VOCABULARY

abstemious	indulging only very moderately in something, especially food and drink; temperate.
affliction	a cause of pain or harm; disease.
allay	lessen the intensity of or calm
blasphemous	grossly irreverent toward what is held to be sacred
blemish	a mark or flaw that spoils the appearance of something
bounteous	generously given or giving; bountiful.
budge	make or cause to make the slightest movement; shift.
contentious	causing or likely to cause an argument; controversial.
extirpate	destroy completely, as if down to the root
gallows	an instrument from which a person is executed by hanging
homage	respectful deference
impostor	a person who pretends to be someone else in order to deceive others, especially for fraudulent gain.
mar	render imperfect
meddle	intrude in other people's affairs or business
mischance	An unpredictable outcome that is unfortunate
monologue	a long speech by one actor in a play or film, or as part of a theatrical or broadcast programme.
nimble	quick and light in movement or action; agile.
paragon	a person or thing viewed as a model of excellence; ideal
perfidious	tending to betray; deceitful and untrustworthy.
piteous	deserving or arousing pity.
precursor	a person or thing that comes before another of the same kind; a forerunner.
soliloquy	an utterance or discourse by a person who is talking to himself or herself or is disregardful of or oblivious to any hearers present
spendthrift	wasteful; extravagant, prodigal
tempestuous	Characterized by violent emotions or behaviour
temperance	moderation or self-restraint in action
trumpery	showy but worthless.
unwonted	out of the ordinary
usurp	take (a position of power or importance) illegally or by force.
verdure	green foliage
waspish	readily expressing anger or irritation.

POETRY

Here are some questions that will help you to analyse the prescribed poems and write an effective essay.

Select two poems and attempt the following activities:

• In your own words, say what the poems are about.
• From whose point of view is each poem written? Why does the poet choose this voice?
• Describe the tone of each speaker.
• Describe the mood created.
• Comment on the treatment of the major themes.
• Identify two outstanding images that are used in each poem and describe their effectiveness.
• Comment on the use of dialect.
• Comment on the use of repetition.
• Identify and comment on the use of symbols.
• State one contrast that is mentioned and explain its effectiveness.
• Describe the form of each poem.
• Comment on how the form of each poem underscores its theme.
• Describe the conflict or problem that the persona in each poem experiences.
• Say what effect the poems have on you.
• Which lines of the poems appeal to you. Why?
• Describe the use of the natural environment.
• Which of the two poems is more alarming? Why?
• Which of the speakers appeals more to your sympathy? Why?
• Which of the two poems is more enjoyable? Give reasons for your answer.
• What lessons can you learn from each poem?
• How does the persona in each poem change from the beginning to the end of the poem?

***Once you can answer these questions, you can answer any question that could possibly come on the exam paper***

Animal Farm videos

Below are two links to videos of Animal Farm



MOVIE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGzRf0Ow1qU

ANIMATED MOVIE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcKChE9VqMk

The Tempest Act 5

In this scene, all of the play’s characters are brought on stage together for the first time. Prospero repeatedly says that he is relinquishing his magic, but its presence pervades the scene. He enters in his magic robes. He brings Alonso and the others into a charmed circle (V.i.57, stage direction) and holds them there for about fifty lines. Once he releases them from the spell, he makes the magician-like spectacle of unveiling Miranda and Ferdinand behind a curtain, playing chess (V.i.173, stage direction). His last words of the play proper are a command to Ariel to ensure for him a safe voyage home. Only in the epilogue, when he is alone on-stage, does Prospero announce definitively that his charms are “all o’erthrown” (V.i.1).

When Prospero passes judgment on his enemies in the final scene, we are no longer put off by his power, both because his love for Miranda has humanized him to a great extent, and also because we now can see that, over the course of the play, his judgments generally have been justified. Gonzalo is an “honourable man” (V.i.62); Alonso did, and knows he did, treat Prospero “[m]ost cruelly” (V.i.71); and Antonio is an “[u]nnatural” brother (V.i.79). Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo, led in sheepishly in their stolen apparel at line 258, are so foolish as to deserve punishment, and Prospero’s command that they “trim” his cell “handsomely” (V.i.297) in preparation for the evening’s revels seems mild. Accusing his enemies neither more nor less than they deserve, and forgiving them instantly once he has been restored to his dukedom, Prospero has at last come to seem judicious rather than arbitrary in his use of power. Of course, it helps that Prospero’s most egregious sins have been mitigated by the outcome of events. He will no longer hold Ariel and Caliban as slaves because he is giving up his magic and returning to Naples. Moreover, he will no longer dominate Miranda because she is marrying Ferdinand.

Prospero has made the audience see the other characters clearly and accurately. What is remarkable is the fact that the most sympathetic character in the play, Miranda, still cannot. Miranda’s last lines are her most famous: “O wonder!” she exclaims upon seeing the company Prospero has assembled. “How many goodly creatures are there here! / How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world / That has such people in’t!” (V.i.184–187). From Miranda’s innocent perspective, such a remark seems genuine and even true. But from the audience’s perspective, it must seem somewhat ridiculous. After all, Antonio and Sebastian are still surly and impudent; Alonso has repented only after believing his son to be dead; and Trinculo and Stephano are drunken, petty thieves. However, Miranda speaks from the perspective of someone who has not seen any human being except her father since she was three years old. She is merely delighted by the spectacle of all these people.

