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Mood And Mood In William Shakespeare's The Tempest

Decent Essays

Mood can set the tone for an entire scene, and if utilized properly can completely visually illustrate the meaning of words. In William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” mood transforms Ariel’s song scene and illustrates Ferdinand’s emotions through the manipulation of lighting, sound, and visual props.
To begin, the scene, Act I Scene ii, opens with Ariel singing, “Come unto these yellow sands, And then take hands. Curtsied when you have, and kissed The wild waves whist./ Foot it featly here and there,/ And, sweet sprites/ bear The burden/ Hark, hark!…Hark, hark!/ I hear The strain of strutting chanticleer”(Act I, Scene ii, 375-381, 385-387). Ariel is singing to Ferdinand, son of King Alsono, who has landed on an island after a shipwreck. Prospero ordered Ariel to guide Ferdinand to him, so Ariel sings her song ushering Ferdinand through the yellow sand through the forest to Prospero. While Ariel is singing to him, Ferdinand’s mind is running amuck, he washed up on a mysterious island without his father with him, he is disoriented and someone is singing quietly to him.
In order to set the mood for the scene, lighting is crucial to the audience’s understanding. Throughout Ariel’s song, he would be standing on a rafter with a sole light would shining upon him demonstrating to the audience that Ferdinand is unable to see Ariel, he can only hear him. Other than the light on Ariel, the rest of the stage is dimly lit so the audience can barely see Ferdinand and is drawn into the play. As the song continues, the stage becomes luminous so the audience can visualize where Ferdinand is and where he is going. Ferdinand begins his journey on a sand beach and then Ariel guides him through a lush forest, as he gets closer to Prospero the stage becomes more and more lit until the stage is fully lit as Ferdinand reaching his final destination with Prospero and his daughter Miranda.
Furthermore, sound plays a crucial role in audience interpretation of a scene. Throughout the scene we can interpret that Ferdinand is lugubrious about losing his father and his emotions are all surfacing when he states in Act I Scene ii, “Where should this music be?/...This music crept by me upon the waters/ Allaying both their fury

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