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1. Language

   • Soliloquy: Where a character, onstage and alone, reveals their thoughts to the audience. Shakespeare, as The Tempest is not a tragedy, does not use many soliloquy's, as the dramatic scenes in the play are enough to give accurate information to the audience. However, Shakespeare does not use a few soliloquy's, most notably through Prospero, for example, in Scene 5, Act 1, to end the play by telling the audience that he is giving up his magic.
   • Aside: An [Aside] is a stage direction which playwrights use to allow characters to address the audience, without the other characters noticing. Asides usually suggest that there is some form of conspiracy, deceit, or mocking in the scene. For example, in Act 3, Scene 1, Prospero frequently uses the aside: '[Aside] Poor worm, thou art infected' to show the audience that he has planned this event.
     • Language

2. Imagery: It is used to conjure vivid images which stretch the audiences imagination and emotionally involve them in the play. When the play was first written it was not performed with elaborate sets or costumes which meant that the audience were dependent upon their imagination when watching the play, so Shakespeare has used much imagery to provide the audience with: most basically - entertainment, insights into the nature of each character, and dramatic impact.

   • One example of imagery in the play is when Prospero is telling Miranda about how they came to inhabit the island and he says 'To cry, to th'sea, that roared to us; to sigh/To th'winds, whose pit sighing back again/Did us loving wrong.' (Act 1 Scene 2) Shakespeare uses images of the sea and the wind, along with personification and the onomatopoeia of 'roared' to dramatise the event for the audience. Another is the 'thunder and lightening' used to make Ariel's entrance during the harpy scene much more dramatic and powerful as the sound creates fear and shocks the audience. Perhaps more than other Shakespeare’s plays The Tempest is filled with beautiful visual imagery to capture the sense of wonder in encountering a new place.

3. Personification: Prospero often uses personification, for example 'Fortune' (Act 2, Scene 1), Destiny, Time, Mercy and Patience and the capitalisation of these words suggests their importance and makes them appear human.

4. Hyphen: Shakespeare uses hyphens - putting together words to challenge the imagination which creates vivid images and supports the idea that the play is full of improbably and fantastical events. Some of these phrases are easily imagined and accessible for the audience to understand, such as 'sea-nymphs' and 'fresh-brook' (Act 1) whilst others, for example 'sight-outrunning' (Act 1) are difficult to image, yet still vividly powerful. This instability to cement the images suggests that the island is full of wonder and ever-changing reality which is a constant theme throughout the play. Shakespeare uses many hyphenated words to describe the effect of something new or different. These combinations compress ideas and images as well as lending more verbal musicality to a play that includes many musical sequences.

5. Antithesis: When words and phrases are put together which oppose each other, for example, when Ferdinand discovers that his father is not dead he says 'Though the seas threaten, they are merciful' (Act 5, Scene 1) and this kind of antithesis is used frequently by Shakespeare throughout The Tempest as this opposition of threats and mercy powerfully expresses conflict, which runs through the entire play. Conflict appears in almost every scene as many of the characters are against each other - Prospero and the royal entourage, Caliban against Prospero, and Antonio and Sebastian against Alonso being the most obvious. There are also more subtle mentions of conflict, for example Caliban and Ariel represent the idea of earth vs. air, whilst the men of civilisation (Prospero and the royal entourage) oppose the natives of the island. Antithesis operates much like oxymoron suggesting that perspectives can be varied for the same object or discovery. Antithesis also adds an element of wit and hum

6. Repetition: Although many of the lines in the play use repetition, for example 'We split, we split!' (Act 1, Scene 1) the most obvious representation of repetition is found in Ariel's songs: 'Hark, hark!' and 'Bow wow, bow wow' (Act 1, Scene 2). This repetition functions to entertain the audience and through their hypnotic sound and also suggest that the island is extremely magical and mesmerising.

7. Questions: Given that the characters are constantly finding new information this text is full of questions that arise when encountering the new. The questions can have different functions sometimes serving to: • ask for more information • clarify situations or • act rhetorically.

8. Aural Imagery: Sounds signal the entry of magic into the play. These sounds are part of the island, creating fear in many of the newcomers. They can be captured in the onomatopoeia or through the alliterations or assonance. The alliteration and the assonance add to the musicality of the play and also suggest the strangeness of the island to some of the newcomers.

9. Puns: The wordplay in the play with words sounding close to another word and creating witty connections, reminds us of the process of identification in discovery with new objects being compared to what is known.

10. Accumulation/Listing: Shakespeare often uses lists to convey the breadth and impact of an idea, event, place.

11. xclamation: There is frequent use of exclamations in this text which captures the excitement and amazement of finding things anew.