Friday, January 2, 2009

The Tempest Act II Journal Entries

Chloe Wrote:
Act II was a lot easier to understand than Act I was. I think it had to do with the work we are doing in class but also just getting accustomed to the language. Another reason is that I noticed this Act especially scene I had a lot of humor and comedy in it. My favorite characters so far are Antonio and Sebastian. It is true they were being very childlike considering their situation and the seriousness of it but they were funny. I liked the fact that they were trying to make light of the situation and were very witty about it. Shakespeare is known for his comedies but you don’t see it sometimes and especially in his more well known works they are very much known for their drama so to see it here is enjoyable. It’s also interesting to think about the type of person Shakespeare is through reading his works because these are his thoughts and creations and in each character there may be a little piece of him.

Josh Wrote:
Again, I find myself reading the characters' lines multiple times in order to get the true meaning out of them, and I find that it helps me to read them out loud. However, I like the way in which the play is developing. Antonio and Sebastian are getting closer to executing their plan, and I am very interested in the way their second attempt will turn out, as their first was interrupted. The love story between Ferdinand and Miranda is developing too--Miranda finally tells him her real name. I am excited to see where all three of the sub-stories connect, and which individuals get slighted. I believe that will be the most interesting part of the play.

Julie Wrote:
I really do love Shakespeare. I now fully understand my brother's obsession with his plays while he was in high school. This play is just so clever. I am especially getting to love Sebastian. All of his responses are so witty and amazing. Like after everyone falls asleep, and he is speaking with Antonio, and he says something along the lines
of, "How strange, you speak as though you are asleep, and yet your eyes are open and you are walking around." I mean, he's just so sarcastic and awesome. Perhaps I'm just weird to like his character, I just fell as though he is so interesting as apposed to everyone else in the play. Miranda and Francisco are as I figured them to be, silly teenagers who have fallen hopelessly in love and no nothing of it. Prospero is the stereotypical banished king with super powers. Alonso defiantly has the kingly feel to him, and I just feel like everyone else is so, bland.
I do still like the play.

Katherine Wrote:
When I first started reading this play I did not really find it humorous. It was not until act II, scene I when Antonio and Sebastian were being sarcastic and making jokes that I found the humor in this play. Although the humor was at the Gonzalo's expense, they were being very funny. I felt so bad for Alonso. It is the worst feeling in the world to feel like you are the reason someone is dead, nevertheless your son. Gonzalo is very sweet. He was being extremely kind to Alonso and tried his best to be there for him. Act II, scene ii was also very funny. A drunken Stefano really brought humor to the table. When he stops at the four-legged body covered with a cloak he immediately sees the money people would offer back home to view him. This part reminded me of the circus. The fact that he felt that he could make money off Caliban's deformities was actually sad.

Everett Wrote:
So for in Act II, I’m having an easier time following along. The language has gotten easier to translate except for a few cases where I had to look it up in regular language, but other than that, I'm beginning to get into it, the more I get it.

A few parts I struggled with though where when Sebastian and Antonio have their swords out before Ariel wakes them all up. Why were they planning on killing Gonzalo, and even more, who is Gonzalo? I guess he's like the King's right-hand-man, helping him make decisions and such. They held their swords over his head until Ariel woke the king and Gonzalo.

I also don’t seem to understand why the ship wrecked crew split up and how it happened, as well as why Prospero destroyed their boat. We might be expected to know by now, but seeing as I miss a lot of information because of the writing, I can't really tell. I do think Prospero ship-wrecked the boat in hopes of getting even with King Alonzo. I'm pretty sure he hasn't actually said so, but because of his story to his daughter Miranda about how the King and his brother ruined his life, I see it as foreshadowing possible rivalries within the island, or death.

As far and Miranda and Ferdinand go, I can't believe they fell in love like that. Maybe it because it's just a script, I don't get the emotions right. If it were a movie or a play we were studying it would be much easier to understand due to expression. So with that problem, I have a really hard time giving each character a personality. I'm sure will get used to it though.

