Well, I wasn’t quite sure if all the characters were up for grabs in this question so I decided to pick one introduced in act II, Trinculo. The first thing I immediately noticed was that his speech was wider in the book than Calibans on the previous page. To me, this indicates, without even reading that he will be one of the more verbose characters, tending to construct longer sentences. After reading the passage on page 37, “Here’s neither bush nor scrub… I will here shroud till the dregs of the storm be past.”, my overall impression of Trinculo is one of a wordy but rather silly character. He also seems to be very self-serving, using whatever he can find to his advantage, “My best way is to creep under his gaberdine…”. He crawls under Calibans cloak merely because there is no other shelter, rather than seeking other shelter somewhere else, and earlier he speaks of wishing he could charge people money to see “…this monster…”, Caliban, and laments that he is not in England to do just that.

          The next thing that sprung into my mind was, wait a second, where did this guy come from? This in mind, I flip to the character list to see where he fits in and find that he is a jester, presumably from the kings ship that wrecked. The fact that he is described as a jester further reinforces that he is a rather silly character and also implies to me that he is someone used to being led, rather a leader. Jumping back a second, when we see Trinculo, Stephano and Caliban later ( page 63), Trinculo once again reverts into foolish behavior, rushing into Prospero’s cave and trying on clothing rather than doing anything seemingly productive. In conclusion, my first impression of Trinculo as a silly rather rambling character, not a character that I think will instigate many momentous events, but nonetheless, not someone to discount as for all his ramblings, he does at least seem well-spoken.