Masques were popular forms of entertainment in England during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. They featured masked actors, performing allegorical and ritualized stories drawn from mythology and folklore, which represent ideas relevant to the social context. Functioning within the story line, Prospero’s mask can be seen as an attempt to quell Ferdinand’s ideas of pleasures and loosing Miranda’s “virgin knot”. To the audience, this can be developed to create social understandings of marriage’s function within society; where images of lust and love are eliminated from the marriage and instead are replaced within ideas of social propriety, wealth and abundance. Iris, Ceres and Juno; goddesses of rainbows, agriculture, and marriage (respectively) are played by the spirit Ariel, and are called upon to celebrate “a contract of true love”, that is, the marriage of Miranda and Ferdinand. During the masque, Ceres asks Iris if Venus and her son, Cupid are now with Juno.
If Venus or her son, as thou dost know,
Do now attend the queen? (Act IV, Sc (i), lines 87-88)
To this, Iris responds that they are not. Which indicates that love and lust, being Venus and Cupid, are not present in the marriage between Miranda and Ferdinand. This is significant as Ceres explains that these Roman deities, Cupid and Venus, aided Pluto (Dis) in abducting her daughter, Proserpine. Thus lust and love in marriage was seen as indecent. The songs that Juno and Ceres sing during the masque are significant in representing marriage in the ‘natural order of things’, as Juno blesses the marriage with prosperity and wealth, as well as “honour”, social propriety. Ceres wishes them harmony with the earth, as well as the fruitfulness of their lands, which can also be seen as fertility. This is reflective of fifteenth century values, where marriage is subtly glorified as in the ‘natural order’ given the concurrence on nature and marriage in Ceres’ speech. Juno and Ceres also de-emphasize the role of love, personal feeling and sexuality in marriage; instead, choosing to focus on marriage’s place in the social and natural orders which organizing society.
The Shakespearean symbol of marriage is most commonly read, and functions as, a representation of harmonious and a healthy social order. In the play, the marriage ceremony in act four, prepares the audience for the rectification of the previously disrupted social order on the island. Calling upon all the social and dramatic associations of marriage, and underscoring them heavily with the solemnity of the masque, the audience understands that despite the major conflict is still unresolved, the play is beginning to ‘heal itself’ and prepare to end. The placement of marriage in act four is significant, as it prepares the reader for the rectification of social order as Prospero regains the thrown.
In act four, Prospero’s concern for Miranda and the sombre tone of his speeches work to help the audience sympathize with him, in order to accept the ‘happy ending’ as well as his reasons of being the rightful leader. The subtle degradation of Caliban due to his apparent malicious and vicious behavior also helps prospero seem more appealing. “I forgot that foul conspiracy of the beast of Caliban…” (Act IV Sc (i) Line 139-140) This line, compared with such circumstances as Prospero being protective of Miranda and her virginity, is an example of where this idea is accentuated to the audience.
By accenting aspects of character, namely Prospero’s love for Miranda and the conspirator, Caliban’s absurd incompetence, Shakespeare substantially rehabilitates Prospero. These ideas quell and audience sympathies with Caliban, as the ‘tormented’ slave, and eliminate condescension for Prospero, that that the audience previously acknowledged. Thus, the audience is now able to accept and agree with, the return of the thrown, and thus, the ‘happy’ ending is naturalized and supported.
Act four of the tempest is primarily a marriage, or betrothal scene featuring a masque to bless Miranda and Ferdinand. Within the speech of the three goddesses, Shakespeare is able to share ideas with the audience. Firstly, that marriage is a representation of a healthy social order, which prepares the audience for the rectification of order in the following act, where Prospero is once again Duke of Milan, and Caliban regains control of his island. The masque also represents fifteenth Century ideology of marriage and the natural order and social function, minus the love and feelings. Characterization of Prospero and Caliban function to eliminate the audience’s contempt for prospero and sympathies for Caliban. These aspects of the audiences feelings are reversed, so that Prospero can be seen as the ‘rightful’ Duke of Milan, and thus the audience can relate to and support the ‘happy’ and ‘right’ ending, as their feelings have already been naturalized to the outcome. Overall, the act functions to prepare the reader for the end of the play, where the conflicts are resolved, and order is restored.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
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“The Tempest”, William Shakespeare – New Penguin Shakespeare, edited by T.J.B Spencer
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“Shakespeare – The Jacobean Plays”, Phillip C McGuire, pages 189-190
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“Classical and Christian Ideas in English Renaissance Poetry”, Isabel Rivers, pages 21-22 “Pagan Gods”
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http://www.bookrags.com/notes/tmp/PART8.htm – act 4 summary