✓✓ Significance of the storm in Act-1 Scene-1 of The Tempest by William Shakespeare ✓✓

'The Tempest' belongs to the last phase of Shakespearean Drama, popularly known as tragi-
comedy or dark comedy. There is a certain amount of gloom, even melancholy in the cast and
setting of the plays belonging to this genre. In The Tempest, the story of love and courtship is
overshadowed by alienation, subjugation and bitter loneliness. This drama opens with a
raging sea storm. The sound, the sight of rising waves, the majestic ship tossed helplessly by
the huge waves, the shrieks and shouts of the crew and the royal entourage, all captured in
semi-darkness creates an eerie feeling: most dramatic and gripping. A thrilling experience for
the audience, making them wonder about the things to follow. Truly, a spectacular beginning
is offered by Shakespeare through the first scene of the play.

The opening scene of Shakespeare's play 'The Tempest' is dramatically significant.The

Tempest begins with a storm or tempest where as in many other plays, the opening scene

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begins with a conversation. It is the tempest which renders the play its charm and also
supplies it with the atmosphere and lends it the Scope the necessary action. The opening

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scene also provides the play with thrill and is thus successful in catching the attention of the
audience. This scene helps the play to shape its intended course.
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The storm at sea that threatens the vessel whose passengers include King Alonso of
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Naples, his son Ferdinand, and Prospero’s hated brother Antonio, the usurping duke of Milan.
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Their life-and-death struggle enacted on stage is subjected to a double focus as Prospero

reassures his daughter, Miranda, distraught over the fate of the passengers and crew, that he
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controls the tempest and that their danger is an illusion. The disaster, which he calls a
“spectacle,” is artifice, and the play establishes an analogy between Prospero’s magic and the
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theatrical sleight of hand that initially seemed so realistic and thrilling.

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The play opens with the boatswain giving frantic directions to steer the ship to safety.
Voices rise and emotions run riot as the intensity of the gale rises. There are royal
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personages inside but the boatswain, at this moment, is least bothered about that. He is
criticized and made fun of by the other members. Sebastian and Antonio are outright rude to
him and Gonzalo, in his characteristic way makes witty remarks about him. The old
counsellor is pretty sure that the ship will not sink as the boatswain has the mark of gallows;
since he will not die by drowning, the others can be hopeful that he also will not perish in the
sea. Shakespeare has written this portion just to focus the very known human nature and
behaviour.

In The Tempest, the storm at sea serves as the plot's inciting event. The storm washes
Prospero's enemies onto the island's shore, placing them at his mercy. He controls the island,
and by forcing them to face him on his own turf, Prospero claims an automatic advantage
over King Alonso, Antonio, and Sebastian. Since they are in his domain, he can call upon the
island's spirits to manipulate them, revealing the treacherous natures of Antonio and
Sebastian while also convicting the men of their role in his exile. Without the storm, these
men would never have fallen into Prospero's clutches. He calls up the storm because he
recognizes the opportunity to finally attain his long-desired revenge.
 There is another motive behind Prospero's raising this tempest with his magic and with
the help of supernatural powers of Ariel, the spirit of the air. The objective of this is to
separate the inmates from their accustomed surroundings and life situations and people. It
introduces them to a mysterious world where elements dominate, where people do not
scheme under the influence of jealousy, hatred, and revenge. It provides them an opportunity
to ponder upon life and relationships, about their mistakes and possible retribution. The main
aim of Prospero is to make his offenders realize their crime and repent. For this, he has to
create something shaking, shocking and awe inspiring and this is what Shakespeare has
achieved by the opening scene.

Ariel's role is well defined as he is the one who raises the magical storm at the behest of
Prospero. He appears as flames, sometimes on the deck, at times in the cabin, on the
topmast, at the beak or in the middle of the ship. This description puts shivers of thrill in the
audience.So, this storm reveals Ariel's power, and also speaks how Ariel is obedient to and
manipulated by Prospero.

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Prospero stands in for the artist here: Both magician and playwrights are conjurors,

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able to manipulate nature and make others believe in a reality without substance. The
contrast between illusion and reality will be sounded throughout the play, suggesting that The
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Tempest is a metadrama: a play about playwriting and the power and limitations of the
imagination.
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At the same time, the storm also sets another series of events in motion, albeit one
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that was not predicted by Prospero. Ferdinand is also washed ashore, whereupon he meets
Miranda, Prospero's daughter. The two fall in love. After Ferdinand proves his worthiness to
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Prospero, he gives them his blessing.

