The Tempest: language, imagery and key scenes

The Tempest is full of music, magic and memorable speeches. For part (a), notice who speaks verse or prose, the play's imagery of the sea, music and freedom, and how Shakespeare gives even Caliban beautiful lines.

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Verse, prose and song

Blank verse: unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter (ten syllables, five beats: da-DUM x 5). Shakespeare's main form for serious, noble or emotional speech.
Prose: ordinary sentences with no line pattern. Often used for comedy, servants and lower-status characters, letters, madness or breakdown.
Rhyme: rhyming couplets often end a scene or speech; songs, spells and riddles use rhyme too.
A change from one to another is always worth a comment in an extract answer.
Prospero, Miranda and the nobles speak blank verse.
Caliban often speaks powerful verse, while the drunken Stephano and Trinculo speak prose. This contrast makes Caliban seem more poetic and sensitive than the Europeans who mock him.
Ariel sings songs, and the Epilogue is in short rhyming couplets, as Prospero asks the audience: "Let your indulgence set me free."

Patterns of imagery

ImageExampleWhat it suggests
Sound and music"Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises"The island's magic; Caliban's sensitivity
Language and power"You taught me language; and my profit on't / Is, I know how to curse"Colonisation: the coloniser's language becomes a weapon
Possession"This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother"Competing claims to the island
Dreams and illusion"We are such stuff / As dreams are made on"Life and theatre as brief illusions
Darkness and ownership"this thing of darkness I / Acknowledge mine"Prospero accepts responsibility for Caliban

Key scenes for extracts

SceneWhat to look for
1.1 The stormChaos; the Boatswain defies the nobles: rank means nothing at sea
1.2 Prospero's story; Ariel; CalibanPower, control, resentment, claims to the island
3.1 Ferdinand and MirandaLove tested by labour
3.2 Caliban, Stephano and TrinculoComic plot; "the isle is full of noises"
4.1 The masque"Our revels now are ended": illusion and endings
5.1 Forgiveness"The rarer action is / In virtue than in vengeance"; "O brave new world"
EpilogueProspero gives up his magic and asks the audience to free him
Worked example

Why is it significant that Caliban speaks "Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises" in verse?

  1. Stephano and Trinculo, the Europeans beside him, speak prose.
  2. Caliban, often called a monster, is given some of the play's most beautiful poetry.
  3. Effect: the audience sees his sensitivity and questions how others treat him.

Answer: Giving Caliban lyrical verse while the drunken Europeans speak prose challenges the label 'monster' and makes the audience question who is really civilised.

Key idea

Nobles speak blank verse, Ariel sings, Stephano and Trinculo use prose, and Caliban is given beautiful verse. Key images: music and noise, language as power, possession of the island, dreams and illusion.

Key words
Imagery
Language that creates a picture or appeals to the senses, including similes, metaphors and personification.
Blank verse
Unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter. Shakespeare's noble characters often speak in blank verse.
Iambic pentameter
A line of ten syllables in five pairs, each pair with the stress on the second syllable (da-DUM).
Form
The type and shape of a text: for example sonnet, ballad, free verse, tragedy, comedy, novel or play.

All GCSE and International GCSE English Literature key terms and definitions →

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  1. 'Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises'. Who says this?

    1. Caliban
    2. Prospero
    3. Miranda
    4. Ariel
    Show the answer

    Answer: Caliban

    His poetry is beautiful.

  2. Whom is Caliban addressing in 'You taught me language'?

    1. Stephano
    2. Prospero and Miranda
    3. Ariel
    4. Alonso
    Show the answer

    Answer: Prospero and Miranda

    They taught him to speak.

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Checked by the GCSE-ready editorial team, 23 October 2026. Last updated 2 October 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us and we will fix it.

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