Which thematic statement is best demonstrated by the events of Shakespeare's The Tempest

A. Relying on tricks instead of hard work will always backfire; only through hard work can one succeed.

B. Even in a new place with new people, travelers never escape their old problems and their old habits.

C. Love that's easily won is the most enduring love of all, whereas love that's hard-won is extremely fragile.

D. Equality is the natural state of human beings, and inequality is only created through unnatural means.

The thematic statement that is best described by Shakespeare's The Tempest is B) Even in a new place with new people, travelers never escape their old problems.

The premise of releasing people in a inhospitable land where they are the mercy of human nature itself is a revelation: the characters may be exposed to several situations in which opportunity is given for them to behave in disagreement with their societal roles, however, that never takes place and they still act according to what society demands and expects of them. Prospero intends to recover his title, in spite of possessing an entire island to himself and a spirit at his beck and call, because that is what society has taught him to reach for. Miranda and Ferdinand do not consumate their passion when nobody is there to halt them, because refraining is what society dictates that they must do. Caliban, Trinculo and Stephano do not manage to ascend socially or gain power and freedom, because society exercises its control over them. Most notably and tellingly, upon shipwrecking and finding himself stranded on a remote island, Gonzalo fantasizes about a somewhat utopian society that he never manages to make come true in the play, perhaps because all the characters are either conformed or confined to their roles.

In short: if a fish is taken out of water, it is still a fish, that behaves as a fish does, and deals with the predicaments that a fish must face, even out of his element.