Images of the fierce and powerful sea are prevalent throughout Shakespeare's The Tempest. The play opens with a terrible storm at sea, and all the ensuing action takes place on an island that, by definition, is surrounded by the ocean on all sides. The threatening force of the sea is evident from the beginning of the first act, when the boatswain incongruously challenges Gonzalo to "use [his] authority" against the squall (Ii18) . By reminding us that no one, not even a royal advisor, has power over the sea, the Boatswain highlights the irresistible force of the sea. Even the language used by the characters to describe the ocean alludes to his menacing prowess. In Act II, Scene I (114), Francisco describes Ferdinand's swim to shore saying that he "conquered the waves...whose enmity he cast off [in order to stay above the] controversial waves ". By personifying the sea as a malevolent adversary, Francisco demonstrates its overwhelming power. In the light of these and other descriptions, the sea appears as a symbol of the powerful and vicious power of nature. Say no to plagiarism. Get a Custom Essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get Original Essay Due to its prevalence and power, the sea constantly reminds the characters and audience that man is helpless and insignificant in the eyes of nature. Throughout The Tempest, numerous oceanic images demonstrate the vulnerability of man, regardless of his position in society. Yet there is no point in playing when the ocean is actually harming someone. In fact, one of the castaways in the storm in the first scene notes that his clothes seem "rather dyed than salt-water stained." (II.i.62; Gonzalo) This observation raises some questions about the dramatic function of the ocean. After all, if the vision of rough seas is supposed to illustrate man's weakness, why does it not cause any physical harm to man? To answer this question and fully understand the role of the sea in The Tempest, we must turn to the passage from Act I, scene ii, where Ariel sings to Ferdinand about her drowned father. The song, which begins with “Full Fathom Five,” is about a man killed at sea; even though the audience knows that the man depicted is still alive. By analyzing this passage in light of the actual events of the play, we come to see that the sea is an instrument of change and rebirth rather than death. Specifically, by making the characters aware of their own insignificance, the mighty sea forces them to reevaluate their lives. In this light, the “radical change” that Ariel sings about can be understood as a rebirth rather than a horrible death. Throughout the play, the ocean bears witness to people's vulnerability. From the first scene, it is clearly shown to the audience that the greatest powers of man are futile against the power of nature. Aboard the stricken ship are two of the most powerful members of society; the King of Naples and the Duke of Milan, respectively Alonzo and Antonio. But it doesn't take long for the audience to realize that all of his "power" is meaningless. In line 15 of Act I, scene i, the boatswain reprimands Alonzo and Antonio for harassing him during the sea storm. "When the sea is there. So! What do these roarers care about the name of king?" The boatswain knows that the waves of anger have no idea of ​​a person's rank or position. In making this observation, the boatswain highlights the futility of society's concerns about status and position. In accordance with the bosuns' warning, when the boat splits at the end of the scene,Alonzo and Antonio end up at sea, like everyone else on the ship. It turns out that the act of a shipwreck that strands Alonzo, Antonio and the rest of the ship's passengers is not an accident. The audience soon learns that Prospero, who inhabits the barren island the survivors are on, caused the entire storm and subsequent shipwreck. Prospero is Antonio's older brother and therefore the legitimate Duke of Milan. Antonio robbed Prospero of his dukedom (with the help of Alonzo) twelve years before the start of the play, by putting him at sea from where he eventually arrived on the island. Later in the play, while searching for his son Ferdinand, Alonzo complains that "the sea mocks our frustrated search on land." Once again, the sea is personified as a malevolent enemy, daring to ridicule the king's desperate search for his only son. Once again, the audience is shown that anyone, even the King of Naples, is insignificant in the face of the fierce sea. But what of Prospero's relationship with the sea? After all, how can the ocean make Prospero feel helpless and unimportant if he can control it? To see that Prospero is as subject to the will of the sea as any of the men on the ship, one need only look at his own description of his journey to the island. “They prepared a carcass of a rotten cigarette butt... [and] there they hoisted us up to shout to the sea which was roaring towards us,” he explains to his daughter (I.ii.145). His story presents the audience with the image of a completely helpless man, holding his baby in his arms and crying as he drifts on a small boat in the middle of a vast and indifferent sea. Equally pitiful is Prospero's memory of having "decorated the sea with drops full of salt." What's more futile than crying in the ocean? These lines prove that there is no one in The