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English 123 – Yanover
Discussion Questions about Shakespeare’s The Tempest: Acts 1 & 2
Directions: Discuss and take notes on the following questions, finding proof in the play for your answers.
1. List all the female characters, including those who appear or are merely discussed in each act.
A. What qualities do they demonstrate or are attributed to them?
B. Which of these qualities are expected, are considered typical or are presented as essential qualities of women
C. Which of these qualities are valued or make women valuable in society?
D. What qualities are devalued or discouraged?
2. List the male characters who appear in each act.
A. Sort and rank them by social class.
B. What qualities do they demonstrate or are attributed to them?
C. Which of these qualities are expected, are considered typical or are presented as essential qualities of men in this society?
D. Which of these qualities are valued or make men valuable in society?
E. What qualities are devalued or discouraged?
3. Would you cast Ariel as male or female and why?
4. Where do you see the symbolism of the tempest or storm in each act? Consider both the literal/physical/natural and the metaphorical meanings.
5. What other images and themes emerge in Acts 1 and 2, and from which characters and in what context do they emerge? What arguments might the play be making through them?
6. What motivates individual characters in these acts? Consider Prospero, Miranda, Ariel, Caliban, Ferdinand, the Boatswain, Alonso, etc.
7. Consider the interactions between the following characters:
Act 1, Scene 1
Master – Boatswain
Boatswain – Alonso/Antonio/Gonzalo/Sebastian
Gonzalo – Sebastian – Antonio
Act 2, Scene 2
Prospero – Miranda
Prospero – Ariel
Prospero – Miranda – Caliban
Miranda – Ferdinand
Ferdinand – Prospero
Act 2, Scene 1
Gonzalo – Alonso -- Sebastian – Antonio – Adrian/Francisco
Antonio – Sebastian
Act 2, Scene 2,
Caliban – Trinculo – Stephano
A. Based on how the characters speak to one another, identify who is in the position of authority as well as what gives the authoritative person his/her authority (class, gender, age, relationship, role, etc.)?
B. What in the authoritative characters’ speech (style, diction, & content) suggests his or her authority? How do the subordinate characters respond to the perceived authority? Do they acknowledge it? Do they accept it? Do they resist it or rebel against it? How does their speech (style, diction, & content) reflect his or her perception of and reaction to the person’s authority?
Note: In Elizabethan English, the pronouns “you” and “thou” were used. You/your/yours was used to show respect (to one of higher status or authority) and formality (like “usted” in Spanish or “vous” in French). Thou/thee/thy/thine (like “tu” in Spanish and French) was used to show familiarity or affection/intimacy between people of equal status or was used by one of higher status when speaking to one of lower status (whether due to class or age differences, etc.).
8. Discuss the following characters as colonizers and/or colonized and support/justify your labels with evidence from the text and clear definitions of terms. (Note: By definitions, I do not mean the dictionary definition but an operating definition of what traits you see as essential and necessary to determine colonizer and colonized.):
Prospero
Miranda
Ariel
Caliban
Ferdinand
9. What in the text suggests Shakespeare accepts Prospero as rightful authority? In contrast, what in the text suggests Shakespeare sees Prospero as a usurper?
10. What in Ariel’s language suggests acceptance of or submission to Prospero’s authority? In contrast, what in Ariel’s language suggests subversion of or resistance to Prosperpo’s authority?
11. These acts are set on board a ship and then on a magical unnamed island about characters who mostly originated in Milan or Naples, Italy. What (types) customs, beliefs, politics, events, etc., are alluded to in the play? How would we go about discovering which society/culture (Italian, Elizabethan, etc) Shakespeare is reflecting and commenting on?
12. Which characters do we sympathize with (or are we meant to sympathize with) and why?
13. Which characters do we dislike (or are we meant to dislike) and why?