The Tempest
Lesson 3
The reading skills that are assessed in the
Shakespeare Paper are:




your ability to understand a question and select relevant
material to suit your answer to it
your appreciation of how the language of the text informs your
analysis of the question
your ability to construct an appropriate argument and develop
your points in a coherent way
your understanding of character, theme, language or
performance in relation to the extract
Selecting relevant material:
1. The summaries.
On the Test Paper, you will get a summary of each extract in a
grey box. This is valuable material to use in your opening
paragraph to link the question and the scenes with your opening
point of view.
Example
Question:
Example summaries:
Question : In these extracts, how does
Prospero’s language convey his
innocence?
Summary 1
In this extract, Prospero tells Miranda of their former status and
how his brother had betrayed his trust by turning the
government against him.
Summary 2
In this extract, Prospero tells of how Antonio took on the role of
King himself and then removed Prospero and his daughter from
the land.
How might the essay start?
Uses words with
meanings that
are linked to
those in the
title, giving
added
coherence and
showing
understanding.
Prospero uses language that suggests he was a wholly
innocent party in the events that led up to him leaving Milan. He
convinces his daughter of his role of victim so thoroughly that she
is reduced to tears on his behalf. It is not that we challenge
Prospero’s story but rather that we want to meet the man who
abused his guiltless brother to see what he has to say for himself.
Selecting material to suit
- scene summaries
- annotation leading to quotation
Spotting the focus of the question
How do we see Miranda respond to the two men in her life in
these extracts?
Miranda:
obedient? passive? submissive? emotional?
Focus of question?
Character
Theme
Language
Performance
Extract 1 Act II scene ii
MIRANDA
MIRANDA
Alack, for pity!
I, not remembering how I cried out then,
Will cry it o'er again: it is a hint
That wrings mine eyes to’t.
PROSPERO Hear a little further
And then I’ll bring thee to the present business
Which now’s upon’s; without the which this story
Were most impertinent.
MIRANDA
Wherefore did they not
That hour destroy us?
PROSPERO Well demanded, wench:
My tale provokes that question. Dear, they durst not,
So dear the love my people bore me, nor set
A mark so bloody on the business, but
With colours fairer painted their foul ends.
In few, they hurried us aboard a bark,
Bore us some leagues to sea; where they prepared
A rotten carcass of a boat, not rigg’d,
Nor tackle, sail, nor mast; the very rats
Instinctively had quit it: there they hoist us,
To cry to the sea that roar’d to us, to sigh
To the winds whose pity, sighing back again,
Did us but loving wrong.
MIRANDA
Alack, what trouble
Miranda is
moved to tears
in sympathy for
her father’s
predicament.
Miranda, despite her
sheltered life on the
island, knows of
man’s callous waste
of lives.
She thinks only of
her father’s
troubles and sees
herself as a
burden rather than
a victim.
Extract 2: Act III scene i
FERDINAND I am in my condition
A prince, Miranda; I do think, a king;
I would, not so! – and would no more endure
This wooden slavery than to suffer
The flesh-fly blow my mouth. Hear my soul speak:
The very instant that I saw you, did
My heart fly to your service; there resides,
To make me slave to it; and for your sake
Am I this patient log – man.
MIRANDA Do you love me?
FERDINAND O heaven, O earth, bear witness to this sound
And crown what I profess with kind event
If I speak true! if hollowly, invert
What best is boded me to mischief! I
Beyond all limit of what else I’ the world
Do love, prize, honour you.
MIRANDA I am a fool
To weep at what I am glad of.
PROSPERO [aside]
Fair encounter
Of two most rare affections! Heavens rain grace
On that which breeds between ’em!
FERDINAND Wherefore weep you?
How do we see Miranda respond to the two men
in her life in these extracts?
In these two extracts, we see Miranda receiving information
from her father through a lengthy exposition, then, later we see her
receive an outpouring of love. Despite being the receiver for most of the
first extract, Miranda does ensure that her questions are answered by
making timely interruptions. This is a skill she develops in her dealings
with Ferdinand as she cuts out the “trifling” and gets down to the main
business – love.
In the first extract, we see Miranda sympathising with the
dreadful situation her father found himself in when they were banished
from Milan. She is determined to “cry it o’er again” to make up for not
being able to remember crying at the time. However, Miranda is not just
pouring out sympathy, she is also wise and able to ask pertinent
questions to receive the information about why their captors chose not
to “destroy” them. This is a question leading Prospero to disclose more
of the political situation.
From your annotations, select the best 2 that suit the
question and draft a paragraph with embedded
quotations that are analysed in detail.
How do we see Miranda respond to the two men in her life
in these extracts?
Paragraph from extract 2:
Recap:

Annotation

Embedded quotations
Homework:
How might these extracts be performed to engage the
audience?
In one paragraph with embedded quotations
Extracts from The Storm