Examples Of Allegory In The Tempest

Thaisa Pereira

COR 101

Professor Andreu

890 words

At play’s end, how are we supposed to feel toward Caliban?

After years of writing plays of history, tragedy, comedy and dramatic romance, William Shakespeare changed from his darker writing of the past into the lighter, more peaceful style of his play "The Tempest." This play is considered the last work of Shakespeare and is divided in five delightful acts.

William Shakespeare wrote about a new land discovered. He wrote “The Tempest”, an Allegory about the New World. The allegory is most reflected in two characters. First character is Prospero, one of the main characters of the play. He is the Duke of Milan, who is banished and sent to other lands. He decides to take possession of a new land and takes absolute control, even using violence, forcing the local people to become slaves. In my opinion Prospero shows the desires the humanity is always looking for. He is a symbol of civilization; an idealized example of human being, more spiritual than material that came to a new place and for thinking that he is “superior” takes control over the natives. He takes control over the island and makes Caliban his slave.

The second character is Caliban, the only creature that lives in the island. We can think of him as a creature because during “The Tempest”, Caliban receives the name of “monster”, “wild”, “beast” and also “a mix of fish and human”. As an inhabitant of this new land, he is related to the Natives of the New World. His name is an anagram of the word cannibal. He was described as a monster and it was far from being consider the hero of the play.But it is not his appearance that makes Caliban monstrous in Prospero's eyes, nor was Caliban treated as a slave, at least not initial...

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...to take advantage of him by making him perform slave duties.

During the whole play there was never a monster or bad people, there was only ignorance and lack of knowledge in the matter of cultures. A huge cultural shock happened with the meet of the Old and New World, which not only on the play, but in real life, affected the lives of innumerous people. The perspectives and visions change the ways that true fact are seeing and interpreted. The will of wanting to relate to something close to common worlds and usual thoughts interfere in making things harder to connect. In an environment that new things are seeing and experienced, calling one monster without knowing the real truth could became a terrible way to start to deal with the people and place. Researching and communicating a little more would help much more when meeting new standards and meeting new worlds.