CSEC English

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ENGLISH B—SHAKESPEARE’S

Episode 3 The courtship and marriage of Ferdinand and Miranda.

Ferdinand is a prince—the son of Alonso, King of Naples. Miranda is the daughter of Prospero, who was Duke of Milan before his brother, Antonio, usurped the position. Alonso had helped Antonio in his wicked scheme to get rid of Prospero, putting him in a leaky boat with his baby daughter, Miranda, and leaving them to Fate.

Now, though, Ferdinand has landed safely on the island—unaware that it is Prospero’s loving care that has saved him from the tempest and the stormy seas. When we first meet him, he is charmed and confused by Ariel’s singing, but sad at the thought that his father, the King, has probably drowned.

As Miranda and Prospero approach, Miranda expresses wonder and amazement at how godlike Ferdinand seems to her. (We recall that the only others she has seen are Caliban and her father). Ferdinand, for his part, thinks that Miranda must be some goddess of the island, responsible for the magical music he has heard. It’s love at first sight for the two young people.

But Prospero has his own plans for the couple:

“This swift business I must uneasy make, lest too light winning Make the prize light.”

Prospero intends that Ferdinand must prove his love, and demonstrate that he intends to honour and treasure Miranda. He pretends to speak harshly to Ferdinand, accuses him of being a spy and a traitor, and threatens to shackle him. Ferdinand bravely draws his sword to resist arrest, but Prospero simply puts him under a spell so that he cannot move. He is similarly rough to Miranda, telling her that, compared to other men, Ferdinand is as ugly as Caliban. Prospero’s words fall on deaf ears, though; the two are desperately in love, and will endure anything just as long as they can be close to each other.

Taking Ferdinand back to the cell, Prospero puts him to work, carrying logs. Miranda is greatly distressed to see the prince humiliated in this way, but Ferdinand finds even the lowliest service a joy once he does it for her:

“The very instant that I saw you, did My heart fly to your service.”

For her part, Miranda confesses that she would happily be married to Ferdinand. Talking ‘aside’ to the audience, Prospero makes it clear that he is extremely happy at the affection shown by the two, but he still wears a stern mask whenever he speaks to them.

Eventually Prospero drops his mask and reveals to the young people that he has just been testing their love. To Ferdinand he says,

“All thy vexations Were but trials of thy love, and thou Hast strangely stood the test.”

Prospero now agrees for Ferdinand to marry Miranda, but warns him sternly that there must be no sex before marriage: he must not “break her virgin-knot” before due ceremonies have been arranged.

Once again it is Prospero’s magic that will make those ceremonies memorable. With Ariel’s help, Prospero causes three goddesses, Iris (goddess of the rainbow), Ceres (goddess of harvest) and Juno (Queen of all the goddesses), to bless the young couple. The stately goddesses utter their blessing in dignified poetry, and then Prospero conjures up a company of reapers and nymphs to dance and bring joy to the occasion.

We leave Miranda and Ferdinand while Prospero hurries off to deal with the conspiracy against him led by Caliban, and when next we meet the married pair, it is so that Prospero can show them to Alonso, seeking his blessing, too, on the marriage. Miranda and Ferdinand are happily playing chess, preparing, perhaps, for when, in the future, as King and Queen of Naples, they will have the fate of nobles and commoners in their hands. Through their union, old hostilities between Milan and Naples are put aside, and the two powers are united in peace and harmony. Prospero has used his magic well, and can now put aside his book and his staff.

LET’S AGREE

Find the verb in each of these sentences and then make sure it agrees with the subject. 1. The sound of hammering and workmen’s voices interrupts/interrupt the students in the library. 2. In Great Expectations, Pip’s hopes and aspirations to be a gentleman is/are

mocked by his connection to Magwich. 3. J.E. Sandez and Sons has/have agreed to sponsor the school’s athletic team. 4. The homeless tends/tend to be forgotten during the year, but people are more

caring at Christmastime. 5. See if the molasses in the jar is/are sufficient for making these cookies. 6. Neither the schools nor the hospital has/have escaped the ravages of the hurricane. 7. For CXC students, writing an essay of a mere six paragraphs is/are extremely

easy. 8. Neither money nor t.v. appearances is/are able to help the man who longs for

true friends. 9. The lazy employee complained that a holiday of just two weeks was/were

totally inadequate; he needed at least a month. 10. The BBC reporter said that the influence of President Nyerere’s integrity and

humility was/were felt throughout the African continent. 11. Locked away in an upstairs room, the jury deliberates/deliberate over the

finer points of the case. 12. Locked away in an upstairs room, the jury fights/fight each other over each

tiny point of evidence presented during the trial. 13. The elderly man, along with his three surviving sons, is/are ushered into the

waiting room. 14. Week after week has/have gone by, and still nothing has been done. 15. He was one of those people who enjoys/enjoy criticizing those in political

power.

PARAGRAPHING AND SUMMARIZING

When you write a paragraph, you begin with a topic sentence, and then you expand on that topic with examples in the subsequent sentences. When you write a summary, you reverse that process.

Think about it: when you write a paragraph, you state the main idea in a nutshell, and then you expand it with examples and illustrations.

In a summary, you try to identify the main idea, and you omit or reduce the examples and illustrations.

Look at this paragraph:

Being excessively overweight robs you of the joy of living. A fat person tends to get tired quickly, so dancing, athletics and sports requiring physical effort have to be avoided. People who are overweight tend to develop health problems such as back pain, and pain in the knees and ankles; they may also struggle with asthma and other breathing problems. Socially, too, obesity presents problems: a fat girl is less likely to find a boyfriend than a slim girl, and the girls may not take seriously an offer of serious friendship from a boy who is carrying too much weight around. (101 words)

The main idea is presented in the first sentence. Check each of the following sentences to see how they expand on and illustrate that key idea.

The topic sentence ACTUALLY IS a summary of the paragraph. But if we want to add a bit more detail to our summary we could write this:

Overweight individuals miss out on the joy of life. They get too tired for physical activity, they develop various health problems, and they have difficulty in forming romantic relationships. (28 words)

Rules for summarizing:

● Use your own words and phrases and don’t just copy chunks from the original

passage. ● Once you have stated an idea, you can leave out the examples that the writer

supplied. ● Do not repeat yourself. ● Reduce lengthy phrases wherever possible

If you still have more words than you are allowed, see if you can say anything more briefly. (For example, you may have written this:

People who are overweight may have more difficulty than slim individuals in forming relationships with the opposite sex. (18 words)

We have reduced this to “and they have difficulty forming romantic relationships” (7 words)

ANSWERS Let’s Agree

1 The sound…interrupts, 2 hopes and aspirations…are, 3 J.E. Sandez and Sons has…(the company called J.E. Sandez and Sons is singular—hence the singular verb), 4 The homeless tend (the blind, the elderly, the handicapped, the poor, the destitute—all of these are considered plural and so need a plural verb), 5 molasses is (looks plural, like measles, physics, AIDS, but, like these, is treated as a singular noun), 6 neither the schools nor the hospital has (when using ‘neither…nor’, make the verb agree with the nearer of the two nouns—hospital), 7 writing …is, 8 Neither money nor t.v. appearances are (See #6, and make the verb agree with the nearer of the two nouns—appearances), 9 holiday …was, 10 influence…was, 11 jury deliberates (jury here is a united body, so is treated as a singular noun), 12 jury fight (jury here is a number of individuals fighting against each other, so in this case jury is treated as a plural noun), 13 elderly man…is ( The elderly man AND his three sons ARE. But when you use “along with…”, “together with…”, “accompanied by” the verb remains singular), 14 Week…has, 15 those people who enjoy.