Enjoying the Play

Try having the play next to you while you listen or watch the play.

On the left you can see that I'm using the Folger edition of the play, so that I can copy and paste the lines I might want to remember. If you hover over the line, you will get the act, scene and line number. I usually will open the ENTIRE PLAY from Folger.

On the right hand side of my screen you'll see the Digital Theatre+ version of the play. I can jump to any Act that I want.

Reading / Viewing Schedule

You will need approximately 30 minutes a day to understand the play. 30 minutes isn't a lot of time, let's make the most of it.

There are 2 ways to do this:

1. Preread the Reading Questions and as the play unfolds, stop and jot down your answer.

2. Don't preread the Reading Questions, watch the play while skimming the lines (see picture below). When 30 minutes are up, answer the questions in sequential order.

If you cannot answer the Reading Questions, then it might be a good idea to:

1. Stop.

2. Start reading and watching the act again.

3. Changes the questions. Use the generic Drama: The Art of Analysis questions to help you understand the play.

4. If you can't answer these questions, you should go back and start again with the previous act. It may be that you have not understood the beginning of the play.

Drama: The Art of Analysis

Use these questions when you finish reading or watching a scene in drama.

In assessing the dramatic importance or function of any scene or speech, ask yourself the following questions: (Note, no single dramatic sequence will fulfill all of these functions, of course. You must decide upon the most important functions served by a speech or scene - or part of a scene.) Watch carefully for how these functions are fulfilled.

About Character

1. Does it introduce a character? (directly or indirectly)

2. Does it reveal something about someone's character?

3. Does it show characters in conflict?

4. Does it reveal a particular relationship between characters?

5. Does it explain the motivation of a character?

6. Does it create sympathy for a character?

About Plot

1. Does it move the plot forward?

2. Does it foreshadow a future event?

3. Does it create suspense or excitement?

4. Does it provide background information?

5. Does it provide comic relief?

6. Does it create humour?

7. Does it lay the foundation for the plot?

About Setting

1. Does it reveal the setting?

2. Does it offer a contrast to the previous (or following) setting?

Other

1. Does it engage the audience's interest?

2. Does it create atmosphere or mood?

3. Does it have anything to do with the theme?

4. Does it serve to indicate the passage of time?

Some Dramatic Effects of a Scene in a Play

A scene in any play will aim at one or more of the effects in this list:

1. A scene may reveal character, or it may show development of a character.

2. It may give background information about events occurring before the actions of the play.

3. It may present a dramatic contrast in character or mood.

4. It may give information about events occurring offstage which cannot be shown onstage.

5. It may develop pathos.

6. It may foreshadow coming events.

7. It may advance the plot.

8. It may create suspense.

9. It may establish relationships between characters, or it may show these relationships changing.

10. It may afford a relief of tension.

11. It may direct the audience's sympathies toward a certain character.

Comedy

In the first folio, the plays were grouped into history, comedy and tragedy. Romance / Tragicomedy were later divisions.

For Elizabethan audiences, comedy implies happy ending - usually marriage & villain is punished.

Normal - to Chaos (misunderstanding and reversal) - to Normal

Elements of Comedy

• A greater emphasis on situations than characters - you laugh even when it's terrible

• A struggle of young lovers to overcome difficulty, often presented by elders

• Separation and re-unification

• Deception among characters (especially mistaken identity)

• A clever servant

• Family disputes

• Use of all styles of comedy:

  • slapstick

  • puns

  • dry humour

  • earthy humour

  • witty banter

  • practical jokes

• Happy endings

Problem Plays

• complex and ambiguous tone

• tone shifts violently between dark, psychological drama and more straightforward comic material

• plays cannot be easily assigned to the traditional categories of tragedy or comedy

Tragicomedy - Romance

• blends tragedy and comedy forms

• serious plays with a happy ending

• high and low characters mixed together

If you're still interested...

