English 201: English Literature to 1700 (Prof. Boyer)

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 stuck, but try to get the big picture of a scene before getting bogged down in details. 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 at 1.2.186?
4.	Who is Ariel (1.2.187ff)? What is Ariel's status? What has Ariel done for Prospero? 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 happened 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 Miranda? 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? (Miranda'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 Miranda speak these words?)
8.	Who is Ferdinand (1.2.375ff)? What does he think has happened to everyone else on the ship? What is Miranda's response to Ferdinand? What is Prospero's response 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 does this device affect the scene? (I.e., how would the scene be different if Antonio'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 consummated, 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 of 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 saying? 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 translation of Metamorphoses (Norton Anthology of English Literature, 7th ed., vol. 1, p. 601). Compare Gonzalo's description to its direct source, Michel de Montaigne'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 magistrate, nor of political superiority, no use of service, of riches, or of poverty, no contracts, no successions, no dividances, no occupation but idle, no respect of kindred but common, no apparel but natural, no manuring of lands, no use of wine, corn, or metal. The very words that import lying, falsehood, treason, dissimulations, covetousness, envy, detraction, and pardon, were never heard of amongst them."
6.	What causes most of the characters to fall asleep? Who remains awake? What do 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 Trinculo is?
2.	Who is Trinculo (2.2.18ff)? How does he respond to Caliban? Why does he crawl 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 should: 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 to the beginning of 2.2? Why is Ferdinand doing this, and how is his attitude different 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 matters? 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 another echo from Virgil's Aeneid.)
3.	According to Gonzalo (3.3.104-109), what has happened to Alonso, Sebastian, and Antonio?

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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 Miranda (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 to 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 farewell. How might one read it that way?
5.	According to Ariel (4.1.171-184), what has happened to Caliban, Stephano, and 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 reaction 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 he could (5.1.17-20)? How will Prospero respond?
2.	What does Prospero do before Ariel brings in Alonso and the others (5.1.33-57)? Lines 33-50 have their source in Golding's translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses. In Ovid's lines, Medea, preparing to use her magical powers to prolong the life 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 wake (5.1.58-103)?
4.	How does Prospero treat his prisoners as they awake? How do they respond? Specifically, how does he treat Sebastian and Antonio (5.1.126-134)? How do they respond?
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 consummated their relationship in a cave during a storm; Ferdinand and Miranda are definitely 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 help of the audience? On what grounds does he ask for it?

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