Year 9 half term homework on Caliban

I suggest that you do this as quickly as you can after today's lesson - don't leave it until after half-term, or you'll forget what we did in the lesson. Sorry - it looks a bit strange on the page as I've copied it from Word, but you should still be able to follow it.

Act 2, scene 2: Another part of the island. Caliban meets Trinculo and Stephano.

 

Enter CALIBAN with a burden of wood.

CALIBAN

All the infections that the sun sucks up
From bogs, fens, flats, on Prosper fall and make him
By inch-meal a disease!

(A noise of thunder is heard)

His spirits hear me
And yet I needs must curse. But they'll nor pinch,
Fright me with urchin--shows, pitch me i' the mire,
Nor lead me, like a firebrand, in the dark
Out of my way, unless he bid 'em; but
For every trifle are they set upon me;
Sometime like apes that mow and chatter at me
And after bite me, then like hedgehogs which
Lie tumbling in my barefoot way and mount
Their pricks at my footfall; sometime am I
All wound with adders who with cloven tongues
Do hiss me into madness.

Enter TRINCULO

Lo, now, lo!
Here comes a spirit of his, and to torment me
For bringing wood in slowly. I'll fall flat;
Perchance he will not mind me.

 


My notes on text:

Inch-meal = every inch (every bit of him)

What does Caliban want to fall onto Prospero?

(He thinks the thunder is Prospero’s spirits spying on him.)

“yet” = but
“I needs must” = I can’t help myself
“nor” = not
They won’t pinch or frighten me with illusions (urchin-shows)
“firebrand” = piece of wood set alight and used as a torch
“pitch me i’ the mire” = throw me in the swamp
“bid” = commands
“every trifle” = every little thing
“mow” = make faces
“cloven” = forked
"perchance” = maybe
“mind me” = notice me
 Homework: use my notes, a dictionary, and maybe the internet, to help you understand this small extract. You need to do exactly what we did in class with the first extract.

What are your ideas about Caliban here? My thoughts about Caliban are that…

How does Shakespeare give you those ideas? (find some quotations from the text and underline particular words that give you these ideas)

Make notes on the questions above, then write your ideas into a PEE paragraph, explaining how the quotation you have chosen supports your opinion about Caliban.

Aiming higher? Explore the point (more than one quotation?); offer an alternative view (this could also mean...); link to the audience at the time; link to Shakespeare's viewpoint.

Library homework: learn the following terms and their definitions ready for a test:

Adjective	Describes a noun, eg the horrible cat.
Noun	The name of a person, place or thing, eg Paris, Sarah, table, love, hatred
Adverb	Describes or gives more information about a verb or adjective, eg she swiftly walked, he was very cold.
Verb	The word that carries the action of the sentence (doing or being), eg. She gazed out of the window, he was annoying
Pronoun	Stands in place of a noun, eg he, she, we, it, you, they