Understanding Caliban

620 Words2 Pages

1. What values does your character most cherish? What values does your character reject? Caliban rejects the Eurocentric values that were both imposed upon him and exploited him as a slave. Caliban rejects the Elizabethan belief of a social positioning of a rigid hierarchy that is dictated by birth. These race and power inequalities affect the “rightful” ownership of one’s tangible and emotional properties. Caliban’s nature and race therefore make him inferior to intruders into his world. These visitors impose Western values and beliefs that exist to reduce his own values to barbaric violence. Caliban values ownership and rights to that ownership. Caliban’s very first speech proves that Prospero has taken Caliban’s property. Caliban’s dilemma directly parallels Prospero’s situation when his brother usurped his position. This lust for power and ownership should not override what are your God-given properties. 2. What is your character's conception of sin? Of justice? Caliban’s concept of sin is far different from an outsider’s view. Christianity, for example, frowns upon pre...

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