The Tempest Act IV and V: Food for Thought
1. Which goddesses join in the masque? What kinds of blessings do they bestow on
the couple? Who else joins the masque?
2. What causes Caliban and the others to turn aside from their plot?
3. What are Prospero’s motives in creating the masque for Ferdinand and Miranda?
4. How does this broken off “show” resemble and differ from the “show” of the
disrupted feast in Act III?
5. How does the final part of the act contrast with the masque? Why do yo think
Prospero is especially angry with Caliban?
6. In Prospero’s famous soliloquy, the “great globe” refers to the world but may
refer as well to the Globe Theatre, in which the play was acted. How might the
comment about the “globe” affect the audience?
7. To whom is Prospero referring when he says, “We are such stuff/As dreams are
made on”?
Act V
1. Why does Prospero show mercy to his foes?
2. What will he do to show he has rejected his “rough magic”?
3. What services does Ariel perform for his master in this act? How will Ariel be
rewarded?
4. How does Miranda’s view of the courtiers differ from her father’s?
5. In what ways has Caliban changed?
6. Compare and contrast Prospero with Ariel.
7. What quality does Miranda reveal when she exclaims, “O brave new world….”?
How do you think Shakespeare wants us to view her remark? Explain.
8. What do you think Antonio’s silence indicates about his state of mind?
9. What does Prospero mean when he says in the epilogue, “Now my charms are all
o’erthrown,/And what strength I have’s mind own,/Which is most faint”? How
does his request for “Mercy” relate to his own behaviour toward Antonio and
Sebastian?