No Critique of European Colonization in The Tempest
Since the 1960s, several critics have found a critique of colonialism in their respective readings of Shakespeare's The Tempest. The most radical of these analyses takes Prospero to be a European invader of the magical but primitive land that he comes to rule, using his superior knowledge to enslave its original inhabitants, most notably Caliban, and forcing them to do his bidding. While the textual clues concerning the geographic location of Prospero's island are ambiguous and vague, there is a prominent references to the "Bermoothes." We know that shortly before he wrote his final play, Shakespeare read a contemporary travel account of the Virginia Company's 1609 expedition to the New World and its experience after being run aground on the island of Bermuda. Enslavement does surface in Prospero's realm. The grand magician/scholar inflicts "pinches" and "cramps" upon Caliban to keep him in line and he manacles the young prince Ferdinand's neck and feet together. The servile state in which he keeps Caliban is plainly and understandably a cause of the "ridiculous monster's" deep resentment toward his overlord, and it is with some justification that the spawn of Sycorax invokes nature's wrath upon his tormentor, as in his curse, "all the infections that the sun sucks up/From bogs, fens, flats on Prospero fall..." (II, ii., ll.1-2).
Caliban himself embodies many of the characteristics that civilized Europeans came to associate with the "primitive natives" of the New World. As in the Elizabethan stereotype, Caliban is without moral restraint, and, more specifically, he is lustful in the same way that Native Americans were viewed in the early seventeenth century as dang...
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...and forgiveness, qualities that distinguish humanity from the beasts and that serve as hallmarks of the worthy sovereign.
Works Cited and Consulted
Alan Durband. (Ed.) (1984). The Tempest. Hauppauge, New York: Barron's Educational Series Inc.
Deborah Willis, 'Shakespeare's Tempest and the Discourse of Colonialism', Studies in English Literature 1500-1900, 29, no.2, (1989)
Eric Cheyfitz, The Poetics of Imperialism: Translation and Colonization from The Tempest to Tarzan, (Oxford University Press, 1991)
Ritchie, D. and Broussar, A. (1997). American History: The Early Years to 1877. New York: Glencoe
Kanoff, Acott. (1998). Your Study Guide to William Shakespeare: The Tempest. Cleveland: The Cleveland Play House Education Department
William Shakespeare, The Tempest, ed. Frank Kermode, with an introduction by Frank Kermode, (Arden, 1964)
Bradley, A.C.. Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth. New York: Penguin Books, 1991.
Lombardi, who's quotes still echo through locker rooms before football games across America, achieved such a high coaching excellence that it has yet to be matched. Lombardi, who took a 1-10-1 Green Bay Packer team to 7-5 in only one year with the program, started his career in Green Bay in 1959. Within ten years he led the Pack to six divisional titles and 5 NFL championships, including Super Bowls I and II. "Our greatest glory was not in never failing, but in rising when we fell," Lombardi was quoted saying.
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Shakespeare, William. The Norton Shakespear. Othello. Dir. Grenblatt, Cohen, Howard, and Eisaman Maus. (second ed.) New York. 2008.
Through The Tempest play, William Shakespeare weaves together a tale that is characterized by anti-colonialist sentiments. Prospero - the deposed Milan Duke - adopts a colonialist mentality by treating his colleagues as slaves who have no rights. Characters who suffer mistreatment under Prospero include: Ariel - the spirit creature; Ferdinand - the Naples Prince; and Caliban - Sycorax’s son. Prospero possesses much magical power which he uses to oppress his compatriots. Consequently, Prospero is portrayed as a colonial tyrant who abuses his immense power. Anti-colonialism feelings are especially evident through the actions, utterances and disposition and of Caliban, Miranda, Ferdinand and Ariel. To illustrate, Caliban berates Prospero for the former’s forced labor. Likewise, Ariel protests Prospero’s reluctance to release the former as earlier agreed. Miranda also expresses her dissatisfaction with Prospero’s unfair imprisonment of Ferdinand. Similarly, Ferdinand appears to challenge Prospero’s authority by briefly stopping dragging timber so as to flirt and chat with Miranda. The foregoing four characters exhibit conduct that highlights their displeasure with Prospero’s colonial-style authority over them. From the preceding expose, it can thus be concluded that Shakespeare’s The Tempest play is about anti-colonialism based on its depiction of Caliban, Miranda, Ferdinand and Ariel’s opposition to Prospero’s oppressive authority.
Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. The Norton Shakespeare. Ed. Greenblatt, Stephen. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. Inc., 1997.
Bradley, A.C.. Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth. New York: Penguin Books, 1991.
The Shakespearean play, The Tempest, is one of the most controversial in terms of relationships in the play. The play was written in 1611 soon after the English arrived in America in 1607, launching the colonial period. This was the beginning of colonization to America, which lead to the evolution of indentured servants into slaves. Many critics have stated that the relationship between Prospero and Caliban was that of a slave and master and a representation of how the English colonized foreign lands that belonged to the indigenous Americans. Each situation could be argued and validated according to the portion of the play being analyzed. Both roles are applicable and I will provide evidence of both to prove that they are synonymous in a sense.
Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. Second Revised Ed. United States of America: First Signet Classics Print, 1998. 1-87. Print.
Mowat, Barbara A. & Co. "Prospero, Agrippa, and Hocus Pocus," English Literary Renaissance. 11 (1981): 281-303. Shakespeare, William. The. The Tempest.
Shakespeare, William. The Tempest, edited by Louis B. Weight and Virginia A. LaMar, published by Pocket Books, New York, 1961.
Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest is set on a mysterious island surrounded by the ocean. Here the magician Prospero is ruler of the isle with his two servants Caliban and Ariel. Caliban is the abrasive, foul-mouthed son of the evil witch Sycorax. When Prospero was shipwrecked on the island Prospero treated him kindly but their relationship changed when Caliban tried to rape Prospero's daughter, Miranda. Caliban then became Prospero's unwilling servant. Caliban serves his master out of fear Prospero's wrath. Prospero's other servant Ariel is a graceful spirit who has courtesy and charm. Ariel has put her services at Prospero's disposal out of gratitude for his kind actions towards her. Prospero saved Ariel from the confinement of Sycorax who held her prisoner.
The Tempest. Arden Shakespeare, 1997. Print. Third Series Smith, Hallet Darius. Twentieth Century Interpretations of The Tempest; A Collection of Critical Essays, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1969.
Shakespeare, William, and Robert Woodrow Langbaum. The Tempest: With New and Updated Critical Essays and A Revised Bibliography. New York, NY, USA: Signet Classic, 1998. Print.
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