The Tempest

1
The Tempest

• Lesson 3

2
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

3
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

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Example summaries
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Question In these extracts, how does
Prosperos 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.
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How might the essay start?

• 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 Prosperos story but rather that we
  want to meet the man who abused his guiltless
  brother to see what he has to say for himself.

Uses words with meanings that are linked to those
in the title, giving added coherence and showing
understanding.
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Selecting material to suit

• - scene summaries
• - annotation leading to quotation

8
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

9
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 tot.
• PROSPERO Hear a little further
• And then Ill bring thee to the present business
• Which nows upons 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 riggd,
• Nor tackle, sail, nor mast the very rats

Miranda is moved to tears in sympathy for her
fathers predicament.
Miranda, despite her sheltered life on the
island, knows of mans callous waste of lives.
She thinks only of her fathers troubles and sees
herself as a burden rather than a victim.
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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

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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
oer 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.
12
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
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Recap

• Annotation
• Embedded quotations

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Homework

• How might these extracts be performed to engage
  the audience?
• In one paragraph with embedded quotations
• Extracts from The Storm