The Tempest: Overview (AQA GCSE English Literature): Revision Note

The Tempest: Overview

The Tempest question is part of Paper 1, Section A of your GCSE. For this, you are required to write one essay-length answer to one set question. This can seem daunting at first, but this page contains some helpful information and links to more detailed revision note pages that will enable you to aim for the highest grade. This page includes:

• A summary of The Tempest

• A brief overview of what is required in the exam

• The Tempest characters

• The Tempest context

• The Tempest themes

• The Tempest quotes

• Top tips for the highest grade

The Tempest summary

The Tempest is a comedy written by William Shakespeare and first performed in 1611. It was his last play. It has the features an audience would expect from a comedy: disguise and deception, tangled romantic plots, and an ending that restores order through marriage. It also draws on tragedy, which gives the play a darker tone.

Prospero, the rightful Duke of Milan, has been living on a remote island for twelve years with his daughter Miranda, exiled there after his brother Antonio seized his dukedom. Prospero has learned magic from the books his friend Gonzalo smuggled aboard the boat, and he controls the island’s spirit, Ariel, and its native inhabitant, Caliban.

When a ship carrying Antonio and King Alonso of Naples passes the island, Prospero raises a storm and wrecks it, scattering the survivors ashore unharmed. Alonso’s son Ferdinand, believed drowned, meets Miranda and the two fall in love. Elsewhere on the island, Antonio persuades Alonso’s brother Sebastian to plot a murder, while Caliban joins the drunken butler Stephano and the jester Trinculo in a plan to kill Prospero and take the island back.

Prospero uses Ariel and his magic to expose and frustrate both plots. Confronted with what he has done, Antonio is forgiven, Alonso is reunited with Ferdinand, and the marriage of Ferdinand and Miranda restores order. Prospero chooses mercy over revenge, gives up his magic, frees Ariel and prepares to return to Milan.

For a more detailed summary, please see the The Tempest: Plot Summary page.

How is The Tempest assessed in the exam?

• Your GCSE Paper 1 requires you to answer two questions in 1hr 45min. That means you have approximately 52 minutes to plan, write and check your The Tempest essay

• Paper 1 is worth 64 marks and accounts for 40% of your overall GCSE grade

• The Tempest essay is worth 34 marks in total, because it also includes 4 marks for AO4 (spelling, punctuation and grammar)

• The Tempest question is in Section A of Paper 1 and you are required to answer the one available question on the play

• Your question will also include a printed extract of about 25 lines from the play

• It is a closed-book exam, which means you will not have access to a copy of the text (other than the printed extract) in your exam

• The question will require you to analyse and write in detail about an aspect of The Tempest

• Your answer will need to address both the extract from the play that you will be given, and the play as a whole

For a much more detailed guide on answering The Tempest question, please see our revision notes on How to Answer the Shakespeare Essay Question.

The Tempest characters

The characters you should focus on when revising The Tempest are:

• Prospero

• Miranda

• Ariel

• Caliban

• Antonio

• Ferdinand

When considering a Shakespeare play or any other text, it is crucial to remember that characters are intentionally crafted by the writer to serve a specific purpose. In many cases, these characters embody certain concepts or beliefs, and the writer, such as Shakespeare, uses them to reflect on and examine these ideas. For more details, please see the The Tempest: Characters revision notes page.

The Tempest context

Understanding what context actually is can be tricky at GCSE. Examiners understand context not as historical information or biographical facts about a writer, but as the ideas and perspectives explored by a writer through their text. Therefore, The Tempest context you should explore in your essay response is not information about the island, or facts about William Shakespeare, but ideas about:

• Colonisation and slavery

• The Divine Right of Kings

• Patriarchal society

Lots of these ideas and perspectives are universal, so your own opinions of them are valid and will be rewarded in an exam. For a detailed breakdown of the contextual topics listed above, see the The Tempest: Context page.

The Tempest themes

Understanding the themes that Shakespeare explores in The Tempest is one of the best approaches any student can take when revising the play. This is because to get the highest mark on your exam, you need to take what examiners call a “conceptualised approach”: a detailed and perceptive exploration of Shakespeare’s ideas and intentions. The main themes explored by Shakespeare in The Tempest are:

• Power and control

• Magic and illusion

• Loss and betrayal

Shakespeare explores numerous other themes in The Tempest beyond those mentioned above and you are encouraged to examine these themes as well. However, the above list makes a great place to start and detailed breakdowns of each of these themes can be found on the The Tempest: Themes page.

The Tempest quotes

Although you are given credit for including quotations from The Tempest in your answer, it is not a requirement of the exam. In fact, examiners say that “references” to the rest of the play are just as valid as direct quotations: this is when students pinpoint individual moments in the play, rather than quoting what the characters say. In order to select references really successfully, it is extremely important that you know the play itself very well, including the order of the events that take place in the play. This detailed act-by-act breakdown of the plot will help you to revise the chronology of The Tempest.

However, it can also be useful to revise a few — very well selected — quotations from the play that can be used in a variety of essays on different themes and characters. Luckily, we have made that selection for you! For a ‘translation’ and detailed analysis of each of these quotations, see the The Tempest: Key Quotations page. If you are revising a particular character, the The Tempest: Character Quotations page groups the most useful quotations by character.

Top tips for the highest grade

Please see our revision pages on the Shakespeare exam for guides on:

• Structuring The Tempest essay

• The Tempest methods and techniques

• How to include context in The Tempest essay

• Understanding The Tempest mark scheme

• A Shakespeare model answer

Sources

Stanley Wells and Gary Taylor (eds), 2005, The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works (Second Edition), Oxford University Press