Shakespeare's Use of Language, Imagery and Setting to Illuminate Prospero's Journey from Revenge to Reconciliation

Shakespeare's Use of Language, Imagery and Setting to Illuminate Prospero's Journey from Revenge to Reconciliation

The Tempest opens on 'a ship at sea' caught in 'a tempestuous storm'.

This setting would immediately suggest to the Elizabethan audience,

the presence of danger and evil, as they would be familiar with other

Shakespearian plays where storms have been used in this way, for

example, Macbeth and King Lear. The desperate language of the

characters in the opening scene would further reinforce the audience's

sense of evil afoot. The panic of the Boatswain is illustrated when he

cries 'A plague upon this howling' and the terror of the passengers

down below can be heard as they cry 'Mercy on us!' 'We split, we

split'. The feeling of chaos is further reinforced by the use of

language such as, 'howling', 'roarers' and 'drowning'. To the

audience, the storm would signify a disturbance in the Natural Order,

suggesting that God was upset or angry with certain individuals who

have disrupted an ordered hierarchy. This would lead them to suspect

that the play would probably involve elements of revenge.

The fact that the opening scene takes place at sea during a storm

would also have been significant to the Shakespearian audience. The

idea of a sea-change was common in writing at this time and was used

as a motif to suggest that following a shipwreck or disaster at sea,

anyone surviving the event would emerge as a better person, with the

opportunity to have a fresh start in life, almost like being reborn.

The imagery in the opening scene is violent and dark, suggesting a

need for revenge and also creating anticipation amongst the audience...

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...for is his final act as a magician and following this

act he is able to renounce his 'rough magic'. The disturbance in the

Natural Order, present at the start of the play, is restored, as the

sea again becomes calm and Prospero, having rejected the idea of

taking vengeance, forgives those who have wronged him and is restored

to his lawful position as Duke of Milan.

In The Tempest, Shakespeare successfully uses evocative language, dark

imagery and a magical setting to lead Prospero on a journey from

revenge to reconciliation. The audience is led skilfully from a

threatening start, through a period of anticipation to the final

conclusion, where the situation is resolved positively for all

characters without the need to resort to acts of vengeance, which at

the start of the play appeared to be the only possible outcome.