Masque Highlighting the Importance of Oaths:
“The Tempest” is a play about honour and loyalty. Prospero tries to lead Ferdinand to fall in love with his daughter, but then he also tries to impress upon him the fact that an oath of love is a serious thing. Earlier, Prospero targeted Antonio and Alonso as oath - breakers for the role they played in stealing his kingdom from him and sending him away. Ariel freezes them and admonishes them:
“You are three men of sin, whom Destiny,
That hath no instrument this lower world
And what is in’t, the never - surfeited sea
Hath caused to belch up you; and on the island
Where man doth not inhabit; you, mongst men
Being most unfit to live.” (Act III, Scene III)
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| Purpose and Importance of Masque and Phantom Banquet in The Tempest by Shakespeare |
The point is that they treated Prospero badly and he wants to get revenge on them. He will get this revenge by using magic to control them. He takes their facilities from them and cements them in place. Then he has them led to him.
In the meantime, Prospero is allowing his daughter to marry the king's son, despite the king's role in his banishment. He wants to impress upon Ferdinand the value of his daughter's hand and the marriage promise in general:
“Look thou be true; do not give dalliance
Too much the rein: the strongest oaths are straw.
To the fire i’ the blood: be more abstemious,
Or else, good night your vow! "
During the masque, the two lovers hear from the goddesses Iris, Ceres, (Act IV, Scene I) and Juno. They demonstrate Prospero's magic because he calls forth their images to bless the couple. The masque promotes the element of magic and mystery in a less dreadful way than we have seen it before. We learn that magic can be used to entertain and bless as well as for violence.
Prospero obviously wants Ferdinand to treat his daughter well. He reminds him to refrain from physical intimacy before the actual wedding and now he tries to impress upon him the significance of the bond he is entering into and what it means to Prospero.
A Banquet Organised to Remind the Wicked Deeds:
Alonso exhausted by his wanderings in search of his missing son, at last gives up all search and hope of ever finding his son. Antonio and Sebastian whisper and resolve to execute their plot again that very night when they expect the watch to be loose, due to the exhaustion of the party. Suddenly solemn and strange music is heard. Then several strange shapes enter, bringing in a banquet. They dance about with gentle actions of greeting, and then inviting the king and his party to eat, they depart.
Now they all begin to speculate about the strange phenomena. At last they decide that they should eat. But when they sit down to the banquet, Ariel enters in the shape of a harpy and snatches away the banquet. Next, Ariel addresses himself to Alonso, Sebastian and Antonio. He reminds them wrong done to Prospero and tells them that the elements now enact punishment for this act. He warns Alonso that the loss of his son is part of his punishment and adds that unless he repents in time, further punishment will follow.
The banquet scene is meant to awaken in Alonso, Sebastian and Antonio, their sense of sin by supernatural terrors and then to lead them to repentance. Alonso seems to be most shaken by supernatural warning, which brings his sin into his conscious. Antonio and Sebastian are distracted with terror. And all three disperse in a wild and desperate mood.
