How does Shakespeare's decision to structure the Tempest to include the marriage of Miranda and Ferdinand most likely affect the story?

Answer 1

The plot of the Tempest in one of the few which came out of Shakespeare's brain and not out of a book he had read or an older play he had seen or acted in. Part of what he wanted in this play was a happy romance between a couple of young people. Such plot strands can be found in many plays of the time with a happy ending, and in many of Shakespeare's. The play ends with the parties intending to marry (rarely do they actually marry on stage, as this would be the depiction of a sacrament). In this play, the theme is reconciliation, and part of the reconciliation is the joining by marriage Prospero's family with the family of the Duke of Naples, formerly his enemy and the ally of his usurping brother.

Answer 2

Of course, it was (and still is to a certain extent) a good idea to start a play with a bang: a brawl, a ghost, some cackling witches, or a storm. It gets the audience's attention. This was more important when performing in an outdoor theatre like the Globe where there were no house lights to dim and it was hard to signal that the play was about to start. There is a price to pay, of course: Prospero must tell Miranda the backstory in Scene 2 which is very tedious, but the audience is already hooked by that point (at least Shakespeare hoped so.)

Answer 3

It does not. Prospero does address the audience directly at the end of the play, just as Rosalind does in As You Like It, as an epilogue. Lots of plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries have an epilogue which is someone who comes on, offers a comment on the story and invites the audience to applaud. But--and this is the important part--the epilogue does not speak until the story is fully told. Thus the question of which actor delivers the epilogue cannot affect the story, which is already over.

Answer 4

The audience only learns about the events in Milan from the character