Here are some notes on Tragedy and Aristotle phases of tragedy. Maybe you just want to jump to the essence of tragedy or a definition of the tragic hero?

Themes in The Tempest

Rulers and Subjects - City states in continental Europe vs England, Usurping of Power (Macbeth, Hamlet, Queen Elizabeth I's death & Gunpowder Plot)

Revenge or Mercy - Forgiveness and contrition

Love - Ferdinand and Miranda, Prospero and Antonio

Utopias - The New World, Utopia by Sir Thomas More

Encounters with the New World - Colonialism and Slavery

Duality - The Magician and The Artist, Ruler without a kingdom

Quotes to remember

As we watch and read the play, look for the following quotes:

• Me, poor man, my library was dukedom large enough (1. 2. 109)

• But, as 'tis, we cannot miss him: he does make our fire, fetch in our wood and serves in offices that profit us. (1. 2. 310)

• There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple: If the ill spirit have so fair a house, good things will strive to dwell with't. (1. 2. 457)

• All thy vexations were but my trials of thy love and thou hast strangely stood the test here (4. 1. 5)

• The rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance (5. 1. 47)

• I'll break my staff, bury it certain fathoms in the earth, and deeper than did ever plummet sound I'll drown my book. (5. 1. 54)

The Tempest - Reading Questions Activity

Act 1

1. Why is it significant that the play begins with a storm at sea?

2. Why does Miranda have such immediate empathy for the men in the ship? Since we learn that she has lived on a deserted island with her father since childhood, where would she have learned these ideas of pity and mercy?

3. Why is she so merciful towards the shipwreck victims but has only contempt and hatred for Caliban? Where and how would she have gotten her ideas?

4. What does it mean that Prospero has to take off his robe, his “magic garment,” before he can tell Miranda about her history?

5. Think about how you might tell your own child or a close friend the story of your past. How would you tend to characterize yourself and your actions in your story? What about Prospero’s story? Does he take any responsibility for what happened to him? Should he?

6. What crimes does Antonio, Prospero’s brother, commit? What motivates him? For which crimes is he most responsible? How do you judge him?

7. In Prospero’s questioning of Ariel, we learn that the storm is part of Prospero’s design. Does he want to punish the conspirators or lead them to repentance?

8. Ariel was imprisoned by Sycorax. Why? How does the physical description of Sycorax compare to your impressions of Ariel?

9. What connection does Shakespeare establish between outward appearance and inner spirit? Do you think this is true? Why or why not?

10. What is your reaction to Prospero’s treatment of Caliban? Does Caliban have a legitimate complaint against Prospero? Why does Prospero keep Caliban as his servant even when he despises him? Why do you think Caliban attempted to “violate the honor” of Miranda? Did he or is this the way his acts were interpreted by Prospero and Miranda?

11. Prospero is happy that when Miranda first sees Ferdinand she is immediately captivated by his appearance? Why? What is his plan?

12. Ferdinand and Miranda fall in love at first sight; Prospero says, “They have changed eyes.” Why does this seem feasible, given the emotional state of the two young people?

Act 2

1. What type of person is Gonzalo? What was his role in the plot against Prospero? Does his behavior seem consistent with how he acts now?

2. Sebastian and Antonio ridicule Gonzalo. What does this tell us about their characters?

3. What is Gonzalo’s idea of the type of government or life style that could be possible on this island? Why does he say this at this time?

4. Antonio incites Sebastian to kill his brother and take the crown of Naples. Why? What does this tell us about Antonio’s motives? What does Sebastian’s response tell us about him? What could Shakespeare be saying about human nature?

5. Is it surprising that Caliban willingly worships Stephano and desires to give him control of the island when he resents Prospero for usurping what he considers his rightful claim to the island? What does this show about Caliban?

Act 3

1. How has Ferdinand’s and Miranda’s love deepened from their first attraction? What is Shakespeare suggesting about the true nature of love?