In a sense, her innocence may be shared to some extent by the playwright, who takes delight in creating and presenting a vast array of humanity, from kings to traitors, from innocent virgins to inebriated would-be murderers. As a result, though Miranda’s words are to some extent undercut by irony, it is not too much of a stretch to think that Shakespeare really does mean this benediction on a world “[t]hat has such people in’t!” After all, Prospero is another stand-in for the playwright, and he forgives all the wrongdoers at the end of the play. There is an element in the conclusion of The Tempest that celebrates the multiplicity and variety of human life, which, while it may result in complication and ambiguity, also creates humor, surprise, and love.

If The Tempest is read, as it often is, as a celebration of creativity and art, the aging Shakespeare’s swan song to the theater, then this closing benediction may have a much broader application than just to this play, referring to the breadth of humanity that inspired the breadth of Shakespeare’s characters. Similarly, Prospero’s final request for applause in the monologue functions as a request for forgiveness, not merely for the wrongs he has committed in this play. It also requests forgiveness for the beneficent tyranny of creativity itself, in which an author, like a Prospero, moves people at his will, controls the minds of others, creates situations to suit his aims, and arranges outcomes entirely in the service of his own idea of goodness or justice or beauty. In this way, the ambiguity surrounding Prospero’s power in The Tempest may be inherent to art itself. Like Prospero, authors work according to their own conceptions of a desirable or justifiable outcome. But as in The Tempest, a happy ending can restore harmony, and a well-developed play can create an authentic justice, even if it originates entirely in the mind of the author.

The plot of The Tempest is organized around the idea of persuasion, as Prospero gradually moves his sense of justice from his own mind into the outside world, gradually applying it to everyone around him until the audience believes it, too. This aggressive persuasiveness makes Prospero difficult to admire at times. Still, in another sense, persuasion characterizes the entire play, which seeks to enthrall audiences with its words and magic as surely as Prospero sought to enthrall Ariel. And because the audience decides whether it believes in the play—whether to applaud, as Prospero asks them to do—the real power lies not with the playwright, but with the viewer, not with the imagination that creates the story, but with the imagination that receives it. In this way, Shakespeare transforms the troubling ambiguity of the play into a surprising cause for celebration. The power wielded by Prospero, which seemed unsettling at first, is actually the source of all of our pleasure in the drama. In fact, it is the reason we came to the theater in the first place.

The Tempest Act 4 Scene 1

The wedding of Ferdinand and Miranda draws near. Thus, Act IV, scene i explores marriage from several different angles. Prospero and Ferdinand’s surprisingly coarse discussion of Miranda’s virginity at the beginning of the scene serves to emphasize the disparity in knowledge and experience between Miranda and her future husband. Prospero has kept his daughter extremely innocent. As a result, Ferdinand’s vulgar description of the pleasures of the wedding-bed reminds the audience (and probably Prospero as well) that the end of Miranda’s innocence is now imminent. Her wedding-night will come, she will lose her virginity, and she will be in some way changed. This discussion is a blunt reminder that change is inevitable and that Miranda will soon give herself, in an entirely new way, to a man besides her father. Though Prospero somewhat perfunctorily initiates and participates in the sexual discussion, he also seems to be affected by it. In the later parts of the scene, he makes unprecedented comments on the transitory nature of life and on his own old age. Very likely, the prospect of Miranda’s marriage and growing up calls these ideas to his mind.

After the discussion of sexuality, Prospero introduces the masque, which moves the exploration of marriage to the somewhat more comfortable realms of society and family. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, masques were popular forms of entertainment in England. Masques featured masked actors performing allegorical, often highly ritualized stories drawn from mythology and folklore. Prospero’s masque features Juno, the symbol of marriage and family life in Roman mythology, and Ceres, the symbol of agriculture, and thus of nature, growth, prosperity, and rebirth, all notions intimately connected to marriage. The united blessing of the union by Juno and Ceres is a blessing on the couple that wishes them prosperity and wealth while explicitly tying their marriage to notions of social propriety (Juno wishes them “honor”) and harmony with the Earth. In this way, marriage is subtly glorified as both the foundation of society and as part of the natural order of things, given the accord between marriage and nature in Ceres’ speech.

Interestingly, Juno and Ceres de-emphasize the role of love, personal feeling, and sexuality in marriage, choosing instead to focus on marriage’s place in the social and natural orders. When Ceres wonders to Iris where Venus and Cupid, the deities of love and sex, are, she says that she hopes not to see them because their lustful powers caused Pluto, god of the underworld, to kidnap Persephone, Ceres’s daughter (IV.i.86–91). Iris assures Ceres that Venus and Cupid are nowhere in sight. Venus and Cupid had hoped to foil the purity of the impending union, “but in vain” (IV.i.97). Ceres, Juno, and Iris have kept the gods of lust at bay; it seems that, through his masque, Prospero is trying to suppress entirely the lasciviousness of Ferdinand’s tone when he discusses Miranda’s virginity.

In almost all of Shakespeare’s comedies, marriage is used as a symbol of a harmonious and healthy social order. In these plays, misunderstandings erupt, conflicts break out, and at the end, love triumphs and marriage sets everything right. The Tempest, a romance, is not exactly a comedy. However, it is deeply concerned with the social order, both in terms of the explicit conflict of the play (Prospero’s struggle to regain his place as duke) and in terms of the play’s constant exploration of the master-servant dynamic, especially when the dynamic appears unsettled or discordant. One reason Shakespeare might shift the focus of the play to marriage at this point is to prepare the audience for the mending of the disrupted social order that takes place at the end of the story. Calling upon all the social and dramatic associations of marriage, and underscoring them heavily with the solemnity of the masque, Shakespeare creates a sense that, even though the play’s major conflict is still unresolved, the world of the play is beginning to heal itself. What is interesting about this technique is that the sense of healing has little to do with anything intrinsic to the characters themselves. Throughout this scene, Ferdinand seems unduly coarse, Miranda merely a threatened innocent, and Prospero somewhat weary and sad. But the fact of marriage itself, as it is presented in the masque, is enough to settle the turbulent waters of the story.

