The Rhetorical in the Music of The Tempest Essay -- Tempest essays

The Rhetorical in the Music of The TempestIn the midst of a Shakespearean play, there has and always leave alone be a ghost that hovers over the actors and the audience. This is a ghost with a purpose, a ghost I call rhetoric. In every Shakespeare play, there exists an muscularity that has the power to persuade the audience to feel or believe something that Shakespeare believed. This energy breathes through the dialogue, the props and especially the music. The audience and the play engage in an transfigure of question and answer to assist society in working through human dilemmas. What I hope to point out in this paper is how that ghost, rhetoric, manifests in the music in Shakespeares play, The Tempest.I assert that Ariel is a bridge, a sort of servant, not just to the character Prospero, but also to Shakespeares audience. In Peter Sengs book, The Vocal Songs in the Plays of Shakespeare, he reflects upon the idea that Shakespeare use of song was to incite characters to action. As Ariel sings, he is causing the characters to move into a current dramatic action. Seng says, Ariel draws Ferdinand from the coast to Mirandas presence, by singing, Come unto these yellow sands, and that in the second song Ariel persuades the prince of his fathers death, thus recalling his grief and preparing him for a untested and unreserved affection (248). The purpose of Ariels song in the play, to call Ferdinand forward unto the island, was the plan of Prospero to get Ferdinand and his daughter Miranda together. He enchants them with his magic to fall in love when they meet. This relationship serves a rhetorical purpose for the Elizabethans as Seng suggests,Ariel is here issuing an invitation to the dance. It is addressed to Ferdinand. Miranda, t... ...Theatre of Ben Jonson. Oxford Clarendon Press, 1980Hagar, Alan. Shakespeares Political Animal Schema and Schemata in the Canon. Newark University of Delaware Press, 1990.LEngle, Madeleine, Walking on Water Reflections on Faith and Art. Wheaton Harold Shaw Publishers, 1980.Montagu, Jeremy. The World of Baroque and Classical Musical Instruments. Woodstock Overlook Press, 1879.Platt, Peter G . Shakespeare and Rhetorical Culture. Rpt. in Kastan, David Scott. A Companion To Shakespeare. Oxford Blackwell. 1999.Seng, Peter J. The Vocal Songs in the Plays of Shakespeare A Critical History. Cambridge Harvard University Press, 1967.Schantz , Alan, The Arts in Christian Perspective and Selections from the World of Music. Dubuque Brown and Benchmark, 1997.Vyverberg, Henry. The Living Tradition. New York Harcourt becalm Jovanovich, 1988.