Feel free to read past Act 1 if you like, though The Tempest is one of his shorter plays, so you shouldn't need to read ahead. However, I want to only discuss Act 1 in class since we have no adaptation to rely on. I want to make sure we can envision the characters and the basic plot before moving on. I'll also be handing out the Final Project assignment in Thursday's class, and (hint, hint) it's all about adaptation!
Answer TWO of the following:
Q1: How is Prospero a king and a father very much in the mold of King Lear? What do we know about his history before he came to the island that might make us experience a bout of deja vu?
Q2: Based on Act 1 alone, what might be the most difficult aspect of staging this play, especially in Shakespeare's day (but even today)? What makes it remarkably different from any play we've read so far, not just in the plot, but in the characters and setting?
Q3: Caliban is treated like the bastard son of Prospero, tolerated much in the same way that Gloucester tolerated Edmund in Act 1 of King Lear. Yet he is also like Edgar, as he is cast out of Prospero's favor for commiting an unspeakable crime. Which one does he seem to be more like: the cunning and duiplicious Edmund, or the maligned and innocent Edgar?
Q4: What seems to be Prospero's 'long game' in shipwrecking the galleon on the island so he can introduce Ferdinand to his daughter? What does he mean in his asides when he says, "It goes on, I see." What is 'going on' in his mind?
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