After this detailed exploration of marriage, the culmination of Caliban’s plot against Prospero occurs merely as a moment of comic relief, exposing the weaknesses of Stephano and Trinculo and giving the conspirators their just desserts. Any hint of sympathy we may have had for Caliban earlier in the play has vanished, partly because Caliban’s behavior has been vicious and degraded, but also because Prospero has become more appealing. Prospero has come to seem more fully human because of his poignant feelings for his daughter and his discussion of his old age. As a result, he is far easier to identify with than he was in the first Act. Simply by accenting aspects of character we have already seen, namely Prospero’s love for Miranda and the conspirators’ absurd incompetence, Shakespeare substantially rehabilitates Prospero in the eyes of the audience. We can cheer wholeheartedly for Prospero in his humorous defeat of Caliban now; this is one of the first really uncomplicated moments in the play. After this moment, Prospero becomes easier to sympathize with as the rest of the story unfolds.

The Tempest Act 3 Scene 3

Ariel’s appearance as an avenging harpy represents the climax of Prospero’s revenge, as Antonio, Alonso, and the other lords are confronted with their crimes and threatened with punishment. From Prospero’s perspective, the disguised Ariel represents justice and the powers of nature. He has arrived to right the wrongs that have been done to Prospero, and to punish the wicked for their sins. However, the audience knows that Ariel is not an angel or representative of a higher moral power, but merely mouths the script that Prospero has taught him. Ariel’s only true concern, of course, is to win his freedom from Prospero. Thus, the vision of justice presented in this scene is artificial and staged.

Ariel’s display has less to do with fate or justice than with Prospero’s ability to manipulate the thoughts and feelings of others. Just as his frequent recitations of history to Ariel, Miranda, and Caliban are designed to govern their thinking by imposing his own rhetoric upon it, Prospero’s decision to use Ariel as an illusory instrument of “fate” is designed to govern the thinking of the nobles at the table by imposing his own ideas of justice and right action upon their minds. Whether or not Prospero’s case is really just—as it may well be—his use of Ariel in this scene is done purely to further his persuasion and control. He knows that a supernatural creature claiming to represent nature will make a greater impression in advancing his argument than he himself could hope to. If Prospero simply appeared before the table and stated his case, it would seem tainted with selfish desire. However, for Ariel to present Prospero’s case in this fashion makes it seem like the inevitable natural order of the universe—even though Prospero himself is behind everything Ariel says.

This state of affairs gets at the heart of the central problem of reading The Tempest. The play seems to present Prospero’s notion of justice as the only viable one, but it simultaneously undercuts Prospero’s notion of justice by presenting the artificiality of his method of obtaining justice. We are left to wonder if justice really exists when it appears that only a sorcerer can bring about justice. Alternatively, Prospero’s manipulations may put us in mind of what playwrights do when they arrange events into meaningful patterns, rewarding the good and punishing the bad.

The Tempest Act 3 Scene 2

As we have seen, one of the ways in which The Tempest builds its rich aura of magical and mysterious implication is through the use of doubles: scenes, characters, and speeches that mirror each other by either resemblance or contrast. This scene is an example of doubling: almost everything in it echoes Act II, scene i. In this scene, Caliban, Trinculo, and Stephano wander aimlessly about the island, and Stephano muses about the kind of island it would be if he ruled it—“I will kill this man [Prospero]. His daughter and I will be King and Queen . . . and Trinculo and thyself [Caliban] shall be viceroys” (III.ii.101–103)—just as Gonzalo had done while wandering with Antonio and Sebastian in Act II, scene i. At the end of Act III, scene ii, Ariel enters, invisible, and causes strife among the group, first with his voice and then with music, leading the men astray in order to thwart Antonio and Sebastian’s plot against Alonso. The power-hungry servants Stephano and Trinculo thus become rough parodies of the power-hungry courtiers Antonio and Sebastian. All four men are now essentially equated with Caliban, who is, as Alonso and Antonio once were, simply another usurper.

But Caliban also has a moment in this scene to become more than a mere usurper: his striking and apparently heartfelt speech about the sounds of the island. Reassuring the others not to worry about Ariel’s piping, Caliban says:

The isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices,
That, if I then had waked after long sleep,
Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming,
The clouds methought would open and show riches
Ready to drop upon me, that, when I waked,
I cried to dream again. (III.ii.130–138)

In this speech, we are reminded of Caliban’s very close connection to the island—a connection we have seen previously only in his speeches about showing Prospero or Stephano which streams to drink from and which berries to pick (I.ii.333–347 and II.ii.152–164). After all, Caliban is not only a symbolic “native” in the colonial allegory of the play. He is also an actual native of the island, having been born there after his mother Sycorax fled there. This ennobling monologue—ennobling because there is no servility in it, only a profound understanding of the magic of the island—provides Caliban with a moment of freedom from Prospero and even from his drunkenness. In his anger and sadness, Caliban seems for a moment to have risen above his wretched role as Stephano’s fool. Throughout much of the play, Shakespeare seems to side with powerful figures such as Prospero against weaker figures such as Caliban, allowing us to think, with Prospero and Miranda, that Caliban is merely a monster. But in this scene, he takes the extraordinary step of briefly giving the monster a voice. Because of this short speech, Caliban becomes a more understandable character, and even, for the moment at least, a sympathetic one.

