The Importance of Dramatic Effects in The Tempest It has been said that the function of drama is to confront and therefore engage the audience. This is certainly the approach taken by Shakespeare in his play The Tempest. When the play begins, the audience is immediately confronted with the sheer ferocity of the storm, and from the moment the unfortunate passengers disembark on the island, the audience is captivated by Prospero's island fantasy. At the beginning of the show, we see the action aboard the ship that is bringing the king and some members of the upper class home. I am in the midst of a great storm, the like of which sailors of those times would have prayed not to encounter. The state of nature, at this point, is very messy. This becomes important after the action in the ensuing calm, as many different binary opposites are established, such as fate versus free will, human versus non-human, and order conflicting with disorder. Prospero, the ruler of the island, is actually both sides of the "power of kings" versus supernatural power opposition, being both the rightful Duke of Milan and the leader of his island, and also being a wizard with a spirit as a servant . Through his 'art' he also shows us again the opposition order/disorder. He created the storm at the beginning of the show, the great disorder. Towards the end, however, he is responsible for the masque scene, a grand order: the pinnacle of perfection for that culture, in fact. In the Elizabethan era, playwrights used the stage as the standard for all theatrical performances. The thrust stage, unlike the proscenium arch used later, was a large raised platform that extended towards the audience. In fact,...... half of the paper......on. It is important to note that you do not get the full effect of a play just by reading it, but in The Tempest these effects work as well as in another Shakespeare masterpiece. Works cited and consulted: Garnett, Richard. "Irving Shakespeare" The Tempest (and selected reviews). Charlotte Porter and Helen A. Clarke (eds.) Thomas Y. Crowell & Co. 1903. Knight, G. Wilson. "Shakespearean Superman" The Tempest DJ Palmer (ed.) Macmillan & Co. 1968Murray, J. Middleton. "Shakespeare's Dream" The Tempest DJ Palmer (ed.) Macmillan & Co. 1968Palmer, DJ Shakespeare's Later Comedies: An Anthology of Modern Criticism. Harmondsworth, Penguin, 1971.Shakespeare, William. The Storm. 1611. Ed. Stefano Orgel. New York: Oxford UP, 1994. Tillyard, E. M. "The Tragic Pattern" The Tempest DJ Palmer (ed.) Macmillan & Co. 1968