Tempest Paper

NATURE VIBRATIONS

In the playwright The Tempest by William Shakespeare, the main plot is centered on a man named Prospero who seeks revenge from those who wronged him in his past. After being thrown out of his dukedom in Naples years before by his brother (Antonio), Prospero flees into exile to a strange, distant island with his daughter Miranda where he remains for many years. When the royal figures of Naples (Alonso, Gonzalo, Sebastian, Antonio and Ferdinand) return on a ship from Alonso’s daughter’s wedding in Tunisia, Prospero finds this an opportune moment to send a tempest their way, shipwreck them, and carry out his revenge master plan against Antonio and the rest of his enemies on the strange island that he lives on. In the playwright, we are introduced to the peculiarities of the island. One of these peculiarities takes the form of music. Music occurs frequently throughout the playwright haphazardly and incites all the more the strangeness of the island. In most instances when music is brought in the play, Ariel (Prospero’s spirit) is the source of the music, and his purpose is to lure or distract the listener. Luring and distraction are both forms of seduction. Therefore, music represents seduction in The Tempest. The medium, in which music is delivered however, differs—and we learn of the music that comes from the air, earth, and heaven. In this paper I will analyze Ariel’s use of music as a seduction tool and the possible explanations for the respective mediums used for seduction.

In the first instance that Ariel seduces Ferdinand, it is not apparent to the reader what medium is used to transport music. When Ferdinand, alone on a river bank, is weeping over his father’s misfortune, he hears music. The music Ferdinand hears calms the intensity of his grief and he is mesmerized by the power that the music seems to have that it can “allay its fury with [Ferdinand’s] passion” (1, ii, 388-396) with a “sweet air” (1, ii, 388-396). According to...