The Tempest Act 3 Scene 1

This scene revolves around different images of servitude. Ferdinand is literally in service to Prospero, but in order to make his labor more pleasant he sees Miranda as his taskmaster. When he talks to Miranda, Ferdinand brings up a different kind of servitude—the love he has felt for a number of other beautiful women. Ferdinand sees this love, in comparison to his love for Miranda, as an enforced servitude: “Full many a lady / I have eyed with the best regard, and many a time / Th’ harmony of their tongues hath into bondage / Brought my too diligent ear” (III.i.39–42). When Miranda stops the conversation momentarily, remembering her father’s command against talking to Ferdinand, the prince hastens to assure her that he is worthy of her love. He is royalty, he says, and in normal life “would no more endure / This wooden slavery [carrying logs] than to suffer / The flesh-fly blow my mouth” (III.i.61–63). But this slavery is made tolerable by a different kind of slavery: “The very instant that I saw you did / My heart fly to your service; there resides, / To make me slave to it” (III.i.64–66). The words “slavery” and “slave” underscore the parallel as well as the difference between Ferdinand and Caliban. Prospero repeatedly calls Caliban a slave, and we see Caliban as a slave both to Prospero and to his own anger. Ferdinand, on the other hand, is a willing slave to his love, happy in a servitude that makes him rejoice rather than curse.

At the end of the scene, Miranda takes up the theme of servitude. Proposing marriage to Ferdinand, she says that “I am your wife, if you will marry me; / If not, I’ll die your maid. . . . / You may deny me; but I’ll be your servant / Whether you will or no” (III.i.83–86). This is the only scene of actual interaction we see between Ferdinand and Miranda. Miranda is, as we know, and as she says, very innocent: “I do not know / One of my sex, no woman’s face remember / Save from my glass mine own; nor have I seen / More that I may call men than you, good friend, / And my dear father” (III.i.48–52). The play has to make an effort to overcome the implausibility of this courtship—to make Miranda look like something more than Prospero’s puppet and a fool for the first man she sees. Shakespeare accomplishes this by showing Ferdinand in one kind of servitude—in which he must literally and physically humble himself—as he talks earnestly about another kind of servitude, in which he gives himself wholly to Miranda. The fact that Miranda speaks of a similar servitude of her own accord, that she remembers her father’s “precepts” and then disregards them, and that Prospero remains in the background without interfering helps the audience to trust this meeting between the lovers more than their first meeting in Act I, scene ii.

Of course, Prospero’s presence in the first place may suggest that he is somehow in control of what Miranda does or says. At the end he steps forward to assure the audience that he knew what would happen: “So glad of this as they I cannot be, / Who are surprised with all” (III.i.93–94). But Prospero’s five other lines (III.i.31–32 and III.i.74–76) do not suggest that he controls what Miranda says. Rather, he watches in the manner of a father—both proud of his daughter’s choice and slightly sad to see her grow up.

The Tempest Act 2 Scene 1

As in the storm scene in Act I, scene i, Shakespeare emphasizes and undercuts the capacity of the bare stage to create a convincing illusion throughout Act II, scene i. As the shipwrecked mariners look around the island, they describe it in poetry of great imagistic richness, giving the audience an imaginary picture of the setting of the play. Even so, they disagree about what they see, and even argue over what the island actually looks like. Adrian finds it to be of “subtle, tender, and delicate temperance,” where “the air breathes upon us . . . most sweetly” (II.i.42–47). Gonzalo says that the grass is “lush and lusty” and “green” (II.i.53–54). Antonio and Sebastian, however, cynical to the last, refuse to let these descriptions rest in the audience’s mind. They say that the air smells “as ’twere perfumed by a fen” (II.i.49), meaning a swamp, and that the ground “indeed is tawny” (II.i.55), or brown. The remarks of Antonio and Sebastian could be easily discounted as mere grumpiness, were it not for the fact that Gonzalo and Adrian do seem at times to be stretching the truth. (Adrian, for example, begins his remarks about the island’s beauty by saying, “Though this island seem to be desert . . . Uninhabitable, and almost inaccessible” [II.i.35–38].) Thus the bareness of the stage allows the beauty and other qualities of the island to be largely a matter of perspective. The island may be a paradise, but only if one chooses to see it that way.

Shakespeare uses this ambiguous setting for several different purposes. First, the setting heightens the sense of wonder and mystery that surrounds the magical island. It also gives each audience member a great deal of freedom to imagine the island as he or she so chooses. Most importantly, however, it enables the island to work as a reflection of character—we know a great deal about different characters simply from how they choose to see the island. Hence the dark, sensitive Caliban can find it both a place of terror—as when he enters, frightened and overworked in Act II, scene ii—and of great beauty—as in his “the isle is full of noises” speech (III.ii.130–138). Therefore, both Gonzalo (at II.i.147–164) and Trinculo (throughout Act III, scene ii), colonially minded, are so easily able to imagine it as the site of their own utopian societies.

