A seventeenth-century fantasy, The Tempest has love as a central concern, not unlike the medieval and Renaissance romances which disregard the everyday laws of a cause and effect. Although the situations are improbable, the characters, with all their emotions and reactions, are real. In the play, while the outcome is good, there is evil abounding; goodness wins out only by constant vigilance and forgiveness. The Tempest is a simple plot: a fairy tale with good and bad, ugly and beautiful, nature and society, real people and spirits. Themes of sin, atonement, and reconciliation are dominant throughout the play, and Shakespeare adds a set of symbols that exemplify those themes.