Miranda and Ferdinand — Edexcel GCSE English Literature 1ET0
Edexcel GCSE English Literature · 1ET0
Miranda and Ferdinand
Characters
What you need to know
How Shakespeare presents Miranda and Ferdinand, and how the character develops across the text: Prospero's daughter and Alonso's son: love at first sight, Ferdinand's trial by labour, and the marriage that joins Milan and Naples.
The key quotations for this character and how to analyse them, with the context that shapes them.
How to use the lesson's key quotations in an essay, with a short worked paragraph.
Key quotations: 'O, I have suffered / With those that I saw suffer', 'Your tale, sir, would cure deafness', 'I might call him / A thing divine', 'Most sure, the goddess / On whom these airs attend!', 'There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple', 'There be some sports are painful', 'I am your wife, if you will marry me', 'I'll be your servant, / Whether you will or no', 'Sweet lord, you play me false', 'O, wonder! / How many goodly creatures are there here!', 'O brave new world, / That has such people in't!'.
The speech rebuking Caliban ('Abhorred slave'), spoken by Miranda in the play's first printing but often given to Prospero, and what it shows of her.
Context: a daughter's obedience and chastity, the marriage that joins Milan and Naples and secures Prospero's line, and readings of Miranda as obedient or independent.
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.