Gonzalo’s fantasy about the plantation he would like to build on the island is a remarkable poetic evocation of a utopian society, in which no one would work, all people would be equal and live off the land, and all women would be “innocent and pure.” This vision indicates something of Gonzalo’s own innocence and purity. Shakespeare treats the old man’s idea of the island as a kind of lovely dream, in which the frustrations and obstructions of life (magistrates, wealth, power) would be removed and all could live naturally and authentically. Though Gonzalo’s idea is not presented as a practical possibility (hence the mockery he receives from Sebastian and Antonio), Gonzalo’s dream contrasts to his credit with the power-obsessed ideas of most of the other characters, including Prospero. Gonzalo would do away with the very master-servant motif that lies at the heart of The Tempest.

The mockery dished out by Antonio and Sebastian reveals, by contrast, something of the noblemen’s cynicism and lack of feeling. Where Gonzalo is simply grateful and optimistic about having survived the shipwreck, Antonio and Sebastian seem mainly to be annoyed by it, though not so annoyed that they stop their incessant jesting with each other. Gonzalo says that they are simply loudmouthed jokers, who “would lift the moon out of her sphere, if she would continue in it five weeks without changing” (II.i.179–181). By conspiring against the king, however, they reveal themselves as more sinister and greedier than Gonzalo recognizes, using their verbal wit to cover up their darker and more wicked impulses. However, their greediness for power is both foolish and clumsy. As they attempt to cover their treachery with the story of the “bellowing / Like bulls, or rather lions” (II.i.307–308), it seems hard to believe that Antonio ever could have risen successfully against his brother. The absurdly aggressive behavior of Antonio and Sebastian makes Prospero’s exercise of power in the previous and following scenes seem necessary. It also puts Alonso in a sympathetic position. He is a potential victim of the duo’s treachery, a fact that helps the audience believe his conversion when he reconciles with Prospero at the end.

Trinculo and Stephano are the last new characters to be introduced in the play. They act as comic foils to the main action, and will in later acts become specific parodies of Antonio and Sebastian. At this point, their role is to present comically some of the more serious issues in the play concerning Prospero and Caliban. In Act I, scene ii, Prospero calls Caliban a “slave” (II.ii.311, 322, 347), “thou earth” (II.ii.317), “Filth” (II.ii.349), and “Hag-seed” (II.ii.368). Stephano and Trinculo’s epithet of choice in Act II, scene ii and thereafter is “monster.” But while these two make quite clear that Caliban is seen as less than human by the Europeans on the island, they also treat him more humanely than Prospero does. Stephano and Trinculo, a butler and a jester respectively, remain at the low end of the social scale in the play, and have little difficulty finding friendship with the strange islander they meet. “Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows,” says Trinculo (II.ii.36–37), and then hastens to crawl beneath Caliban’s garment in order to get out of the rain. The similarity, socially and perhaps physically as well, between Trinculo and Caliban is further emphasized when Stephano, drunk, initially mistakes the two for a single monster: “This is some monster of the isle with four legs” (II.ii.62).

More important than the emphasis on the way in which Caliban seems to others more monster than man, is the way in which this scene dramatizes the initial encounter between an almost completely isolated, “primitive” culture and a foreign, “civilized” one. The reader discovers during Caliban and Prospero’s confrontation in Act I, scene ii that Prospero initially “made much of” Caliban (II.ii.336); that he gave Caliban “Water with berries in’t” (II.ii.337); that Caliban showed him around the island; and that Prospero later imprisoned Caliban, after he had taken all he could take from him. The reader can see these events in Act II, scene ii, with Trinculo and Stephano in the place of Prospero. Stephano calls Caliban a “brave monster,” as they set off singing around the island. In addition, Stephano and Trinculo give Caliban wine, which Caliban finds to be a “celestial liquor” (II.ii.109). Moreover, Caliban initially mistakes Stephano and Trinculo for Prospero’s spirits, but alcohol convinces him that Stephano is a “brave god” and decides unconditionally to “kneel to him” (II.ii.109–110). This scene shows the foreign, civilized culture as decadent and manipulative: Stephano immediately plans to “inherit” the island (II.ii.167), using Caliban to show him all its virtues. Stephano and Trinculo are a grotesque, parodic version of Prospero upon his arrival twelve years ago. Godlike in the eyes of the native, they slash and burn their way to power.

By this point, Caliban has begun to resemble a parody of himself. Whereas he would “gabble like / A thing most brutish” (I.ii.359–360) upon Prospero’s arrival, because he did not know language, he now is willfully inarticulate in his drunkenness. Immediately putting aside his fear that these men are spirits sent to do him harm, Caliban puts his trust in them for all the wrong reasons. What makes Caliban’s behavior in this scene so tragic is that we might expect him, especially after his eloquent curses of Prospero in Act I, scene ii, to know better.

The Tempest Act 1 scene 2

Act I, scene ii opens with the revelation that it was Prospero’s magic, and not simply a hostile nature, that raised the storm that caused the shipwreck. From there, the scene moves into a long sequence devoted largely to telling the play’s background story while introducing the major characters on the island. The first part of the scene is devoted to two long histories, both told by Prospero, one to Miranda and one to Ariel. If The Tempest is a play about power in various forms (as we observed in the previous scene, when the power of the storm disrupted the power relations between nobles and servants), then Prospero is the center of power, controlling events throughout the play through magic and manipulation. Prospero’s retellings of past events to Miranda and Ariel do more than simply fill the audience in on the story so far. They also illustrate how Prospero maintains his power, exploring the old man’s meticulous methods of controlling those around him through magic, charisma, and rhetoric.

