Study Questions
1. Why does Miranda ask her father to calm the storm at sea?

2. How does Prospero comfort Miranda’s fears about the suffering people on the ship?

3. Does Miranda remember anything about her life before she came to the island?

4. How old was Miranda when they arrived on the island?

5. In what way did Antonio dispose of Prospero and Miranda after he had usurped his dukedom?

6. Why did Antonio spare the lives of Prospero and Miranda?

7. Why did Antonio put Prospero and Miranda on an old boat without a sail?

8. Where did Prospero and Miranda get their supplies for the island?

9. Why did Prospero raise the storm at sea with his magic?

10. How long had Prospero and Miranda lived on the island?

Answers
1. Miranda knows that he has raised the tempest with his magic and he also has the power to calm the storm.

2. Prospero tells Miranda that there has been “no harm done.”

3. Miranda remembers that several women waited on her in Milan.

4. Miranda was not yet three when they arrived on the island.

5. Prospero and Miranda were put on a “rotten carcass of a butt” without a sail and left on the sea to drown.

6. Prospero was well loved by his people and Antonio wanted to stay in their good graces as the new Duke of Milan.

7. Antonio wanted their deaths to look like an accident.

8. Gonzalo, the king’s councilor, felt sorry for them, stocking their leaky vessel with water, food, clothing, and Prospero’s books.

9. It had been his good fortune to have his enemies arrive off the shore of the island, and this was his chance to regain his dukedom.

10. Prospero and Miranda had lived on the island for the past 12 years.