This document provides a detailed summary and analysis of Shakespeare's 'The Tempest'. This summary focuses on Act 1, scenes one and two. The summary offers all necessary information with regard to the plot, characters, themes, key events and quotes throughout Act 1, scenes one and two.
The Tempest - act one, scene
one and two
act one, scene one - summary
A violent storm rages around a small ship at sea. Chaos ensues. Some mariners
enter, followed by a group of nobles comprised of Alonso, King of Naples, Sebastian,
his brother, Antonio, Gonzalo, and others. We do not learn these men’s names in
this scene, nor do we learn (as we finally do in Act II, scene i) that they have just
come from Tunis, in Africa, where Alonso’s daughter, Claribel, has been married to
the prince. As the Boatswain and his crew take in the topsail and the topmast,
Alonso and his party are merely underfoot, and the Boatswain tells them to get
below-decks. Gonzalo reminds the Boatswain that one of the passengers is of some
importance, but the Boatswain is unmoved. He will do what he has to in order to
save the ship, regardless of who is aboard.
The lords go belowdecks, and then, adding to the chaos of the scene, three of them
—Sebastian, Antonio, and Gonzalo—enter again only four lines later. Sebastian and
Antonio curse the Boatswain in his labors, masking their fear with profanity. Gonzalo
orders the mariners to pray for the king and the prince. There is a strange noise—
perhaps the sound of thunder, splitting wood, or roaring water—and the cry of
mariners. Antonio, Sebastian, and Gonzalo, preparing to sink to a watery grave, go
in search of the king.
The Tempest - act one, scene one and two 1
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