Study Questions

1. Why is Alonso feeling depressed and sad?

2. How do Antonio and Sebastian react to Alonso’s depressed mood?

3. How does Adrian feel about the atmosphere of the island?

4. What is Adrian’s main dramatic purpose in this scene?

5. What happened to the garments of the royal party during the storm at sea?

6. Who was “Widow Dido”?

7. Why does Alonso feel that he suffers a double loss?

8. Why does Sebastian tell Alonso he has himself to blame for his son’s death?

9. Who would manage Gonzalo’s ideal commonwealth?

10. How does Alonso feel about Gonzalo’s proposed commonwealth?

Answers

1. Alonso is grieving the supposed loss of his son Ferdinand.

2. Sebastian and Antonio are rude and insensitive to Alonso.

3. Adrian feels that the island is uninhabitable, yet the air is sweet and the climate is temperate.

4. Adrian acts as a foil to Antonio and Sebastian who are cynical and abusive.

5. Their garments were drenched but now they are as fresh as they were the day they put them on in Africa.

6. “Widow Dido” alludes to Aeneas’ lover in Virgil’s The Aeneid.

7. Alonso feels he has lost his daughter in marriage to a man in a distant country and has lost his son in the tempest at sea.

8. Sebastian is implying that Alonso forced his daughter to marry a foreigner. It was their trip to the wedding that caused his son’s death.

9. Gonzalo would be the king of the commonwealth.

10. Alonso does not want to hear about Gonzalo’s commonwealth.