Prospero’s rhetoric is particularly important to observe in this section, especially in his confrontation with Ariel. Of all the characters in the play, Prospero alone seems to understand that controlling history enables one to control the present—that is, that one can control others by controlling how they understand the past. Prospero thus tells his story with a highly rhetorical emphasis on his own good deeds, the bad deeds of others toward him, and the ingratitude of those he has protected from the evils of others. For example, when he speaks to Miranda, he calls his brother “perfidious,” then immediately says that he loved his brother better than anyone in the world except Miranda (I.ii.68). He repeatedly asks Miranda, “Dost thou attend me?” Through his questioning, he commands her attention almost hypnotically as he tells her his one-sided version of the story. Prospero himself does not seem blameless. While his brother did betray him, he also failed in his responsibilities as a ruler by giving up control of the government so that he could study. He contrasts his popularity as a leader—“the love my people bore me” (I.ii.141)—with his brother’s “evil nature” (I.ii.).

When he speaks to Ariel, a magical creature over whom his mastery is less certain than over his doting daughter, Prospero goes to even greater lengths to justify himself. He treats Ariel as a combination of a pet, whom he can praise and blame as he chooses, and a pupil, demanding that the spirit recite answers to questions about the past that Prospero has taught him. Though Ariel must know the story well, Prospero says that he must “once in a month” recount Ariel’s history with Sycorax, simply to ensure that his servant’s fickle nature does not cause him to become disloyal. Every time he retells Ariel’s history, we feel, he must increase both the persuasiveness of his own story and his control over Ariel. This is why he now chooses to claim that Ariel is behaving badly—so that he can justify a retelling of the history, even though Ariel is perfectly respectful. He forces Ariel to recall the misery he suffered while trapped in the pine tree (“thy groans / Did make wolves howl,” I.ii.289–290). He then positions himself as the good savior who overthrew Sycorax’s evil. However, he immediately follows this with a forceful display of his own magical power, threatening to trap Ariel in an oak just as the “evil” Sycorax had trapped him in a pine. In this way, Prospero exercises control both intellectually and physically. By controlling the way Ariel and Miranda think about their lives, he makes it difficult for them to imagine that challenging his authority would be a good thing to do, and by threatening Ariel (and, shortly thereafter, Caliban) with magical torture, he sets very high stakes for any such rebellion. For his part, Ariel promises to “do my spiriting gently” from now on.

CHALLENGE

Who can answer this question?

Most of the action of The Tempest takes place on the island. Give THREE reasons, making close reference to the text, why this enhances the effectiveness of the play. 

The first person to email me the answer to this question will receive a prize.

My email address is wolmersatkins@gmail.com

DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE THE ANSWER? WILL YOU WIN THE PRIZE?

LOOKING FORWARD TO HEARING FROM YOU.

End of Year Exams

LANGUAGE

• 2 papers (Paper 2 is the long paper, Paper 1 is 60 multiple choice)

Paper 2 (2hrs)

• 3 sections (2 comprehension and 2 essays)
• section a (2 comprehension passages - expository and poetry)
• section b (short story or descriptive writing)
• section c ( persuasive essay)

Paper 1 (1hr 30 mins)

• 60 multiple choice questions
• vocabulary
• tenses
• comprehension

LITERATURE

• 3 SECTIONS (2 hrs)
• Section a (comprehension passage based on Animal Farm)
• section b (comparative essay on poetry)
• section c (essay on The Tempest)

Poems to study

• "Mother to Son"
• "My Parents"
• "Little Boy Crying"
• "Once Upon A Time"
• "Contemplation On Flowers"

Poetry themes

• Love
• Family Relationship
• Childhood Relationship
• Admiration
• Human flaws

Tempest themes

• Love
• Power
• Colonisation/ Civilisation
• Characterisation (Prospero, Miranda, Antonio, Ariel, Caliban)
• Gender roles
• Family relationship

debate guide

Below are some links to videos of debates:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhiT48IIx9k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG8bWVfAM4k

Template for debate speeches 

Note: This document is intended as a guide for writing speeches for a debate. Variations may be 
necessary depending on the type and level of competition. 

First speaker, affirmative team 

Introduction 
1 Good morning/afternoon/evening Mr/Madam Chairman, distinguished guests, teachers and
students.
2 The topic for our debate is ‘that … (Insert the topic of the debate.)’
Definition 
1 We, the affirmative team, define the topic as (Explain what the topic means. Define the key 
or important words in the topic. Use a dictionary to help you. You should make sure that the 
topic is clearly explained in a sentence or two.)
2 We, the affirmative team, believe that this statement is true.
Team split 
1 Today as first speaker, I will be talking to you about (Insert the general heading/s of the 
points you will be talking about.)
2 Our second speaker will be talking about (Insert the headings of the points your second 
speaker will be talking about.)
3 Our third speaker will rebut the negative team and sum up our team case.
Rebuttal 
There is no rebuttal for the first affirmative speaker.
Arguments 
1 I am going to discuss (insert the number of points. There are usually 2 or 3 points) points.
2 My first point is (Insert your first point/argument.) This is because/the reason for this is
(Explain the reason that supports your point.)
3 Now to my second point (Insert your second point.)
4 This is because (Insert a reason that supports and explains your second point/argument.)
(If you have some more points, insert them here in a similar manner.)
Ending
So Mr/Madam Chairman, distinguished guests, teachers and students, in conclusion …
(Finish your debate speech with a sentence that sums up what your team believes. You can use 
humour or a quote or you may say ‘thank you’ to finish.)
 

