An Examination of Music in The Tempest Essay -- The Tempest Essays

An Examination of Music in The violent storm Compared to runaways written for public playhouses, The disturbance offers a unique emphasis on medicine. Hiring extra unisonians, along with the time constraints usually resulted in small care given to this area (Long 95). Given the large degree of detail shell out to music in the play, it is believed the audience to have been upper class, however, music of The agitation serves a variety of functions beyond that of mere entertainment. By exploring the evidence provided in The Tempest, we can reveal some of these functions that music serves in the play. Direct roles of music in The Tempest Mental manipulation Music in The Tempest is utilized by Ariel to manipulate his victims in a number of ways, champion being a sleight of mind. Take away the enchanted island and Prosperos dissimulation and music still holds a quality which enhances or detracts from ones mood similarly, Ariels songs attend to have a way of creeping into t he mind of the listeners, but his step by step changes their very thoughts. Our first evidence of how this manipulation functions is Ariels song sung to Ferdinand This music crept by me upon the waters, Allaying both their fury and my passion With its sweet air thus I have followd it, Or it hath drawn me rather. (1.2.391-95)The music begins to work by evoking a state of passion, then playing upon this heightened sense of emotion, Ferdinand is drawn in a manner which seems similar to that of the call of the sirens. Ariels playing and singing enchantment invisible allows the music to be felt like a knowing presence, perhaps coming from the island, perhaps his own mind. Ferdinand is not sure whether it comes from the wat... ...hich the play leads, it is the conflict in the struggle for the power it represents, and the resolution in the symmetry it provides. Works CitedGervinus, G. A review of The Tempest. Shakespearean Criticism 8 (1877) Johnson , W. The coevals of Ariel Shakespeare Quarterly 11.3 (1951) 205-10.Long, John. Shakespeares Use of Music The Final Comedies. Gainesville University of Florida Press, 1961.Other Voices The Sweet, Dangerous Air(s) of Shakespeares Tempest. Shakespeare Studies 24 (1996) 241-74 Palmer, D.J. The Tempest. London Macmillan & Co., Ltd., 1968.Scott, Mark. Shakespearean Criticism. Detroit Gale Research, Inc., 1989.Smith, Hallett. Twentieth Century Interpretations of The Tempest. Englewood Cliffs Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1969.The Riverside Shakespeare. Boston Houghton Mifflin Co., 1997.