Summary & Critical Analysis Full Fathom Five Thy Father Lies.

William Shakespeare

The poem  Full Fathom Five Thy Father Lies occurs in Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest,

Act I, Scene 2. The spirit Ariel sings this song to Ferdinand, Prince of Naples, who mistakenly
thinks his father is drowned. Ariel is telling Ferdinand that his father lies full thirty feet below
the surface of the sea. His bones have been changed into piece of coral. His eyes have been
transformed into pearls. Every part of his body that was supposed to decay has been changed
into something rich and strange, but something belonging to the sea or connected with it. The sea
nymphs who live in the sea are ringing his death bell every hour.

Death is quite meaningful in this poem. No part of the death body has decayed. They have been
changed into something valuable.
Coral are made of the bones, and eyes are changed into pearls. In this poem “Ding-dong” is the
example of onomatopoeia. It imitates the sound of the bell and makes the readers feel that he is
listening to the bell. There lies an alliteration; repetition of an initial first sound in two or more
words of a line in this poem.

 In the first line of the poem “full fathom five thy father lies” the sound ‘f’ has been repeated
four times. It reminds us of the flow of the sea. Similarly, “suffer a sea change”, “Hark! now I
hear them” are other examples of alliteration. Assonance; the repetition of the vowel sounds in
stressed syllables; “five….lies”, “nymphs….ring” are the examples of assonance in this poem.
All these rhetorical devices have enhanced the musical quality of the song. In line eight “Dingdong” imitates the sound of the bell. It is usually the sound of the bell which is run slowly for the
death of Ferdinand’s father. The nasal song ‘ng’ produces lingering, vibrant effects and the harsh
sound ‘d’ reminds us of ‘death’.

Theme.

The message is that nothing in this world , the world confined within the eco- system and  from
its effect circle, can disappear rather, everything meets with change may that be in the form of
dead or decay or rich or strange good or bad positive or negative. Change is inevitable, a rule
of this eco system apart from repetition of the entities in various forms. Repetition of situation,
form or spirit, life or death, just as; ups and downs make sense in repetition of everything in this
world of material and non material. This reality of life is reflected in the poem in the repetition of
sounds, both, consonant and vowels, repetition of the words and so on. In this way, the poem is
an example of a unique quality literature.

Note: Please read the textual analysis and the essay given under for further reference and
support which I have down loaded from the internet for you to practise:

Full Fathom Five Thy Father Lies

5. Full Fathom Five Thy Father Lies

“Full Fathom Five Thy Father Lies” is beautiful song taken from William Shakespeare’s play The

Tempest, Act I Scene II. The Spirit Ariel sings the song to Ferdinand, a prince of Naples, who mistakenly

thinks that his father is drowned into the sea.

Ariel is a spirit who is a very comic and miraculous character. He flies up invisibly and plays music and

song. In the given poem, he gives sympathy to Ferdinand, the prince of Naples, who is very sad on the

death of his father. The Spirit Ariel tries to make the death meaningful with his melodious description.

The Spirit Ariel says that Ferdinand’s father has been drowned into the sea. His body has been lying 30

feet below at the bottom of the sea. His bones have been changed into corals and eyes into pearls due

to sea – change process. Nothings of his parts of the body have been destroyed. But his whole body has

changed the sea into something valuable and strange. The sea nymphs are hourly ringing the death bell

producing song ‘Ding-dong’. At last, the Spirit Ariel asks Ferdinand to listen the sound of the bell.

Thus, William Shakespeare through the song of Spirit Ariel talks about immortality of life. He means

to say than life does not die but changes to other forms. So, the death of Ferdinand’s father is

meaningful. Death is nothing but just a medium of changing life from one form to another. Life after

death is permanent whereas life itself is ephemeral.

ESSAY ON “LIFE AND ART”

It seems to be difficult to define ‘life’ and ‘art’. Life is mysterious and art is the imitation (copy) of
life. So life and art are interrelated parts. Life creates art and art provides delight to life. Without any
interest in art is a dead life, so art and life are inseparable.
Art is related to creation and life is related to experience of happiness, sadness, laughter, tears, joy,
certainties and uncertainties. But art brings success in life.
Life is transitory. It changes in different phrases in course of time. A small baby of yesterday becomes
a young man today and old tomorrow. Eventually, he disappears from the world resting on the lap of
death. Life comes across different sweet and sour events. Life is mixture of tears and smiles. Pain and
pleasure are the friends of life. In other words, life is full of emotions, feelings, ideas and sentiments.
Art is the creation of life. It is permanent and immortal. Art makes life beautiful and meaningful. Art
makes artist immortal. An artist lives in memory of people all the time after his death. Many literary
artists show the relation between art and life. Some say that art is for the sake of life where as some
say that art is only for art’s sake. However, life is itself the source of art and art is the source of joy.
Art is life and life is art. Without art life seems to be meaningless and unattractive. The different forms
of art like music, writing, singing, drawing, acting, dancing etc. make our life fruitful.v