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Ferdinand, the king, and Prospero's enemies are not the only people to reach the
island via the storm. Trinculo and Stephano, the king's respective jester and butler, end up on
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the island as wel but not predicted by Prospero. They meet Caliban, who believes they are
powerful enough to overthrow Prospero. Their plan is ultimately a failure. Caliban regains
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control of the island, but not because of Trinculo and Stephano, but rather because Prospero
is pardoned by the king and returns to Naples. None of these events would have happened
without Prospero's sea storm.

The tempest that disturbed the island was one that was raised by Prospero. He was, at
that point, desirous of vengeance and justice. This is set in sharp contrast to the gentle gale
that Prospero wishes for in the final scene of the play:
"I’ll deliver all, And promise you calm seas, auspicious gales,
And sail so expeditious that shall catch
Your royal fleet far off."

The play presents not just a transformation of the weather, from a tempestuous one to
a fair one. It also presents the transformation of Prospero's heart, from an agitated restless
loner to a calm, pacified man. The tempest he raised was not something natural but a
supernatural manifestation of his personal impulses. Therefore, the metaphoric tempest
ends not in the first scene, but at the end of the play when Prospero transforms from a
malicious magician to a humble human:
"Now my charms are all o'erthrown,
And what strength I have’s mine own,"

Casting away his supernatural might, Prospero can finally pray for deliverance and mercy of
higher powers because he can separate himself from the tempest that had sustained him,
empowered him and yet tormented him in his exile:
"But release me from my bands

With the help of your good hands.

Gentle breath of yours my sails

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Must fill, or else my project fails,

Which was to please. Now I want

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Spirits to enforce, art to enchant,
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And my ending is despair,
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Unless I be relieved by prayer,
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Which pierces so that it assaults

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Mercy itself and frees all faults.

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The tempest, from such a perspective, is more than a sea storm. It is a metaphor for
Prospero's magical prowess, his supernatural potency to subjugate even the forces of nature.
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The first scene functions as a reality check—natural forces against political forces—and
the storm wins. On board the ship are a king, a prince, a duke and assorted other aristocrats,
but as the Boatswain challenges Gonzalo:
You are a councillor; if you can command

these elements to silence and work the peace

of the present, we will not hand a rope more.

Use your authority. If you cannot, give thanks

you have lived so long and make yourself

ready in your cabin for the mischance of the

hour, if it so hap.
Thus, the assumption is that the storm is meteorological and/or supernatural so mere human
power cannot alter or control it. Yet Shakespeare engages our basic assumption about the
universe in order to invert it in the next scene. The juxtaposition of these first two scenes is
one of the great dramatic openings in the canon.

The opening scene also throws light on a profound truth that death and calamities are
great levellers and bring the prince and the pauper to the same platform. Thus the boatswain
doesn't think of the king but himself when he gives his best efforts to save the ship from
being wrecked.Thus he answers Gonzalo..."None that I love more than myself", when the
latter reminds him of the presence of the important persons on the ship.

The first scene comments on the social heirarchy as the writer does not give the
boatswain a name, he is known by his rank and so is the master, the captain. The royalty,
nobles, captain, mariners and petty boatswain all are in the same boat (Pun intended). When
instead of answering the king Alonso the boatswain directs him to keep below and squarely

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rebukes him: "You mar our labour. Keep your cabins"—it hints at the traditional social
heirarchy being upset. But the change is not easily acceptable to those from higher ranks.

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Soon we see Antonio and Sebestian swearing insults at the boatswain revealing their
negative side while the boatswain pays no heed.This brings out the theme of social conflict
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which resurfaces in the play again and again. We notice that it is an ordinary person who is
calling the shots on the other hand we also see how some people fawn at the people in power.
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When people on the ship realize that their ship is falling apart they are crying
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farewells.Antonio is not giving up any chance to flount his loyalty to the king Let's all sink with
the king.
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The opening scene is also remarkable for another reason.It again shows the skill and
mastery of Shakespeare and his knowledge of the marine terms and the language used by
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the mariners. Shakespeare has used his marine vocabulary very aptly and with great
accuracy–
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"Heigh my hearts; cheerly,cheerly my hearts! Yare, Yare!take in the topsail...."

