Miranda's Deaf Ear

When Prospero is recounting the events that spurred him and Miranda to the island, he pauses three times in order to ask her if she is listening. Though she replies each time that she is indeed being attentive, Prospero's suspicion otherwise implies that her deaf ear is signficant on a deeper level.

As evidenced by the Masque (overly ornate and elaborate stage productions that relied on theatricality), audiences in Shakespeare's time were becoming accustomed to theater as a "visual feast," wherein the entire play is artifice. Shakespeare's possible concern was that viewers interpreted theater merely as stories that could be presented visually, rather than an audio meditation or discussion.

Miranda's deaf ear, then, is a parallel to the deaf ears of Shakespeare's audience, who may have begun to rely on the visial rather than the audio.

Vanessa Yeh
Ian Hoch
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