Tempest

[Bluenose1]

Hello

Can I ask, please, what does this mean:

We are the stuff that dreams are made on?

We are our own dreams?

Thanks

[Pompey Bum]

Welcome to the site, Bluenose, and please forgive our high spirits on the other thread. The quotation is actually: "We are such stuff as dreams are made on." It is from William Shakespeare's The Tempest, spoken by the magician Prospero. As usual with Shakespeare, it may be taken on more than one level. On the the dramatic level, that is, in the story Shakespeare is telling, Prospero is informing the audience of a spirit drama he has conjured up that the show is over:

Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd tow'rs, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.

On another level, Shakespeare is commenting on the illusory nature of theater, in which the great palaces and temples--and even the familiar characters--are, in fact, insubstantial visions that "dissolve" when the curtain falls. Note "the great globe itself" which may be a reference to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. Some think The Tempest was the last play that Shakespeare wrote independently, and that Prospero, who retires from magic at the play's end, is a somewhat autobiographical character. If so, the passage is quite poignant. It is as if Shakespeare is saying to his own audience: Well, I'm glad you enjoyed my plays, but it was all illusion, and now it's time to move on. Of course he said it better--he's Shakespeare. :)

On the third and most profound level, Shakespeare is commenting on the illusory nature of life itself, with "great globe" now referring to earthly existence, which "shall dissolve/And, like this insubstantial pageant [that is, Prospero's show] faded,/Leave not a rack [that is, not a ruin or trace] behind." At that point comes your quote: "We are such stuff/As dreams are made on"--we, too, are illusions destined to fade like dreams--"And our little life/Is rounded with a sleep." And our lives end with--death? The sentiment is not faithful in a religious sense, but neither is it atheistic. "A sleep" may imply further dreaming, and since "We are such stuff/As dreams are made on," who knows?

I hope that was helpful.