The Tempest (Edexcel GCSE English Literature): Exam Questions

In this extract, Prospero is punishing the King and his subjects.

Explain the importance of punishment elsewhere in the play.

In your answer, you must consider:

• how punishment is shown

• the effects punishment has within the play.

You must refer to the context of the play in your answer.

[20 marks]

Read the following extract from Act 3, Scene 1 of The Tempest and then answer the question that follows.

In this extract, Ferdinand is being held captive and forced to carry logs for Prospero.

FERDINAND

[Putting down the log] There be some sports are painful, and their labour

Delight in them sets off. Some kinds of baseness

Are nobly undergone, and most poor matters

Point to rich ends. This my mean task

Would be as heavy to me as odious, but

The mistress which I serve quickens what’s dead,

And makes my labours pleasures. O, she is

Ten times more gentle than her father’s crabbed –

And he’s composed of harshness! I must remove

Some thousands of these logs, and pile them up,

Upon a sore injunction. My sweet mistress

Weeps when she sees me work, and says such baseness

Had never like executor. I forget –

[He picks up the log again]

– But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labours,

Most busiest, when I do it.

[Enter MIRANDA – and PROSPERO, who watches from a distance, unseen]

MIRANDA

Alas now, pray you

Work not so hard! I would the lightning had

Burnt up those logs that you are enjoined to pile!

Pray, set it down, and rest you. When this burns,

’Twill weep for having wearied you. My father

Is hard at study. Pray, now, rest yourself.

He’s safe for these three hours.

FERDINAND

O most dear mistress,

The sun will set before I shall discharge

What I must strive to do.

MIRANDA

If you’ll sit down.

I’ll bear your logs the while. Pray give me that:

I’ll carry it to the pile.

FERDINAND

No, precious creature.

I had rather crack my sinews, break my back,

Than you should such dishonour undergo,

While I sit lazy by.

MIRANDA

It would become me

As well as it does you – and I should do it

With much more ease, for my good will is to it,

And yours it is against.

Explore how Shakespeare presents the relationship between Ferdinand and Miranda in this extract.

Refer closely to the extract in your answer.

[20 marks]

In this extract, Ferdinand is determined to be with Miranda and is prepared to suffer any hardship.

Explain the importance of determination elsewhere in the play.

In your answer, you must consider:

• how determination is presented

• the effects determination has within the play.

You must refer to the context of the play in your answer.

[20 marks]

Read the following extract from Act 2, Scene 1 of The Tempest and then answer the question that follows.

In this extract, Antonio tempts Sebastian to kill his brother, King Alonso, while he sleeps.

SEBASTIAN

What stuff is this? How say you?

’Tis true my brother’s daughter’s Queen of Tunis;

So is she heir of Naples; ’twixt which regions

There is some space.

ANTONIO

A space whose every cubit

Seems to cry out ‘How shall that Claribel

Measure us back to Naples? Keep in Tunis,

And let Sebastian wake.’ Say this were death

That now hath seized them; why, they were no worse

Than now they are. There be that can rule Naples

As well as he that sleeps, lords that can prate

As amply and unnecessarily

As this Gonzalo; I myself could make

A chough of as deep chat. O, that you bore

The mind that I do, what a sleep were this

For your advancement! Do you understand me?

SEBASTIAN

Methinks I do.

ANTONIO

And how does your content

Tender your own good fortune?

SEBASTIAN

I remember

You did supplant your brother Prospero.

ANTONIO

True;

And look how well my garments sit upon me,

Much feater than before. My brother’s servants

Were then my fellows; now they are my men.

SEBASTIAN

But for your conscience.

ANTONIO

Ay, sir, where lies that? If ’twere a kibe

’Twould put me to my slipper; but I feel not

This deity in my bosom. Twenty consciences

That stand ’twixt me and Milan, candied be they,

And melt ere they molest. Here lies your brother,

No better than the earth he lies upon

If he were that which now he’s like—that’s dead;

Whom I with this obedient steel, three inches of it,

Can lay to bed for ever; whiles you, doing thus,

To the perpetual wink for aye might put

This ancient morsel, this Sir Prudence, who

Should not upbraid our course. For all the rest,

They’ll take suggestion as a cat laps milk;

They’ll tell the clock to any business that

We say befits the hour.

SEBASTIAN

Thy case, dear friend,

Shall be my precedent. As thou got’st Milan,

I’ll come by Naples. Draw thy sword. One stroke

Shall free thee from the tribute which thou payest,

And I the King shall love thee.

ANTONIO

Draw together,

And when I rear my hand, do you the like

To fall it on Gonzalo.

[They draw]

Explore how Shakespeare presents Antonio and Sebastian in this extract.

Refer closely to the extract in your answer.

[20 marks]

In this extract, Antonio persuades Sebastian to betray his brother, the King.

Explain the importance of betrayal elsewhere in the play.

In your answer, you must consider:

• how betrayal is presented

• the effects betrayal has within the play.

You must refer to the context of the play in your answer.

[20 marks]