How does Miranda provide a dramatic effect in The Tempest?

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How does Miranda provide a dramatic effect in The Tempest?

There has been uncertainty about Miranda's role in The Tempest as it seems she brings nothing to the play. Miranda is not directly involved in the story of the attempted extirpation of Prospero, nor to the present storyline of Prospero's revenge. However, this is not to say Miranda does not play a significant part in the play.

The reader does not meet Miranda until the second scene. There is quite a contrast in this scene from what had been seen in the first scene. The first scene demonstrates a frantic and disturbed atmosphere as the reader sees the passengers of the ship panic and horror as their ship seems to sink. Scene two provides a distinct comparison to this. Miranda and Prospero both talk in poetry, rather than the prose seem in scene two, which demonstrates their education.
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Throughout the play Miranda appears as an emotional and sensitive soul. The reader is first given this impression at the beginning of Act 2, Scene 2 when Miranda grieves over the shipwreck, crying "O the cry did knock against my very heart...poor souls, they perished..." This theme is continued throughout the play which supports ideas that Miranda is Shakespeare's idea of a perfect woman.

However, Miranda is seen by the readers in a different light when she first meets Ferdinand in the same scene. She is very forward with him and falls for him instantly. The next ...

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