Structured Questions and Answers from The Tempest Act 2 Scene 2 by William Shakespeare
Questions Answers from Passages of The Tempest Act 2 Scene 2
Passages from The Tempest Act 2 Scene 2
1. Caliban:
Lo, now, lo,
Here comes a spirit of his, and to torment me
For bringing wood in slowly. I'll fall flat.
Perchance he will not mind me.
1. Who is Caliban referring to? What does he mean by "a spirit of his"?
Answer
Caliban is referring to Trinculo, one of the survivors of the shipwreck. Caliban feels that Trinculo is a spirit sent by Prospero to torment him.
2. Who does Caliban curse at the beginning of the scene? Why? What does he say?
Answer
Caliban curses Prospero at the beginning of the scene because he tortures him with the help of his spirits. He says that all the diseases are drawn by the Sun from the bogs, marshes, and low-land fall on Prospero and make him suffer inch by inch.
3. What are the torments, Caliban has to undergo?
Answer
Caliban is pinched, thrown in the mud, dragged through the darkness, and frightened by fearful faces, bitten, or pricked with bristles. Sometimes the spirits hiss at him showing forked tongues.
4. Why does Trinculo want to hide his head? Where does he do that?
Answer
The weather is bad and is about to rain, so he wants to hide his head. He gets into the gaberdine which Caliban has already got into.
5. How does Shakespeare instil humor in the play through this scene? Why does he do so?
Answer
Shakespeare uses some minor characters to indulge in some comedy to bring down the intensity of all the tragic happenings that happened in the initial part of the play. He makes Trinculo doubt whether Caliban is a foulsmelling fish that can be kept for sale in England. There are those who would not give silver to a lame beggar but would spend ten times to see anything strange. The audience would have had a laugh at themselves at these comments.
6. What is his explanation for sharing the bed space with Caliban?
Answer
Trinculo feels that misery makes a person keep company with strange bedfellows. The fear of storm and rain makes Trinculo share the cloak used by Caliban to protect himself from the elements.
7. Give the meanings of the words as they are used in the context of the passage:
fall; perchance; mind
Fall: lie down
Mind: see, observe
Perchance: perhaps, maybe
2. Stephano :
This is some monster of the isle with four legs, who hath
got, as I take it, an ague. Where the devil should he learn
our language? I will give him some relief, if it be but for that.
If I can recover him, and keep him tame, and get to
Naples with him, he's a present for any emperor that
ever trod on neat's-leather.
1. Who is Stephano referring to? Why is he referred to as some monster?
Answer
On seeing Caliban, Stephano refers him to a monster, due to his distorted shape as he was born to a witch.
2. Why is he said to be having four legs?
Answer
The monster is said to be having four legs. Stephano does not know that Trinculo is also hiding inside the gaberdine, so the creature seems to him to have four legs.
3. What does Stephano plan to do with the monster?
Answer
Stephano plans to take the monster to Naples and present it to some king and make a little money out of it.
4. What makes the monster consider Stephano a god?
Answer
Stephano thinks the monster to be ill and so pours a little wine into his mouth. The wine produces an exhilarating effect on Caliban, who thinks Stephano to be a deity and is ready to serve him.
5. What does the monster promise to show and get for Stephano?
Answer
Caliban is ready to show the best springs of water, berries and get fish and wood for him. He will show him Jay's nest and how to trap monkeys. Apart from that, he will get him seagulls and hazelnuts.
6. What does Caliban wish for, at the end of the scene?
Answer
Caliban wishes to be free of Prospero and follow Stephano as he plies him with heavenly drinks. He feels that he will be happier with Stephano rather than his present state in which he is tortured by Prospero's spirits.
7. Give the meanings of the words as they are used in the context of the passage:
ague; trod; neat
Ague: fever, illness
Trod: walked
Neat: ox, cow or cattle