Shakespeares Play Reading Course Essay Example

Shakespeares Play Reading Course Essay Example Shakespeares Play Reading Course Essay Shakespeares Play Reading Course Essay If by your art, my dearest father, you have(1) Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them.(2) The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch,(3) But that the sea, mounting to the welkins cheek,(4) Dashes the fire out. O, I have suffered(5) With those that I saw suffer: a brave vessel,(6) Who had, no doubt, some noble creature in her,(7) Dashd all to pieces. O, the cry did knock (8) Against my very heart. Poor souls, they perishd.(9) Had I been any god of power, I would(10) Have sunk the sea within the earth or ere(11) It should the good ship so have swallowd and(12) The fraughting souls within her.(13) This is from Act 1, Scene 2 in Shakespeares comedy The Tempest that is set in the island before Prosperos cell. It is the first time two of the main characters in this play, Prospero and Miranda, are introduced to the audience. In this speech by Miranda, she expresses her strong piteous concern for the people suffered from the sea storm created by her father and her affliction caused by this, which gives us a general idea of this girls personality. Meanwhile, it indirectly puts forward the information that the storm is terribly shocking. As the first speech of this scene, besides expressing the speakers feelings, it also acts as a connecting link between the preceding and the following. There are totally 13 lines in this speech. Seven lines, line 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, and 12, are iambic pentameter, while the rest are not. In one way, it implies though Miranda lives in the island for 12 years, she is still well-educated and entertains the ability to speak properly and nobly. On the other hand, the irregular lines suggests that Miranda is not collected at this moment, worrying and depressed about the direful spectacle of the wreck which touched her strong virtue of compassion inmost. The vehemence of care and sorrow for the wreck is not only expressed by the different length of lines, but also by the punctuations which break the original rhythm of the lines, especially in line 5, 8, and 9 in which a new thought begins in the middle of each line after the full stop, not to mention the higher frequency of the use of comma and colon. It is easy to see that the speaker is not playing with words to show her social status but is in a very situation where language is needed as a mean to interact with her father about one serious issue in relation to several peoples lives. The first imperative sentence is a request to her father for allaying the terrible storm. We are informed that the tempest which gives rise to the crisis in the first scene is not a natural disaster but created by some person who has great power to command the element around him, who can put the wild water in the roar, and also allay them. Meanwhile, the female speaker, the daughter of this mysterious person, disapproves this strongly which is shown by the jussive mood she uses in this sentence. The second sentence gives the audience the descriptions of the scenery in the storm, which has been witnessed by Miranda. Personification is used to help represent the horror of the tempest and make audience feel like they are personally on the scene. The sky could, pour down pitch and have cheeks, the sea is mounting and could dash out the fire. These descriptions vividly show audience the awful scene in the tempest, which deepen the image of the storm that the audience has already gotten from the first scene directly by the reaction of the passenger in the ship. It makes the audience possible imagine a scene in their mind: the sky is dark, the sea is roaring, the ship is cracking in the harsh storm Then Shakespeare used the following two sentences that both begin with the exclamation O to express Mirandas great commiserative concerns and internal grief for the ship and the people in it who are suffering from the storm although Miranda does not know who the people are or why her dearest father tries to destroy the ship. This apparently suggests Mirandas kindness and innocence and gives us a general outline of this only female person character in this play. Miranda also personifies the ship in this speech. It is a brave vessel, has some noble creature in her, it is also a good ship. These words accurately represent the hardship of tempest and express the commiserative feelings of the speaker. Miranda is worrying about the lives of the people in the ship and cannot accept the destruction ordered by her dearest father. The last sentence is a long one consisted of four lines. Miranda hopes she was some god of power and then she can Have sunk the sea within the earth or ere and save the ship and people in the sea storm. The wish sounds childish but heartfelt, shows her strong disagreement with her father and by comparison slightly and indirectly blames her father for being so cruel to those people. The first speech given by Miranda clearly indicates that she is a kind and innocent character. From the following passages we can get the consistent information about her. Miranda has been in this island since she was three. Just as she says: I do not know/one of my sex; no womens face remember/Save, from my glass; my own; nor have I seen/more than that I may call man than you, good friend,/And my dear father: how features are abroad,/I am skilless of she know little about the world outside, the evil in the world or even her own familys story. She is noble mistress, the top of the admiration, So perfect and so peerless, are created of every creatures best! it is natural for such a good girl to feel sorry for the people who are suffering and disagree with her father without knowing the reason that he does so to the people in the wreck. As the connection between the preceding and following, on one hand, this passage echoes with the first scene and gives the audience further descriptions of the tempest; on the other hand, it raises some important questions which are very pivotal to the development of the play, such as what kind of people the speakers father is, how they both got to this island, why her father create the tempest, what kind of relationship the people in the ship and them are and so on. These problems arouse the curiosity of audience and make the plot more compact and gripping. In a word, undoubtedly Shakespeare is a great play writer and a master of language, even though this is a ordinary passage in his play, not as famous as TO BE OR NOT TO BE or other classical pieces in his play, from it, we can still be amazed and gasped in admiration by his ability of making good use of every kind of language skills and excellence in putting a wonderful play on stage.