Oppression In Gilgamesh

Oppression; something that has been around since the beginning of time; Mesopotamia. It is a cruel trait that takes advantage of others for the advantage to conquer and attain a goal in one’s life. From one of the first known literary works “The Epic of Gilgamesh” to William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” Acts 1 and 2, the theme of oppression has been playing out in societies. In relating to these two stories through postcolonial theory we will look at different aspect of oppression. Oppression has shown it is one of a self-sustaining system of power that is used to dis-empower, disregard, silence, enslave and eventually could lead to death.
First we will talk about oppression through the use of dis-empowering, which was a direct correlation

with Gilgamesh and Prosperous. It's very thought-provoking to see Gilgamesh and Prosperous as victims of oppression just as much as they are perpetrators of it. Gilgamesh is submissive to the gods who assert control over him, while only making him 2/3rds god, thus denying him human mortality. This causes Gilgamesh to live with an identity crisis knowing his great power is insufficient to overcome the fact that he is still a mortal man. This was the result and a fact that he was a hybrid between the race of man and that of the gods. While Prospero is oppressed by his own blood Antonio and loses his dukedom in Milan, when Antonio partnered with the King of Naples to send Prospero into hiding. This caused Prosperous sense of identity to be shaken when he was ousted from his rightful role as Duke of Milan by his scheming brother Antonio and Prospero longs for restoration of his lost power and will do anything to get it back. So could these actions of oppression against Gilgamesh and Prospero lead them to become oppressive in nature themselves towards those that depended on them.
Such is the case; In “The Tempest”, one instantly noticed the similarities to that of The Epic of Gilgamesh. Oppression through enslavement, is a clear similarity between the two readings. As many know, Gilgamesh was all powerful and manipulated his use of oppression over the people of Uruk, by taking the young boys to work his land and sleeping with all the women of Uruk, married or not.
Similarly, in “The Tempest,” Prospero uses his oppression of enslavement against his servants Ariel and Caliban, as well as arguably against his daughter Miranda.

Prospero enslaved the spirit Ariel or other-worldly figure of sorts. And in-turn Ariel causes a violent storm that causes the shipwreck in the opening scene, due to Prospero's request, thus bringing those back that caused Prospero to lose his dukedom. After which Ariel asked for his freedom having done his deed for Prospero, but Prospero denied his request, saying to Ariel time must be served first. Prospero continues with something of a guilt-instilling speech, reminding Ariel that he had freed him and Ariel becomes submissive once again saying, “all hail, great master, grave sir, hail! I come to answer thy best pleasure; beat to fly, to Swim, to dive into the fire, to ride, on the curled of clouds”(1,2,189-190). This shows Ariel’s language is that of someone being oppressed imprisoned or enslaved and such is the relationship that of a slave and a master. Prospero does not only oppress Ariel but also enslaves Caliban the once ruler of the island simply because Prospero believed his new ideas were much better meaning slavery over freedom, which he did impose on Caliban by saying “Dull thing, I say so; he, that Caliban, Whom now I keep in my service.” (Act. I, Sc. II, Ln. 285-286). Furthermore Prospero makes it even clearer what he thinks of Caliban the native that had helped Prospero to survive on the Island has

now become Prospero's slave. Caliban is tortured by Prospero to such an extent that he is scared when he sees Stephano and Trinculo and mistakes them for Prospero's magic spirits that have come to torment him again; “Do not torment me prithee. I'll bring the wood home faster' (A2 Sc2 Ln73)