What makes prospero interrupt the masque

From what event were the Italians returning when they were shipwrecked? What is their attitude towards the event? What kind of society would Gonzalo like to found on the desert island II.

What is the reaction of his companions? Gonzalo wants a utopia where there would be plenty of food and conveniences but nobody has to work. Everyone thinks this is impossible and Sebastian and Antonio make fun of it. What do Antonio and Sebastian want to do to Alonso and Gonzalo? They want to kill Alonso and Gonzalo so that Sebastian can become king of Naples. What does Caliban think Trinculo is? What does Trinculo think Caliban is?

What does Stephano think Trinculo and Caliban together are? What is their plan, and what happens to it? To what extent would you call this plan revolutionary? Both groups are trying to murder the person in charge of a new ruler to rise. What role does Ariel play in III. The Harpies are characters from classical mythology who punish a bad king by always destroying his meals with their filth.

What role do the Harpies play in III. Why do you think he is so concerned about this? I believe that he is concerned about this because her royalty will be damaged. For the benefit of Ferdinand and Miranda, Prospero has Ariel stage a masque, or symbolic pageant, celebrating betrothal and marriage IV. Ceres, goddess of the harvest and fertility, and Juno, goddess of marriage, as well as Iris, the goddess of the rainbow associated with covenant or contract , all have speaking parts.

Venus is the goddess of love. Prospero wants Ferdinand and Miranda to focus on respect and honor instead. What makes Prospero interrupt the masque? He suddenly remembers that Stephano, Trinculo, and Caliban are on the way to kill him.

How does Ariel get the best of the low-life plotters? He conjures some spirit-hounds to chase after Stephano, Trinculo, and Caliban after distracting them with some fancy clothes.

How does Caliban's history of the island differ from Prospero's? Whom do you think Shakespeare agrees with, Prospero or Caliban? Whom do you agree with, Prospero or Caliban? Give textual evidence in working out your answers. How does the island function as a laboratory for testing human nature? For Prospero? For Shakespeare? How does Trinculo and Stephano's discovery of Caliban resemble aspects of Prospero and Miranda's first encounters with him?

What do these scenes of discovery reveal about the political, religious, or social attitudes of each character? What does each party want to get out of it?

Do you ever feel that they are likely to succeed? How if at all does the playwright let us know whose side he's on? What is the play's attitude towards uncontrolled sexual desire on the one hand and unregulated political ambition on the other?

Key scenes include: the story of Caliban's attempted rape of Miranda I. In each, what is the relation between law, erotic desire, and political ambition? How might Freud have used The Tempest as an example of "civilization and its discontents"? In the later parts of the scene, Prospero makes unprecedented comments on the transitory nature of life and on his own old age.

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. Iris assures Ceres that Venus and Cupid are nowhere in sight. 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.

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. 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. 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. 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.