Metaphor in The Tempest

Prospero’s metaphor refers to the pageant he has produced on the island using his knowledge of magic. He believes that in the end everything will “dissolve” into nothingness. After all, people are the “stuff” or substance that dreams are “made on,” or build of. “Little” suggests that people’s lives are insignificant, and ultimately their lives are “rounded,” or completed, by sleep; these words briefly touch on human mortality.