Act 4 — The Tempest — Edexcel GCSE English Literature 1ET0
Edexcel GCSE English Literature · 1ET0
Act 4
The plot, part by part
What you need to know
Prospero's blessing on the betrothal, the masque of Iris, Ceres and Juno, 'Our revels now are ended', and the trap that catches Caliban, Stephano and Trinculo.
Key quotations: 'I have too austerely punish'd you', 'a third of mine own life', 'If thou dost break her virgin-knot before / All sanctimonious ceremonies', 'Honour, riches, marriage-blessing', 'Our revels now are ended', 'We are such stuff / As dreams are made on', 'our little life / Is rounded with a sleep', 'I had forgot that foul conspiracy', 'A devil, a born devil, on whose nature / Nurture can never stick', 'Do you love me, master? no?', 'Let them be hunted soundly', 'Thou shalt have the air at freedom'.
Form: the masque of Iris, Ceres and Juno in rhyming couplets, its sudden end when Prospero remembers Caliban's plot, and the 'Our revels' speech on theatre and illusion.
Context: the Jacobean court masque, and chastity before marriage as the condition of Prospero's blessing.
Edexcel's Shakespeare question has two parts: part (a) on the printed extract marks only language, form and structure (AO2), so context earns nothing there; part (b) on the play elsewhere, from memory, marks the argument and its references (AO1, 15 marks) and context (AO3, 5 marks), not language analysis. Say which part each worked paragraph and exam tip is for.
