Shakespeare - The Tempest - language

Shakespeare is renowned for the language he used and often invented new words, many of which we still use today. Explore the way he uses rhythm and rhyme and imagery and metaphor in The Tempest.

The way we write and speak has changed a lot over the past 400 years since Shakespeare wrote his plays, so don’t be put off if you find Shakespeare’s words difficult.

Shakespeare used the following aspects of language in The Tempest to present his themes and characters:

• imagery and metaphor
• rhythm and rhyme

There are many repeated images and metaphors in The Tempest, perhaps the most obvious of which is the storm itself. The play opens with a ship caught in a terrible storm and the men on board are in a state of upheaval and panic. The boatswain shouts that the waves do not care who is king and who is not, they will drown everyone. In this sense the tempest represents a disturbance of the social order. It also seems to represent Prospero’s anger, as he is responsible for the storm. At the end he asks Ariel to make sure the waves are calm on the way home, reflecting Prospero’s own internal calm.

Another clear metaphor is the island setting. An island is set apart physically from the mainland, and we can see that many of the characters in this play are also isolated in other ways. Caliban is separated by being the only native islander, whereas Ariel is isolated through his spirit form. Miranda is the only female in the play and Prospero is the only human character to have magical powers.

Images of the island and its beauty are presented by Caliban and Ariel. These two creatures seem to appreciate the natural wonders of the island more than the human characters. They are each closely associated with different natural elements. Ariel is linked with the air and Caliban with the earth.

In Act 4 Scene 1, Prospero asks Ariel to work with his spirit friends to present a celebration in honour of Ferdinand and Miranda. When the masque ends, he explains to Ferdinand that nothing is permanent.

As with many of Shakespeare’s plays, characters are distinguished by the formality of their speech. One way that you can notice this is by looking at whether a character speaks in prose, rhyme or blank verse,. It tends to be the case that characters of a lower social status, such as Trinculo and Stephano in The Tempest speak in prose and those of a higher status use blank verse. If they’re being romantic, or philosophical, they might also use rhyme. However, pay attention to when these ‘rules’ are broken. It might show that a character is upset, or perhaps unexpectedly sensitive.