Stacey Wrote:
Prospero and his little spirit friend Ariel make up a plan to revenge the enemy. We learn that everyone is okay on the ship. Ariel cast a spell on the passengers, creating a frenzy. Through this confusion, Prospero can regain his status. This act exposes the wickedness of Prospero’s enemies. It was revealed in this scene that the passengers were returning from the wedding of King Alonzo’s daughter, who got married for political reasons. They were headed from Africa to Naples. This wedding parallels the plan for Prospero’s daughter Miranda to fall in love with Antonio’s son, Ferdinand. A spell is cast on him. He is believed to be dead as a result of the Tempest, giving Prospero the opportunity to make this wedding happen. During this scene, we are met with a full cast of characters who intermingle with one another. Prospero’s plan begins to fall into place, as he uses magic to torment his enemies.

I am not a fan of this story. It is a struggle for me to form a connection with these characters. I find their actions to be unrealistic, due to the magic involved. I enjoy stories that are more real than fiction.

Zeehan Wrote:
I enjoyed the humor that Shakespeare presents through the conversation between Antonio and Sebastian in the beginning of scene one in act two. I love some phrases that Shakespeare uses such as “of Naples and of Milan, what strange fish hath made his meal on thee?” I found scene one very funny. Antonio and Sebastian, both amused me with their funny comments and annoyed me because they kept on criticizing and complaining how the island has nothing to live on while Gonzalo kept trying to console Alonso by saying that they can survive in the island. I almost wanted to strangle Antonio and Sebastian because they kept on talking about things that didn’t matter like “widow Dido” and made fun of Gonzalo even though he said something sensible. Antonio is definitely the worst. First he betrayed his own brother by taking his kingdom and now he is convincing Sebastian to kill his brother for the throne.

Scene two was also very humorous and I enjoyed it very much. In scene two, I felt like Shakespeare showed the nature of European imperialism through the characters Stephano, Trinculo, and Caliban. Stephano and Trinculo represented the Europeans while Caliban represented the natives. Stephano’s ideology is like the European explorers ideology, who tries to profit off everything they found on the land they explored. At the beginning of the scene, all Stephano was thinking about was how the possession of Caliban would profit him immensely. His attitude towards Caliban shows the Europeans attitude towards natives and how they believed the natives were savage and monstrous looking. Stephano also made Caliban drunk to get Caliban to do things for him just like many Europeans made Indians drunk and conquered them.

Nicole Wrote:
I don't know what to expect out of Caliban's new worship for Stefano. I don't think them meeting was part of Prospero's plan which would mean Prospero is in less control than he believes to be in. Being that there are quite a few roaming men on Prospero's island all of a sudden, problems will certainly arise.

I wonder if Caliban's cloak serves any power like Prospero's does and how Prospero will react to Caliban freeing himself out of his enslavement. I would have thought Ariel would have tried to make Stefano and Trinculo drown or swim away rather than towards the island in order to carry out Prospero's plan perfectly.

Also, what exactly is Prospero trying to do by making his enemy's son fall in love with his daughter and vise versa. At first I thought that he is using his daughter to lure Ferdinand in because he knows Alonso will come looking for his son. Then Prospero would torture Ferdinand in front of Alonso as to torture both of them, but if Miranda loves Ferdinand he would be hurting her in the process. Shakespeare's characters seem to do a lot for their family and loved ones, I do not think Prospero would want anything but happiness for Miranda.

I don't think Sebastian will be able to take Alonso's dukedom as Antonio suggests. Though Antonio and Sebastian are both jealous of their brothers, Sebastian has a guilty conscience and may not go through with killing Prospero's enemy.

Bobby Wrote:
So far, the language still presents itself a challenge to me. Though I am not very excited about what is going on, I am not completely bored by the play. The circumstances in Act 2 reveal the nature of the characters. Gonzalo is the basically the good hearted man who tries to cheer everyone up when everyone is all angry and depressed. Though it seems he is not treated well. Antonio has shown himself to be a treacherous villain. This is shown when everyone was asleep; he wanted Sebastian to kill the king. As for Sebastian, I don’t know if he is good or bad yet. From what I got, he seems to be indecisive and easily tricked. He was at odds with himself on whether to kill his brother or not, his conscious was against Antonio’s temptations. It is too bad Gonzalo woke up, otherwise we could have really see Sebastian’s true nature.

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