First speaker, negative team 

Introduction
1 Good morning/afternoon/evening Mr/Madam Chairman, distinguished guests, teachers and
students.
2 The topic for our debate is ‘that … (Insert the topic of the debate.)’
3 We agree with the definition given by the affirmative team.
OR
We disagree with the definition given by the opposition. (If you disagree explain why the 
opposition’s definition is wrong.)
4 However we, the negative team, believe that this statement is false.
Team split 
1 Today as first speaker I will be talking to you about (Insert the general heading/s of the 
points you will be talking about.)
2 Our second speaker will be talking about (Insert the headings of the points your second 
speaker will be talking about.)
3 Our third speaker will rebut the affirmative case and sum up our team case.
Rebuttal
1 The first speaker from the affirmative team has tried to tell you (During the debate, you 
would have listed the main arguments outlined by the first speaker for the affirmative side. 
Insert them here.)
2 This is wrong because (During the debate, write a reason why that point is wrong. Insert it 
here.) 
3 S/he also said that (Insert another point for your rebuttal.)
4 This is wrong because (Insert a reason why that point is wrong.)
Arguments 
1 I am going to discuss (Insert the number of points. There are usually 2 or 3 points) points. My
first point is (Insert your first point/ argument.)
2 This is because/the reason for this is (Explain the reason that supports your point/argument.)
3 Now to my second point. (Insert your second point.)
4 This is because (Explain the reason that supports your second point/argument.)
5 My third and final point is (If you have another point insert it here. You can have as many as 
you like, within the time limit.)
Ending 
So Mr/Madam Chairman, distinguished guests, teachers and students, in conclusion …
(Finish your debate speech with a sentence that sums up what your team believes. You can use 
humour or a quote or you may say ‘thank you’ to finish.)

Second speaker, affirmative team 

Introduction 
1 Good morning/afternoon/evening Mr/Madam Chairman, distinguished guests, teachers and
students.
2 The topic for our debate is ‘that … (Insert the topic of the debate.)’
3 We, the affirmative team, believe that this statement is true.
Rebuttal
1 The first speaker from the negative team has tried to tell you (During the debate, list the 
main arguments outlined by the first speaker for the negative team. Insert them here.)
2 This is wrong because (During the debate you will write a reason why that point is wrong. 
Insert it here.)
3 S/he also said that (Insert another point for your rebuttal.)
4 This is wrong because (Insert a reason why that point is wrong.)
Recap
Our first speaker has already explained (Insert the main heading/s of your first speaker.)
Arguments
1 Today I will be talking to you about (Insert the number of points. There are usually 2 or 3 
points) points. My first point is (Insert your first point/ argument.)
2 My first point is (Insert your first point/argument here.)
3 This is because/the reason for this is (Insert a reason explaining your point.)
4 Now to my second point (Insert your second point.)
5 This is because (Insert a reason that supports and explains your second point/argument.)
6 My third and final point is (If you have another point, insert it here. You can have as many 
points as you like, within the time limit.)
7 This is because (Insert another reason explaining your point.)
Ending
So Mr/Madam Chairman, distinguished guests, teachers and students, in conclusion …
(Finish your debate speech with a sentence that sums up what your team believes. You can use 
humour or a quote or you may say ‘thank you’ to finish.)

Second speaker, negative team 

Introduction
1 Good morning/afternoon/evening Mr/Madam Chairman, distinguished guests, teachers and
students.
2 The topic for our debate is ‘that … (Insert the topic of the debate.)’
3 We, the negative team, believe that this statement is false.
Rebuttal 
1 The second speaker for the affirmative team has tried to tell you (During the debate, you 
would have listed the main arguments outlined by the second speaker for the affirmative 
team. Insert them here.)
2 This is wrong because (During the debate you will write a reason why that point is wrong. 
Insert it here.)
3 S/he also said that (Insert another point for your rebuttal.)
4 This is wrong because (Insert a reason why that point is wrong.)
Recap 
Our first speaker has already stated (Insert the main heading/s of your first speaker.)
Arguments 
1 Today I will be talking to you about (Insert the number of points. There are usually 2 or 3 
points) points.
2 Now to my first point … (Insert your first point/ argument.)
3 This is because/the reason for this is (Insert a reason explaining your point.)
4 Now to my second point (Insert your second point.)
5 This is because (Insert a reason that supports and explains your second point/argument.)
6 My third and final point is (If you have another point, insert it here. You can have as many 
points as you like, within the time limit.)
7 This is because (Insert another reason explaining your point.)
Ending
So Mr/Madam Chairman, distinguished guests, teachers and students, in conclusion …
(Finish your debate speech with a sentence that sums up what your team believes. You can use 
humour or a quote or you may say ‘thank you’ to finish.)

