The Tempest and Audience Impact

By James Cox, Student

Confront and Engage the Audience

An essay hosted at LiteratureClassics.com

"The function of drama is to confront and then engage the audience." Do you agree? Discuss with reference to one or more plays.

While it can be incorrect to make a blanket statement that covers all plays ever written, the saying "the function of drama is to confront and then engage the audience" certainly holds true for many examples of the drama genre, including tragedies, tragicomedies and other comedies. For example, the structure The Tempest, a Romance by William Shakespeare, fits this statement quite well. The audience is suitable confronted by the sheer ferocity of The Tempest, and from the time that the unfortunate passengers land on the island, the audience is engaged by the fantasy of the island of Prospero.

At the start of the play, we see the action on board the ship which is ferrying the King and some members of the upper class back home. They are in the midst of a great storm, the likes of which mariners of those times would have prayed not to meet. The state of nature, at this point, is very much in disorder. This becomes important after the action inn the ensuing calm, as many different binary opposites are set up, such as fate against free will, human versus non human, and order conflicting with disorder. Prospero, the ruler of the island, is actually both parts of the opposition 'power of kings' versus supernatural power, being both the rightful Duke of Milan and the leader of his island, and also being a magician with a spirit as a servant. Through his 'art', he also shows us again the order/disorder opposition. He created the storm at the start of the play, the great disorder. Towards the end, however, he is responsible for the masque scene, a great order - the culminating of perfection for that culture, in fact.

In Elizabethan times, dramatists used the thrust stage as the standard for all of the plays performed. The thrust stage, as distinct to the later used Proscenium arch, was a large raised platform that reached out into the audience. In fact, royalty and other members of the upper class would often sit right on the stage as kind of status privilege. In the first part; the storm, this is ideal to help to get the audience's attention. While there would be no compute generated special effects, of course, the sight and sound of the storm, and the mariners and the nobles shouting at each other across the stage, would be very confronting indeed as audiences were pulled in by the drama unfolding before them.
"What cares these roarers for the name of king? To cabin! Silence! Trouble us not."

It is Act 1, Scene 2, that marks the start of the section of the play where the audience really becomes engaged. At the start, a long series of verbose monologues explains the story to us, with Prospero asking Miranda if she is listening, with the effect of also asking the audience to pay attention! The complex relationships between the inhabitants of the island is set up, and in this transition scene the border between reality and enchantment is set. It actually has the effect of suspending the audience's disbelief, and to prepare us for the magic spells and spirits of the later story. Indeed, Miranda says "If by your art, my dearest father, you have put the wild waters in this roar, allay them."
In the 1600s, the belief in the supernatural of the population was very much a part of people's lives. At this time it was the common notion that witches, warlocks and spirits were real, and superstition was everywhere. Even King James I, who was heavily into that school of thought, wrote a book on witchcraft. The supernatural, was, in fact, 'in vogue.' This becomes to important to know if we are to consider the idea of engaging the audience, because a playhouse full of spectators from 1600 would be very entertained at the fantasy world presented on stage. As a master dramatist, Shakespeare knew he could count on that fact. Some of his plays show exceptional PR in their execution, such as Macbeth, written for the fancy of James I, and this play, written for King James' coronation!

Suspense, when used in any text of any genre, can have the great effect of engaging the reader, or in the performance of a play, the viewer. As the plot unfolds we see four main distinct failings of man all represented: we have 'licentiously' and the sad life of the inebriated fool represented by Caliban, Stephano and Trinculo, unsrupulosity and baseness represented by Antonio and Sebastian, we have the arrogant and the socially constructed through Ferdinand, and the politically expedient from Alonso, the King. The first three have their own little subplots in the play, Caliban, Stephano and Trinculo plot to kill Prospero, Antonio and Sebastian plan to kill the king, and Ferdinand is just being quite arrogant. As the 'mentor' of those on the island, Prospero must teach everyone a lesson and help them o become better people. He lies the source of suspense, which so engages the audience. What we have is three distinct ideas, and we don't know how they will turn out, but we, as the audience, want to know. After punishing Caliban, Stephano and Trinculo, he forgives them and releases them; "Come hither, spirit. Set Caliban and his companions free. Untie the spell." Antonio realizes his guilt for what he has done for the sake of political alliance, Ferdinand becomes a upstanding young man, worthy of Miranda as a wife, and after stopping Antonio and Sebastian, they too are forgiven. At this point, the audience's suspension for the end of the play is well rewarded; everyone has learnt something from their time on the island, and justice has served its course as things turn back to how they should be. All of the situations have been resolved, and the play is ended in a manner which is artistically satisfying. The play ends with a tone of reconciliation and in a lighter note,m as in any good romance; "Let me not, Since I have my dukedom got, and pardoned the deceiver, dwell in this bare island by your spell."

In conclusion, the dramatical effects used in the play to keep the audience engaged work effectively, with the use of action scenes, suspense and of course the supernatural elements of the fiction. It is important to note that you do not get the full effect of a play just from reading it, but in The Tempest, these effects work as well as in another masterpiece from Shakespeare.