Theme Of Civilization In The Tempest

The Tempest, provided insight into the hierarchy of command and servitude by order of nature. This play uses the relationship between its characters to demonstrate the control of the conqueror over the conquered. It also shows how society usually places the undesirable members at the bottom of the chain of command; although they may be entitled to a higher social status. One of the crucial themes displayed in The Tempest is the duality of nature and civilization. This is made obvious through the character of Caliban. Caliban is described as disfigured fish-like creature that inhabits the island where the play takes place. Caliban is the son of a powerful witch-hag Sycorax, and the only native of the island. In Caliban 's first speech, he suggests that Prospero stole the island from him asserting the island belongs to him, as it was of his mother, and hates

Prospero and Caliban are alternately and perhaps occasionally all at once: master and servant, tutor and pupil, master and slave, and father and adopted son. Prospero terrorizes and belittles Caliban. Calibans short, snappy replies and his odious tone, reveal the bitterness he feels from leading a servile life, his rudeness makes him seem like an unworthy and despicable slave. Caliban is frustrated from the very beginning with the oppressive attitude of his dictator master Prospero. The hostility between Caliban and Prospero results in the breakdown of their initial loving father-son relationship. Prospero may have failed in nurturing Caliban because the nurture he offered him was intended to control him, not educate or liberate him. Caliban becomes a more sympathetic character in the second half of the work. His weakness is made more evident, and the ease by which he is controlled shows him to be a victim of his circumstances, possessing a nature weakened by subjugation and