2. What does Caliban hope to accomplish by his plot against Prospero? Why does Shakespeare include this subplot mirroring the conspiracy of the nobles?

3. How does the apparition of the banquet affect Alonso and his retinue? How is the banquet used as a symbol? Why aren’t the men allowed to eat the food? Is this an effective moment for Ariel to accuse them of their sins?

Act 4

1. How is Ferdinand different from Caliban in his relationship to Miranda? Why does he pledge to keep her honor safe?

2. Why is Miranda’s virginity so important to Prospero?

3. What is the overall impact of the Masque-like? How is it supposed to affect the two young lovers? What is its message about the sanctity of the marriage bond?

4. Why does the masque suddenly disappear when Prospero remembers the plot against him by Caliban and his crew? What is Shakespeare suggesting by contrasting these two events?

5. How are Stephano and Trinculo distracted from their plot? What does this show about their natures? What does Caliban think about their behavior?

Act 5

1. Why does Prospero decide to show mercy to his enemies? Why is Ariel the first to speak of mercy? Do you think Prospero had planned to forgive them from the beginning?

2. Why does Prospero decide to give up magic? What does his choice show about what he thinks happened in the past? How does he plan to live in the future? What has Prospero learned? Has he changed in any fundamental way or had the change already occurred before the beginning of the action?

3. Are Caliban and Prospero reconciled?

4. Are Alonso, Antonio, and the other conspirators truly sorry for their plot against Prospero? Has their ordeal on the island changed them?

Montaigne, The New World, Utopia and Shakespeare

• The Renaissance (1400 - 1600 approx.) was a time of many changes.

• Montaigne's (1533–1592) "Des Cannibales"

• Shakespeare's (1564 – 1616) The Tempest (1610)

• More's (1478–1535) Utopia

• The discovery of the "New World" in 1492 and the repercussions of genocide, slavery and colonialism in the Thirteen Colonies (1607–1776) , the West Indies and both Western and Central Africa.

• English and French Exploration and colonization of Canada - Two Row Wampum Treaty

• We are all Treaty People

Madeleine Cox of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (05 Nov 2010) writes about Montaigne and Shakespeare here. This is what I think might be most interesting to you:

“It is a nation, would I answer Plato, that hath no kinde of traffike, no knowledge of Letters, no intelligence of numbers, no name of magistrate, nor of politike superioritie; no use of service, or riches or of povertie; no contracts, no successions, no partitions, no occupation but idle; no respect of kindred, no use of wine, corne, or mettle. The very words that import lying, falsehood, treason, dissimulations, covetousness, envie, detraction, and pardon, were never heard of amongst them. How dissonant would hee finde his imaginarie common-wealth from this perfection?”

Florio, John. the Essays of Montaigne Done into English, 1603, page 258

GONZALO

I’th’commonwealth I would by contraries

Execute all things. For no kind of traffic

Would I admit, no name of magistrate.

Letters should not be known. Riches, poverty,

And use of service, none. Contract, succession,

Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none.

No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil.

No occupation: all men idle, all,

[...]

........Treason, felony,

Sword, pike, knife, gun, or need of any engine

Would I not have;”

Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. (New Penguin Edition, 1996, page 88)

Drama Assignment

Assignment

Choose one of the following topics and write an original, formal, 5 part essay. Your essay requires an original thesis and support from the text. See the 'Reminders' section for more details.

Topics

1. The relationships between the inhabitants of the island (Miranda, Caliban and Ariel) and Prospero.

2. The function of comedy in The Tempest.

3. Magic.

4. Power.

Reminders

• The Writing page has a 5 part essay planner.

• A thesis is crucial. Read From Topic to Thesis.

• Make sure you have good transitions between your paragraphs.

• Make sure you have quotes from the play. Reread Dealing with Quotes.

• Use a peer editor to review your draft. Review notes on the writing process.

• Read the rubric.

• Use MLA format.

• Submit this assignment to our Google Classroom.