Selectively Audible Asides in The Tempest Anonymous College

Throughout William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, various instances of Prospero’s dialogue go unheard by other characters in the play; these lines are delivered through selectively audible asides, which can only be heard by the audience. Once the audience suspends their disbelief that a man can speak aloud and go unheard by those around him, they might go on to ask why Shakespeare uses this device so prominently in his work. Jonathan Culler’s book, Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction, provides some potential insight through his discussion of focalization. In this section, he asks the question, “From whose perspective are the events brought into focus and presented?” (Culler 89). Perspective is the key to focalization - it’s all about “who sees?” According to Culler, “the focalizer may or may not be the same as the narrator” (Culler 89). Though Culler speaks of prose in his book, his notions of focalization are applicable to Prospero’s asides as they give insight into his point of view, more so than his dialogue as a character in the play. Prospero’s selectively audible asides give the audience a deeper insight into his motivations and actions, thus focalizing the story through his perspective.

One important way that Prospero...