The Tempest Read Online Free PDF Page B

assumption of kingship: “For I am all the subjects that you have, / Which first was mine own king.” Prospero, however, disputes this account and accuses Caliban of having tried to violate Miranda sexually. Whatever he says, though, Caliban dare not disobey Prospero’s powerful magic.
    Lines 438–589: The now invisible Ariel returns singing and playing music. Ferdinand, shipwrecked son of the King of Naples, follows the sounds. Miranda and Ferdinand meet. Each initially thinks the othera divinity from another world. Prospero accuses Ferdinand of being a traitor. Miranda defends him but Prospero remains impervious. Secretly, however, he’s delighted that the young people are falling in love and praises Ariel’s work. Miranda comforts Ferdinand.
    Responses to Prospero and Caliban are crucial in determining overall interpretation of the play: Prospero’s language and threats betray his unquestioning assumption of authority as well as his irascible temper, Caliban’s stubborn defiance, his sense of injustice and ill-usage. The island is a microcosm which tests its inhabitants socially and morally, posing the issue of nature or nurture as the determinant factor in individual constitution, but this is not an isolated social laboratory; on the contrary, the shadows of the past haunt all the characters who have to resolve ancient inherited contentions.
ACT 2 SCENE 1
    The rest of the aristocratic survivors of the storm are together, attempting to come to terms with their situation. The attitude of each to their misadventure defines their character.
    Lines 1–146: The elderly courtier Gonzalo and the younger Adrian and Francisco are determined to be positive while Antonio and Sebastian jeer at them from the sidelines. Alonso is griefstricken by the loss, as he believes, of his son, Ferdinand. His brother, Sebastian, however, blames Alonso himself for the disaster by his determination to marry his daughter, Claribel, to the King of Tunis, an African on the far side of the Mediterranean. They were on the return voyage home when the tempest struck. The discussion of the wedding relates to another issue which the play raises: patriarchal control of daughters and the function of marriage in securing dynastic inheritance, a relevant theme in relation to Ferdinand and Miranda.
    Lines 147–189: Gonzalo offers his own idealized prescription for sovereignty as he imagines himself as king of the island.
    Lines 190–361: Ariel, still invisible, puts everyone to sleep except Antonio and Sebastian. Antonio proposes that they kill Alonso sothat Sebastian can become king of Naples. His speech reveals a complete moral bankruptcy as he dismisses Sebastian’s objections on the grounds of conscience. They are about to put their plan into action when Ariel intervenes once more to wake the other courtiers.
ACT 2 SCENE 2
    Caliban enters carrying wood, still cursing Prospero and complaining of his ill treatment. When he sees Trinculo he believes him to be a spirit sent to torment him and hides himself on the ground. Unable to identify this curious creature, Trinculo nevertheless immediately recognizes his potential for exploitation. If he were in England people would pay good money to see this “strange fish” (l. 27). Trinculo fears another storm and takes shelter with the creature as the storm breaks. The drunken Stephano arrives but Caliban mistakes his tuneless singing for another punishment and begs him to stop. Stephano is bemused by the appearance of the “monster” and he too thinks of taking him back to Naples as a prize for his own profit. He offers Caliban a drink, but, recognizing his friend’s voice, Trinculo greets the butler. Stephano is by now thoroughly confused by the two-headed, four-legged monster. He finally disengages Trinculo and the two celebrate their reunion. Caliban, meanwhile, takes him for a god and his liquor for celestial drink. He agrees to serve him and in a reprise of Prospero’s arrival immediately offers