Tempest who is not rendered helpless by the fierce sea. Although everyone in the play is subject to the vicious power of the sea, no character is harmed by the ocean waves. We can be certain of this since Ariel, Prospero's spirit/nymph, assures her master that "not a hair perished" in the sinking of the ship. Why then is it so important that the characters recognize their insignificance compared to the vast ocean? Why are there so many marine images when it does nothing to advance the plot? We can answer these questions and better understand the meaning of the play by looking at Ariel's song to Ferdinand in Act I, scene ii. This key passage is sung to Ferdinand as he wanders the island in search of his father Alonzo, whom Ferdinand assumes is dead. Song Full breaststroke five, your father is lying. Its bones are made of coral; These are pearls that were his eyes; Nothing of him that disappears, but undergoes a radical change into something rich and strange. The sea nymphs hourly toll the death knell: (I.ii.400) Immediately after hearing this song, Ferdinand assumes that he has heard the story of his father's death, "the ditty I remember of my father drowned. But the audience had already been informed that no one was injured in the shipwreck. In fact, the next scene opens with Alonzo searching for Ferdinand on the island. song? To understand this, we need to take a closer look at the song itself and the story of what happens to Alonzo while he is on the island. The first three lines of "full fathom five" definitely suggest l. The image of a person who drowned in the ocean, and whose body was then taken over by sea creatures. But since we know that Alonzo is still alive, we must continue to look at the passage. to see if another interpretation makes sense The fourth line seems to suggest that Alonzo.is in fact alive, since there is “nothing about him that fades.” In light of this interpretation, the song seems to be about some kind of fundamental change, as described in Likes Five and Six. Unfortunately, this interpretation leaves two important questions unanswered; What is the nature of “radical change”? and why is the ocean the central image of Ariel's song? To answer these questions, just look at Alonzo's story. Everything we know about Alonzo before his arrival on the island comes either from what the audience hears of Prospero's story or from what they see of him in the storm scene of Act I. Prospero is that Alonzo was part of Antonio's plot to rob Prospero of his dukedom. What we see in Scene I is that Alonzo expects to be treated like a king, even though a violent storm threatens the lives of everyone around him. Both narratives suggest that Alonzo is a power-hungry villain who values ​​position and deference above all else. Yet as the play progresses, our opinion of Alonzo changes a lot. As he searches the island for his son, he repeatedly wishes he could give his own life in exchange for his son's. This implies that he understood the value of family over position. Likewise, when Alonzo finally sees Prospero, he immediately promises to restore his duchy to him. Once again showing the audience that Alonzo is no longer the evil man he once was. In light of this story, it's suddenly quite easy to answer the questions raised by "the five stroke." The "radical change" that Ariel sings about refers to Alonzo's transformation from a power-obsessed tyrant to a loving father and honest man. The sea is the central image of the song, because only after the sea forced him to recognize his own insignificance and helplessness was Alonzo able to reinvent himself. The implication is that we must be aware of our own vulnerability in order to fully understand who we are. In The Tempest, it is the sea that gives the characters this feeling of powerlessness and insignificance. In fact, this theme of “radical change” affects many of the characters in this romance. Antonio's sees him go from a confident Duke to a humiliated subject and while it's different, it's just another example of Alonzo's radical change. More specifically, Antonio changes because he cannot handle the pressure created by the maritime situation. Antonio attempts to assassinate Alonzo, proving that he cannot be trusted and is a bad leader. It's because he couldn't handle the situation the sea put him in in the audience. The audience feels that it is right for them to lose the duchy to Prospero at the end of the play. Prospero himself undergoes a change, but his is very different from his brother's. Antonio was able to take power from Prospero, because Prospero was more concerned with studying than governing. He himself says: “My library was quite a large duchy” when he tells his daughter about his life in Milan (I.ii.109). The Prospero we see in The Tempest is an excellent ruler who seems to be aware of everything that is happening in his kingdom. When Ariel asks about his freedom in Act II, Prospero uses the right mix of pleading and intimidation to ensure he stays focused on the task at hand. This type of rhetoric is clearly political skill. And later, when Prospero's malevolent servant leads a plot to murder him, Prospero has everything in his hands. He is able to foil the plot and punish the offenders. Finally, in Act V, Prospero promises that he will bury his book, "some fathoms in the earth, and deeper than ever the sound has.