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The skillful use of language and punctuations have made the scene very dramatic. "All lost!To
prayers, to prayers" highlighting a great sense of loss and arousing the imaginative powers of
the audience to visualise the storm and its effects on the passengers. Throughout the scene,
Shakespeare uses language to create the impression of an emergency on board ship.
Repeatedly, the playwright uses exclamations, imperatives and short sentences - "To cabin!
Silence! Trouble us not."- to convey urgency and also a sense of the men's difficulty in making
themselves heard against the noise of the storm. We can imagine that dialogue in this scene
would be shouted and that the actors - particularly the ship's crew - would be constantly in
motion as they follow the boatswain's instructions in a vain attempt toavert disaster.

In the face of dire danger, the mariners work together with admirable skill and
courage. "Yarely" (nimbly and diligently) and "cheerly" (heartily) are the key words used to
characterize their cooperative action. The courtiers, who are their passengers, show far less
patience or fortitude. Shakespeare differs from the Strachey letter's description of how both
the sailors and passengers worked to save the ship. The change makes a political point about
the possible failings even of high-ranking people just as it does about the possible abilities
and virtues of commoners.

This scene of deafening noise, exploding fireworks, whirling action and angry
exchange is, however, also one that features moments of poignant fellow feeling. The
mariners work together yarely and cheerly, as we have seen. Once there seems no hope of
saving the ship, they leave the stage to pray and to await their deaths. At the moment the ship
seems to be breaking up, we hear them taking leave of their absent families and of each other
--"We split, we split! Farewell, my wife and children! / Farewell, brother! We split, We split, We
split!" Even the villains Sebastian and Antonio, finally face-to-face with death, have the sense
to think about someone beside themselves. They do not mention either prayer or divine
mercy, but they do show a spark of compassion as they leave the stage to say good-bye to
the King, who has stayed below decks during the storm. By the way, we can note that, even at
this moment of noisy cataclysm, Shakespeare is taking care to make subtle but telling
distinctions between characters: Antonio seems incapable of seeing anything except that

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everyone is going to drown, whereas Sebastian is thinking about the actual act of exchanging
words of farewell:

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"Let's all sink wi'th' King."
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So, the storm scene shows us an artist at the top of his powers.
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A tempest is a violent storm and considering that the first scene of this play takes
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place in such a storm, which also hints and represents the title of this play. It is this tempest,
caused by Prospero's magic, that results in the entire plot and action of the play. Storms
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suggest a swirling chaos of events beyond human control. Shakespeare extends this idea of
the storm in The Tempest. The magical storm appears out of nowhere, the result of
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Prospero's long-held plan of revenge against the enemies who drove him from his rightful
place as duke of Milan. The storm represents the eventual consequences of the treachery
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and self-interest of Antonio. There is a symbolic meaning to the play's title as well. The
relationships between many of the characters are as chaotic as a violent storm. Nothing goes
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smoothly for anyone, even the would-be puppet-master Prospero. He has to endure a mutiny
that nearly throws all his plans awry. Antonio's true motivations are laid plain to the King of
Naples. The King for his part is distraught over the feared loss of his son. Almost nobody
respects Gonzalo, despite his wisdom and optimistic outlook. Throughout all of this, we see
Prospero's extreme anger towards his brother building before eventually subsiding as a
storm does. As we can see, the literal tempest exposed the underlying stormy relationships
between nearly every character in the play. In this sense, it is a very appropriate title and this
title and the physical storm has a deep connection which the writer has wisely introduced.

However, Prospero’s tempest, although not a deadly storm, was scary enough to cause
the boatswain and passengers to accept and prepare for their deaths. Shakespeare may have
been inspired in his writing by testimonies of shipwreck survivors. One case in point is the
writing of William Stratchey, who composed “A True Reportory”. This included details of the
storm that caused the shipwreck that he personally experienced. In his account he described
the storm as a, “battle unto heaven between the sea and the clouds”. Strachey also described
his encounter of the storm’s rain as “floods in the air”. This literary account of an ocean
storm and shipwreck may have inspired Shakespeare to utilize a tempest as Prospero’s
instrument of revenge. He would never have been able to obtain his salvation if his enemies
were not brought to him in such a convenient manner.

Conflict and action are the most important points of a play. Here is a play that deals
with the clash of personalities, their fight with elemental nature, at both physical as well as
psychological level. It is a tempest outside and in the hearts and minds of the people involved.
So, it is apt to begin the play with a fierce storm that takes the passengers of a ship by
surprise, creating panic and disturbance to their life. Therefore, the opening scene provides
high dramatic essence, leading to suspense, excitement and interest. We cannot conceive
'The Tempest' without its thrilling expository scene. The thrust it gives to the plot, its
allegorical relevance, and dramatic purpose make it a aptest introduction to the play.

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