The Tempest- First Look and Preview of Things to Come

"While you here do snoring lie,

Open-eyed conspiracy

His time doth take.

If of life you keep a care,

Shake off slumber and beware.

Awake! Awake!"

This painting describes the scene where Ariel prevents the murder of Alonso, the King of Naples, and his advisor by Antonio and Sebastian.  Alonso and Gonzalo are sleeping, but Ariel sings the words above to Gonzalo.  Gonzalo awakes and wakes up Alonso.  Antonio and Sebastian make up excuses for their drawn knives.  The artist, Paul Falconer Poole, has taken liberty to depart from the text.  Three women are in the painting that are not in the play, and Ariel is awakening Alonso instead of Gonzalo.

This is an oil sketch of the finished work.  No one knows where the two side panels are that depict Miranda and Ferdinand talking (on the left) and Prospero and Alonso (on the right).

"O, the cry did knock against my very heart. Poor souls, they perish'd" (The Tempest, Act I, Scene ii)
There will be more about this picture in my next post.

To begin reading the play, I read a summary of The Tempest, and read about the play on common sites like SparkNotes and Wikipedia. For my next few posts, I am going to be experiencing The Tempest through multiple means of supplementary material.  My next post will look more closely at paintings about Act I and II to see how they add to my understanding of the play.  Act III, I will find and watch different movie and play adaptations.  For Act IV, I will search for student artistic representations of the play.  Act V, I will participate in online forums about The Tempest.  After finishing the play, I will create something pertaining to the play to try to apply the knowledge that I have learned.

So far, the play has been very interesting.  The play jumps right into the action.  It was intriguing to think of how Shakespeare set up the beginning of his plays so that people would more quickly connect with the story line.  The thunder at the beginning, people running around frantically, and characters such as Boatswain help the reader to understand that what they are witnessing is a boat full of people in serious peril.  As I connect with this text, I will be sharing insights on Shakespeare's writing style, because I would like to be an editor someday.  Has there been anything about Shakespeare's writing approach in your reading of The Tempest that has stood out to you?