Assignment: The Tempest Acts 2 and 3
The Island
- Keep track of moments in which a character describes the island on which the action is set. Whose perspectives do we get, and what vision of the island does the primary speaker in each instance present to us?
- How do these visions relate to (or differ from) the descriptions we get from Gonzalo, Adrian, Sebastian and Antonio in Act 2, Scene 1? Pay particular attention to Gonzalo’s description of an ideal commonwealth.
More on Servitude and Slavery
- How are the opening scene of Act 3 and the final scene in Act 2 set up as parallels in the play? That is, how does Shakespeare set them up to draw attention the similarities among (and differences among) the situations portrayed in them? Write down any aspects that seem noteworthy.
- What are the effects of the differences? What does each scene suggest about labor under Prospero’s rule? Do the characters performing the labor express its difficulty using similar language? How so? In what ways do they describe their efforts differently?
- How does the status of the individual affect how each person conceives of his service/servitude to Prospero? What is the difference in status, in particular, that identifies the character’s labor as––or distinguishes it from––slavery/bondage?
Plots against Authority
- Who are the characters that come up with the plot in the respective groups represented in 2.1 and 3.2? What does each plot involve?
- What are the motives governing the plots? Who most stands to benefit or suffer if the plot is successful in each case?
- How do the two groups of plotters differ in the way they discuss the respective plans they make? What do these differences suggest about the characters involved? Why might Shakespeare set up three plots (counting Prospero’s ousting by Antonio) to depose the authority figures in different contexts?
- What role does Ariel play in these plots?
- In 2.2, Stephano and Trinculo discover Caliban; he is the first person they come into contact with after arriving on the Island after the shipwreck. What do you notice about each man’s encounter with Caliban? What do their comments reveal about Europeans’ perceptions of “Indians” or people indigenous to an exotic location?
- What adjectives do you see Stephano and Caliban using to refer to Caliban? What do those adjectives suggest about Caliban and his status in the play?
- Does Caliban seem to live in the kind of world Gonzalo imagines on the Island in 2.1?
- What factors seem to be at play in Shakespeare's depiction of Caliban and his behavior towards Stephano and Trinculo?