The Purpose of Caliban in The Tempest
One of the indispensable themes displayed in The Tempest is the duality of nature and society. This is made apparent through the character of Caliban. Caliban is a dis-figured fish-like creature that inhabits the island where the play The Tempest, takes place.
Caliban is the son a witch-hag, and the only native on the island. In Caliban's first speech, he suggests that Prospero stole the island from him. (Act 1, Scene 1, line 331-342)
"This island's mine by Sycorax my mother
Which thou tak'st from me. When thou camest first,
Caliban is a servant to Prospero, the right duke of Milan. Caliban is a monstrous, and ugly creature. He is often referred to as servant-monster by others characters. At the start of the play, Caliban curses at the authority of Prospero because his dislikes him. (Act 1 scene 2 line 321-324)
"As wicked dew as e'er my mother brush'd
with raven's feather from unwholesome fen
Drop on both! A south-west blow on ye
And blister all o'er"
Although Caliban has a foolish tongue, he is very knowledgeable on the island. Prospero recognizes his survival on the island but shows no respect for this. (Act 1 scene 2 line 366-371)
""Hag-seed, hence!
Fetch us in fuel; and be quick, thou'rt best,"
Caliban shows inconsideration and greed when he attempts to rape Miranda. Miranda is Prospero's only daughter. Caliban admits to the accusations of the attempt of rape, and states that he would have populated the island with his offspring. (Act 1 scene 2, line 349)
"O ho, O ho! Would't had been done!
Thou didst prevent me; I had people else
This isle with Calibans"
Caliban is intimat...
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... creature. Caliban is a character that learned to survive, just as every one does through life.
Works Cited and Consulted:
Davidson, Frank. "The Tempest: An Interpretation." In The Tempest: A Casebook. Ed. D.J. Palmer. London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1968. 225.
Kermode, Frank. Introduction. The Tempest. By William Shakespeare. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1958. xlii.
Palmer, D. J. (Editor) The Tempest - A Selection of Critical Essays London: MacMillan Press Ltd., 1977.
Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. The Riverside Shakespeare. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans, et. al. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1974.
Stott, Jon et al. The Harbrace Anthology of Literature. Second Ed. Harcourt Brace and Company, 1998.
Solomon, Andrew. "A Reading of the Tempest." In Shakespeare's Late Plays. Ed. Richard C. Tobias and Paul G. Zolbrod. Athens: Ohio UP, 1974. 232.
Does the Sweatt case show that " separate but equal" cannot exist as a law? Yes.
Even Miranda, Prospero’s daughter, speaks in a way that categorizes Caliban as an uneducated and uncivilized savage. “I pitied thee, Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour […] When thou didst not, savage, know thine own meaning […]” (1.2.356-359) Miranda doesn’t stop there; she continues labeling Caliban, “But thy vile race, though thou didst learn, had that in’t which good natures could not abide to be with; therefore wast though deservedly confined into this rock […]” (1.2.361-364). Exactly this kind of discourse turns Caliban into a subject. If Caliban had not been alone on the island, then Prospero and Miranda would have categorized a whole group of human beings rather than just one.
Another way that the treatment of Caliban by Prospero is similar to the treatment of Native Americans by the Europeans is the adaptation of the language. When the Europeans came to the New World they forced the Native Americans to learn their languages and live according to the European culture. People who had spoken one language all their lives, now had to learn another. They had to live by customs they have never heard of even before. In the Tempest, Prospero does this also. When Prospero came to the island he forced Caliban to learn the language that he spoke. Caliban had to adapt to a style of living that he had never experienced before. Caliban had to change completely to adapt to the life forced upon him.
Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. The Norton Shakespeare. Ed. Greenblatt, Stephen. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. Inc., 1997.
Until Prospero arrived on the island, Caliban was his own king. The island was left to him by his mother, Sycorax. Nevertheless, Prospero took charge of the isle and eventually enslaved Caliban. "…Thou strok’st me…I loved thee…" is part of a quote that illustrates Caliban’s relationship with Prospero before he was his slave. Prospero comforted Caliban and gave him water and berries; he taught him how to speak, as well.
Shakespeare, William. The Norton Shakespeare. Edited Stephen Greenblatt et al. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1997.
People with bulimia, known as bulimics, indulge in bingeing, which are episodes of eating large amounts of food to satisfy their hunger and craving for food. Then there is purging, this happens after bingeing and it is a means of getting rid of the food by vomiting or using laxatives.
Caliban is treated in a highly demeaning manner since Prospero is a man of magic and has infinite power to control Caliban in every aspect. It is seen early on in the play the amount of control that has been placed over Caliban, to the extent that memories make him cringe and satisfy all of Prospero’s needs. Prospero is obviously the Duke of that island similar to how he was Duke of Milan before being usurped and banished to the island, which is Caliban’s home. In general, the relationship of Prospero and Caliban is a model of early colonization into the New World considering Caliban is it’s only inhabitant. In reality, colonization is the chief reason slavery was implemented which was to maintain laborers in order to prosper in the New World.
Prospero appears to be a ruthless tyrant that strikes fear into Caliban to make him work but further on in the text we learn that this is not the case. Caliban's foul-mouthed insults,
Knight,G.Wilson. “The Shakespearean Superman: An essay on The Tempest.” The Crown of life: Essays in Interpretation of Shakespeare’s Final Plays. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1947. 203-255
Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. Second Revised Ed. United States of America: First Signet Classics Print, 1998. 1-87. Print.
Caliban is evil is the fact that he tried to rape Miranda, Prospero’s daughter as states by Barbara Fuchs in her article Conquering Islands: Contextualizing the Tempest where it says, “Caliban’s attack on Prospero’s daughter once more genders the colonizing impulses” (61). This suggests rape and it is not inhuman and it shows that Miranda is not the first woman who this has happen to. It not right, it’s evil. Caliban’s character in this book is horrible in the things that he does, he starting off has an evil monster that was born from an evil parents and he goes around causing trouble wherever he goes. As a servant, he does evil deed and by himself he is evil.
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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