Why present simple tense?

[Walt Whitman]

Teacher

Context: Kenneth Branagh's "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein"
Doctor Frankenstein is dead. The Creature's eyes are filled with tears.
Captain Robert Walton asks, "Why do you weep?"
The Creature's response is, "He was my father."

I wonder whether "Why do you weekp" is correct.
If I had been the captain I would have said, "Why are you weeping?"
Do you think I'm wrong?
Thank you very much.
WW

 

[SoothingDave]

"Why are you weeping" would be the more common way to say it, you are correct.

There's nothing wrong with the simple present, it actually makes it sound a bit poetic.

 

[ASLCampos]

I have been reading lots of books lately and I could find lots of examples of present simple tense in that contex.:up:

 

[Rover_KE]

Frankenstein was written in 1818.

Usage changes a lot over nearly 200 years.

Rover

 

[Walt Whitman]

How many of you natives would say, in a similar context and in the year 2012, "Why do you weep (cry)" instead of "Why are you weeping (crying)"?
WW

 

[charliedeut]

Frankenstein was written in 1818.

Usage changes a lot over nearly 200 years.

Rover

Walt Whitman was a born around then.:shock: Hence the confusion ;-).

 

[SoothingDave]

How many of you natives would say, in a similar context and in the year 2012, "Why do you weep (cry)" instead of "Why are you weeping (crying)"?
WW

Not me.

 

[Rover_KE]

Not me.

 

[Walt Whitman]

Me either.
That is why I was a bit puzzled and asked for clarification.
As SoothingDave said, "Why do you weep?" is a bit poetic or just old-fashioned now.
Thank you all.
WW