Third speaker, affirmative team

Introduction
1 Good morning/afternoon/evening Mr/Madam Chairman, distinguished guests, teachers and
students.
2 The topic for our debate is ‘that … (Insert the topic of the debate.)’
3 We, the affirmative team, believe that this statement is true.
Rebuttal
1 The first speaker for the negative has tried to tell you (During the debate, list the main 
arguments outlined by the first speaker for the negative team. Insert them here.)
2 This is wrong because (During the debate write a reason why that point is wrong. Insert it 
here.)
3 The second negative speaker has tried to tell you (During the debate, list the main 
arguments outlined by the second speaker for the negative team. Insert them here.)
4 This is wrong because (During the debate write a reason why what your opposition’s second 
speaker has said is wrong. If you have some more points list them as well.)
Summary
1 As third speaker it is your job to summarise your case. You do this by listing the points of your
first and second speaker.
2 Our first speaker spoke to you about (Insert your first speaker’s first argument. Include a 
reason to support this argument.)
3 S/he also spoke about (Insert your first speaker’s second argument. Include a reason to 
support this argument.)
4 Our second speaker told you that (Insert your second speaker’s first argument. Include 
reasons to support this argument.)
5 S/he also said that (Insert your second speaker’s second argument. Include reasons to 
support this argument.
6 Make sure that you have included all your team’s arguments and reasons.)
Ending
So Mr/Madam Chairman, distinguished guests, teachers and students, in conclusion our team
believes …
(As the final speaker for your team it is important to end your speech with a really memorable and 
powerful statement. If you can’t think of anything to say you may say ‘thank you’ to finish.)

Third speaker, negative team 

Introduction
1 Good morning/afternoon/evening Mr/Madam Chairman, distinguished guests, teachers and
students.
2 The topic for our debate is ‘that … (Insert the topic of the debate.)’
3 We, the negative team, believe that this statement is false.
Rebuttal
1 The first affirmative speaker has tried to tell you (During the debate, list the main arguments 
outlined by the first speaker for the affirmative team. Insert them here.)
2 This is wrong because (During the debate write a reason why what your opposition’s first 
speaker has said is wrong. Insert it here.)
3 The second affirmative speaker has tried to tell you (During the debate write what your 
opposition’s second speaker has said. Insert it here.)
4 This is wrong because (During the debate write a reason why what your opposition’s second 
speaker has said is wrong. Insert it here.)
5 The third affirmative speaker has tried to tell you (During the debate write what your 
opposition’s third speaker has said, if that is important. Insert it here.)
6 This is wrong because (During the debate write a reason why what your opposition’s third 
speaker has said is wrong. Insert it here.)
7 Try to rebut as many of the opposition’s points as you can.
Summary
1 As third speaker it is your job to summarise your team’s case. You do this by listing the points
of your first and second speakers.
2 Our first speaker spoke to you about (Insert your first speaker’s first point. Include a reason 
to support this argument.)
3 S/he also said that (Insert your first speaker’s second point. Include a reason to support this 
argument.)
4 Our second speaker spoke to you about (Insert your second speaker’s first point. Include a 
reason to support this argument.)
5 S/he also stated that (Insert your second speaker’s second point. Include a reason to support 
this argument.)
6 Make sure that you have included all the arguments for your team.
Ending 
So Mr/Madam Chairman, distinguished guests, teachers and students, in conclusion we believe …
(As the final speaker for the negative, finish your speech with a really memorable and powerful 
statement. If you can’t think of anything to say you may say ‘thank you’ to finish.)

© Australian Securities and Investments Commission 2015

PROJECT

3^RD FORM PROJECT (THE TEMPEST)

Students will be placed in groups of 4 (due to the number of students per class). Each pair of group will be given a topic to debate. Groups 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 will be arguing for the topic, and groups 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 will be arguing against.

Please refer to the rubric for the time allotted for each speaker and how they will be judged.

All members should participate in the debate.

DEBATE TOPICS

Group 1 vs Group 2

“Be it resolved that Prospero is a model of true forgiveness and reconciliation”

Group 3 vs Group 4

“Be it resolved that Prospero is really a villain rather than a victim”

Group 5 vs Group 6

“Be it resolved that in The Tempest, the characters are products of their past experiences.”

Group 7 vs Group 8

“Be it resolved that The Tempest supports the philosophy that two wrongs do make a right.”

Group 9 vs Group 10

“Be it resolved that The Tempest is about colonization more than anything else.”

****Extra****

“Be it resolved that the name of the play should be changed to Prospero’s Island.”

“Be it resolved that Antonio is not as bad as Prospero makes him out to be.”

“Be it resolved that The Tempest is about how our view of history shapes the way we view the present.”

OR

“Be it resolved that our view of history (as it relates to The Tempest) is more important than the actual history itself.

RUBRIC

						(OPPOSING TEAM)
	SPEAKER 1 (6 mins)	SPEAKER 2 (4 mins)	SPEAKER 3 (3 mins)	REBUTTAL (1 min)		SPEAKER 1 (7 mins)	SPEAKER 2 (5 mins)	SPEAKER 3 (3 mins)	REBUTTAL (1 min)
Organization and Clarity:  Viewpoints and responses are outlined both clearly and orderly.             11mrks	/11	/11	/11			/11	/11	/11
Use of Arguments: Reasons are given to support viewpoint.                                     12mrks	/12	/12	/12			/12	/12	/12
Use of Examples and Facts: Examples and facts are given to support reasons, with references  12	/12	/12	/12			/12	/12	/12
Use of Rebuttal: Arguments made by the other teams are responded to and dealt with effectively.                                        6	/6	/6	/6	/5		/6	/6	/6	/5
Presentation Style: Tone of voice, use of gestures, and level of enthusiasm are convincing to audience.                                          10	/10	/10	/10	/10		/10	/10	/10	/10
Total Per Speaker:	/50	/50	/50	/15		/50	/50	/50	/15
Team Score:	GRAND TOTAL				/165	GRAND TOTAL			/165
Best Speaker: