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English 201: English Literature to 1700 (Prof. Boyer)
Reading Questions for The Tempest
Keyed to the new Pelican Shakespeare edition by Peter Holland
The best beginning procedure is always to familiarize yourself with the cast
of characters and then to read the play (or at least an act or a scene) all the
way through so that you know what's happening. The notes can help if you're stu
ck, but try to get the big picture of a scene before getting bogged down in deta
ils. Read through, then go back and clear up details. Then you're ready to think
about the questions.
Act 1
Act 2
Act 3
Act 4
Act 5
Epilogue
Return to list of English 201 reading questions
ACT 1
1.1

1.

What is happening as the play begins?

2.

How would you compare the Boatswain's attitude to that of the members of the
King's party? How to the members of the King's men treat the Boatswain?
3.

What is happening to the ship at the end of the scene (1.1.51 ff)?

1.2

1.

What do we learn at the beginning of 1.2 about the storm we saw in 1.1?
2.

Who is Prospero? What is his true title? How did he lose it? How did he come
to be on the island? What kind of books does he have? How did he get them?
3.
 Who is Miranda? What does she remember about her past? How does she respond
to her father's story? Why has he told it to her now? Why does she fall asleep a
t 1.2.186?
4.

Who is Ariel (1.2.187ff)? What is Ariel's status? What has Ariel done for Pr
ospero? What does Ariel want from Prospero? What gender (if any) is Ariel?
5.

What more do we learn from Ariel about the storm we saw in 1.1? What has hap
pened to everyone's clothes? What has happened to the ship and the sailors? What
has happened to the King and his followers?
6.

Who is Sycorax (1.2.258)? What is her relation to Ariel? To Caliban?

7.

Who/what is Caliban (1.2.282ff)? What is his relation to Prospero and Mirand

a? What happened in the past to get him into his present situation? What is his
response to that incident? How do Prospero and Miranda react to Caliban? (Mirand
a's speech in lines 351-362 is hers in the original text, but many critics think
that this is a printing error and that the speech should be spoken by Prospero.
Which speaker seems more appropriate to you? What is the effect of having Miran
da speak these words?)
8.

Who is Ferdinand (1.2.375ff)? What does he think has happened to everyone el

se on the ship? What is Miranda's response to Ferdinand? What is Prospero's resp
onse to them? Why do Prospero and Miranda disagree? (1.2.390-392 are used by T.
S. Eliot in The Waste Land.)
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ACT 2
2.1

1.

What is Gonzalo's advice to Alonso at the beginning of the scene? How do you
think Alonso will respond? What do we already know about Gonzalo? (See 1.2.159-
68.)
2.

2.1.10-197.1 become clearer when you realize that Sebastian and Antonio are
standing apart, commenting to each other on what the other characters say. How d
oes this device affect the scene? (I.e., how would the scene be different if Ant
onio's and Sebastian's side comments were eliminated?)
3.

What things do we learn from Gonzalo's comments in 2.1.62-71? Who is "widow

Dido" (line 76ff)? Why is she referred to in this passage? (In Virgil's Aeneid,
Aeneas comes to Carthage, where Dido falls in love with him. The love is consumm
ated, but then Aeneas leaves for Italy at the gods' command, leaving her behind.
There is another tradition, however, in which Dido remains true to the memory o
f her first husband. In this version of her story Aeneas does not visit Carthage
.)
4.

Why isn't Alonso impressed with or entertained by what his followers are say
ing? What do we know that he doesn't know?
5.

What sort of commonwealth would Gonzalo create on the island (2.1.143-168)?

Compare Ovid's description of the golden age in Arthur Golding's Elizabethan tra
nslation of Metamorphoses (Norton Anthology of English Literature, 7th ed., vol.
1, p. 601). Compare Gonzalo's description to its direct source, Michel de Monta
igne's essay "Of the Cannibals," translated by John Florio in 1603. Montaigne is
talking about American Indian society: "It is a nation . . . that hath no kind
of traffic, no knowledge of letters, no intelligence of numbers, no name of magi
strate, nor of political superiority, no use of service, of riches, or of povert
y, no contracts, no successions, no dividances, no occupation but idle, no respe
ct of kindred but common, no apparel but natural, no manuring of lands, no use o
f wine, corn, or metal. The very words that import lying, falsehood, treason, di
ssimulations, covetousness, envy, detraction, and pardon, were never heard of am
ongst them."
6.

What causes most of the characters to fall asleep? Who remains awake? What d
o they decide to do? Are they successful? Why or why not? How do they cover for
themselves?
7.

What have we learned about the characters of Sebastian and Antonio?

2.2

1.

What is Caliban doing at the beginning of the scene? What does he think Trin
culo is?
 2.

Who is Trinculo (2.2.18ff)? How does he respond to Caliban? Why does he craw
l under Caliban's garment?
3.

Who is Stephano (2.2.41ff)? What condition is he in? How does he respond to

Caliban and Trinculo? How does Caliban respond to them (2.2.114ff)?
4.

How did Stephano escape from the ship (2.1.117-121)?

5.

What does Caliban offer to do (2.2.145-146)? Does this sound familiar? (It s
hould: see 1.2.332-338.) What does this say about Caliban?
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ACT 3
3.1

1.

What is Ferdinand doing at the beginning of the scene? How does it compare t
o the beginning of 2.2? Why is Ferdinand doing this, and how is his attitude dif
ferent from Caliban's?
2.

What happens in the scene between Ferdinand and Miranda (3.1.15-91)? What is
the effect of having Prospero watching them? How does he respond to them?

3.2

1.

What does Caliban want Stephano and Trinculo to do? How does Ariel confuse m
atters? What does Stephano agree to do (3.2.105-108)?

3.3

1.
 Have Sebastian and Antonio learned their lesson from what happened in 2.1?
2.

How is food brought to Alonso and his followers? What happens when they try
to eat? What message does Ariel give them? Who is watching? (This episode is ano
ther echo from Virgil's Aeneid.)
3.

According to Gonzalo (3.3.104-109), what has happened to Alonso, Sebastian,

and Antonio?
top
ACT 4
4.1

1.

What has Prospero agreed to at the beginning of the scene? What warning does
he give to Ferdinand and Miranda?
2.

What instructions does Prospero have for Ariel (4.1.35-38)?

3.

What happens in the show (masque) that Prospero presents for Ferdinand and M
iranda (4.1.60-139)? What is the subject of the show? Why is it appropriate?
4.

Why does Prospero cut short the show? How do Ferdinand and Miranda respond t
o what happens (4.1.143-145)? How does Prospero explain the show and his actions
(4.1.146-163)? Notice the theatrical metaphors in the central part of Prospero'
s speech (4.1.148-158). This speech has sometimes been taken as Shakespeare's fa
rewell. How might one read it that way?
5.

According to Ariel (4.1.171-184), what has happened to Caliban, Stephano, an

d Trinculo since we last saw them?
6.

What does Prospero tell Ariel to prepare for Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo
? What is Prospero's reaction to what Caliban has done (4.1.188-193)? Is his rea
ction justified?
 7.

What happens when Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo come to kill Prospero? How
are they driven away?
8.

How does Prospero respond to his successes (4.1.262-266)?

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ACT 5
5.1

1.

What is the status of the prisoners (5.1.7-17)? How would Ariel respond if h
e could (5.1.17-20)? How will Prospero respond?
2.

What does Prospero do before Ariel brings in Alonso and the others (5.1.33-5
7)? Lines 33-50 have their source in Golding's translation of Ovid's Metamorphos
es. In Ovid's lines, Medea, preparing to use her magical powers to prolong the l
ife of Jason's father, Aeson, invokes the spirits of the unseen world:
Ye airs and winds, ye elves of hills, of brooks, of woods alone,
Of standing lakes, and of the night, approach ye everychone!
Through help of whom, the crooked banks much wondering at the thing,
I have compelled streams to run clean back ward to their spring.
By charms I make the calm seas rough and make the rough seas plain,
And cover all the sky with clouds and chase them thence again.
By charms I raise and lay the winds, and burst the viper's jaw,
And from the bowels of the earth both stones and trees do draw,
Whole woods and forests I remove; I make the mountains shake,
And even the earth itself to groan and fearfully to quake.
I call up dead men from their graves; and thee, O lightsome Moon,
I darken oft, though beaten brass abate thy peril soon.
Our sorcery dims the morning fair and darks the sun at noon.
What is the effect of putting this speech of the witch Medea's into Prospero
's mouth?
3.

What does Prospero do (and tell Ariel to do) before Alonso and the others wa
ke (5.1.58-103)?
4.

How does Prospero treat his prisoners as they awake? How do they respond? Sp
ecifically, how does he treat Sebastian and Antonio (5.1.126-134)? How do they r
espond?
5.

What are Ferdinand and Miranda doing when they appear (5.1.172)? How is the
game going? There is another echo of Virgil's Aeneid here: Aeneas and Dido consu
mmated their relationship in a cave during a storm; Ferdinand and Miranda are de
finitely more in control of their emotions.)
6.

How does Gonzalo interpret all that has happened (5.1.201-213)?

7.

What happens to Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo when they are brought in (5.
1.256)?
8.

How many ways can we understand Prospero's comment on Caliban (5.1.275-276)?

How does Caliban respond to what has happened to him (5.1.295-298)?
9.

What will happen next? What happens to Ariel?

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Epilogue
1.

How will Prospero gain his freedom from the island? Why does he need the hel
p of the audience? On what grounds does he ask for it?
top