What happens in Act II of The Tempest?
Act II opens on the island's shore, where the shipwrecked Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, Gonzalo, and their attendants are recovering from the storm. Gonzalo tries to comfort the grief-stricken Alonso over the apparent loss of his son Ferdinand, but his optimistic musings are met with ridicule from Antonio and Sebastian's sarcastic remarks. Ariel enters invisibly, playing solemn music that lulls most of the group to sleep, leaving only Antonio and Sebastian awake. Seizing the opportunity, Antonio persuades Sebastian to kill his sleeping brother Alonso and take the throne of Naples, echoing his own usurpation of Prospero's dukedom in Milan. Swords are drawn, but Ariel intervenes, waking Gonzalo with a warning cry just before the act can be carried out. The conspirators quickly concoct a cover story about hearing wild beasts. Meanwhile, in a parallel subplot, Caliban encounters the drunken Trinculo and Stephano. Mistaking Stephano's bottle for something divine, Caliban pledges his loyalty to the jester as his new god and master, creating a grotesque reflection of the island's existing power dynamics. The act concludes with this unlikely trio stumbling off together, with Caliban singing of his newfound freedom from Prospero.
Analysis
Act II is where Shakespeare's structure of parallel plots comes into clear view. The near-assassination of Alonso deliberately mirrors Prospero's backstory, particularly Antonio's remark, "my strong imagination sees a crown / Dropping upon thy head," which rehearses his own past crime rather than simply persuading. Shakespeare employs the sleeping/waking contrast as a moral litmus test: those who stay alert (Ariel, Gonzalo) align with conscience and order, while those who remain awake to plot (Antonio, Sebastian) are portrayed as predatory. Gonzalo's utopian "commonwealth" speech—lifted almost verbatim from Montaigne's essay "Of Cannibals"—is both sincere and undermined: the old counselor imagines a world without sovereignty while addressing a king, and Antonio and Sebastian's mockery punctuates every idealistic statement. The irony is structural, not coincidental. The scenes with Caliban, Trinculo, and Stephano bring in a carnival-like reversal: a colonized being shifts his worship from one master to another, implying that subjugation can be internalized rather than simply imposed. Caliban's song—"No more dams I'll make for fish"—has a genuine lyrical quality that complicates any simplistic view of him as a villain. Tonally, the act swings between courtly menace and low comedy, a duality that keeps the play's explorations of power, legitimacy, and freedom intriguingly unresolved.
Key quotes from Act II
“My strong imagination sees a crown / Dropping upon thy head.”
Antonio tempts Sebastian into conspiracy while Alonso sleeps, revealing how ambition recycles itself across generations of usurpers.
“I' the commonwealth I would by contraries / Execute all things; for no kind of traffic / Would I admit; no name of magistrate.”
Gonzalo outlines his ideal utopia to the shipwrecked court, his idealism drawn from Montaigne and immediately ridiculed by Antonio and Sebastian.
“No more dams I'll make for fish, / Nor fetch in firing / At requiring, / Nor scrape trenchering, nor wash dish. / 'Ban, 'Ban, Ca-Caliban / Has a new master—get a new man!”
Caliban celebrates what he believes is liberation after swearing loyalty to Stephano, his song exposing the tragic irony of exchanging one form of bondage for another.
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Create an accountSign inVocabulary in Act II
- contraries
- The opposite of what is normally done; doing everything in reverse of the usual order or custom, as in running a society by rules that contradict all established ones.
- traffic
- Trade or commerce between people; the buying and selling of goods. Here it refers to any form of business or economic exchange in an imagined ideal society.
- magistrate
- An official who holds public authority and enforces laws; a government officer or judge. Here it stands for any form of official rule or governance.
- dams
- Small barriers or walls built across a stream or shallow water to trap fish, used as a method of catching them without a rod or net.
- firing
- Firewood or fuel gathered for burning; the act of fetching wood to keep a fire going, here presented as a menial chore imposed on a servant.
- trenchering
- Wooden plates or flat boards used as dishes for serving food; scraping them clean was a lowly kitchen task assigned to servants.