not lost, and opens the door to an exploration of the morality of inequality and hereditary monarchy.

                The terror of the privileged is juxtaposed against the optimism of the less advantaged. The downtrodden and enslaved Caliban takes “delight” in the “fertile” soil, whilst the potential of the island is explored by Gonzalo. In Act Two Scene One, Gonzalo makes a utopian speech on how he would rule the island as a pre agrarian society, free of “metal, corn, or wine, or oil” as well as commerce and labour; in order to alleviate poverty, and return to the mythological “golden age”. Whilst dismissed by the royals, the speech shows the disparity in moral attitudes, and how the island influences character’s opinions on the issue of survival. In Naples the discussion between commoner and noble on how to rule the land would likely never have arisen, but on the island, the moral issue of right to rule, and the relationship between ruler and ruled are free to be explored. As such the physical isolation of the island coupled with the character’s differing reactions to it, divided along class lines, allow for an interesting exploration of the moral and psychological issues of loss and engrained inequality.