A 17th century audience Essay

The Tempest is full of magic and illusion. Consider the effect this would have on a 17th century audience and a 21st century audience. How might the magic and illusion be presented today? William Shakespeargon wrote The Tempest as a play. It was not intended for the text to be read by school children from a book. It was intended for performance in a theatre, where it would give enjoyment to an audience. One of the chief(prenominal) themes of The Tempest is magic. Prospero is a magician, a sorcerer, a wizard, someone with magical powers.He uses these powers to make lots of things cash in ones chips within the play. Indeed, the first scene focuses on the besiege that Prospero has created to cause havoc on the ship upon which his enemies are travelling. At the beginning of the play, the behave just seems like any other storm, with an unfortunate crew cosmos shipwrecked. By the end of Act 1, however, we discover that the storm was not a natural occurrence. Prospero conjured up the storm and deliberately picked out that ship. The audience get their first hint of this in Mirandas first lyric of the play.Miranda has watched the storm destroy the ship and she feels pity for the shipwrecked people. In her opening line, she asks her father if the storm is a crossroad of his magic If by your art, my dearest father, you have Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them. This shows that Miranda knows almost Prosperos magic. She may not know everything that he does with his powers, but she knows that he does have supernatural powers. This storm is the beginning of a plan that Prospero has thought up to wreak revenge on his enemies. The plan involves a lot of magic.After being stranded on the island for 12 years, Prospero has had time to perfect his powers and to dream up a plan, a plan that never could have taken place without the storm. Because of this, the initial storm has a massive impact on the rest of the play. It also gives the audience an idea of how strong Prosperos powers are. He is able to escort the elements, something that only God is supposed to be able to do. However, as we learn posterior on in the play, Prospero may be able to conjure up storms and illusions, but he cannot control human nature, and must rely on good luck when trying to make Ferdinand and Miranda to fall in love.