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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Miranda regret doing while talking to Ferdinand?

2. How long ago was Antonio's usurpation of Prospero's throne in Milan?

3. Antonio thinks the Boatswain is being rude by not adhering to his

4. Trinculo wants to take Caliban back to where?

5. The tempest is a symbolic form of an upheaval from a state of

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the intention of Prospero's plan when he has Ariel lead Ferdinand to Miranda?

2. What is the tempest in Ariel's and Prospero's relationship?

3. How can Prospero's use/treatment of Miranda be characterized?

4. How does Prospero's treatment of Caliban mirror Antonio's past treatment of Prospero?

5. During the storm, what can the audience already infer about Gonzalo's character and why?

6. During the storm, what can the audience already infer about Antonio's character and why?

7. What does Ariel do when Antonio and Sebastian draw their swords and why?

8. How does Antonio persuade Sebastian to go along with the plan to assassinate Alonso and take over Naples?

9. How are Miranda and Ferdinand different, but also the same?

10. How does Act II, Scene I further character development for the audience?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Shakespearean plays tend to have comic relief characters to lighten the drama that is taking place. Describe the characters involved in the Caliban, Trinculo and Stephano trio. What are the comical elements of their scenes? How do they make light of the more serious subplots in the play? What do their scenes do for the play's plot?

Essay Topic 2

Prospero uses his magic to conjure a banquet for his enemies. Why does he do this, rather than use his magic in a different way to punish them? What is the significance of the banquet? What was Shakespeare's intention with the inclusion of this scene?

Essay Topic 3

Although the metaphor of a tempest suggests an unnatural upheaval in nature that then returns the environment back to normal, is this the case in the play? Do things return to normal by the play's end? Is there more ambiguity than the idea of a tempest suggests? Why, or why not?

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