The Significance of Sound and Music in The Tempest

The Significance of Sound and Music in The Tempest

‘The Tempest’ is on a basic level a play about a magical island,

complete with its own wizard, monster and handsome prince. However, it

is much more than a fairytale. Complex themes such as usurpation,

colonialism and the supernatural are interwoven into the plot to

produce a play so diverse that it is widely considered to be one of

Shakespeare’s finest works.

Music and sound are dramatically significant in this diversity. This

makes ‘The Tempest’ very different to other Shakespeare plays. For

example, ‘The Tempest’ –along with ‘Twelfth Night’- contains nearly

three times the amount of music normally present in his plays. In this

essay I will be exploring how this sheer amount of music and sound is

significant. This will involve looking at the affect that they have

upon the major themes, characters and the play as a whole.

Many critics have described ‘The Tempest’ as an allegory. The opinion

of what it is an allegory of differs widely, due to the fact that the

play can be interpreted on many different levels. In any allegory

though, the characters fulfil representative functions. So if ‘The

Tempest’ were a musical allegory, Prospero could be described as the

composer, and Ariel as the performer. With this interpretation in

mind, Prospero can be seen clearly to be composing the events on the

island. This is especially true in the first scene in which Prospero

has directly ordered Ariel to perform ‘to point the tempest.’

The tumult of the first scene works to capture the audience’s

attention –as was necessary in Jacobean theatres. This is achieved

through the sounds, the ‘temp...

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...they serve a structural purpose. This is illustrated in the way that

music is a continual cycle throughout the play. It is not just used in

expected scenes, such as Act 3 Scene 3 with the banquet, it appears in

the majority of scenes. The music helps to establish the emotional

climate of a scene.

In conclusion, music and sounds are a powerful instrument in this

play. In addition to revealing the emotions of characters; supporting

themes; and progressing the plot of the play, it also shows the

multiplicity of Shakespeare. A number of critics believe that

Shakespeare used such a high degree of sounds for the same reason that

he adhered to the three classical unities (time, place and action). He

believed that this was to be his last play so he wanted to conclude

his writing career with evidence of his remarkable talent.