Ariel And Caliban In Shakespeare's The Tempest

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In the play, The Tempest, there are characters that are that represent the colonization of the new world. Ariel and Caliban are characters that depict how Native Americans were viewed and treated during colonization. Europeans thought of them as savages that would not be able to adopt their culture. However, this was not true, and Europeans were able to introduce their culture to them. The Native Americans were a great help to them. They taught the Europeans how to survive on the land and build a colony. The characters Ariel and Caliban are similar because they represent the Native American people as they both have their uses, and this causes Prospero to treat them differently.
In the play Prospero is exiled from his home and loses his position …show more content…

Ariel, he sees more as a companion, and someone that can help him reach his goals. For this reason, Prospero treats Ariel better than he would Caliban. Caliban is very rebellious when is comes to dealing with Prospero. Prospero sees Caliban as a lowly beast and not even human. This is a recurring theme throughout the play. This is also how Native Americans were seen but the colonists. Prospero tortures Caliban whenever he does something wrong. For example, Caliban tried to rape his daughter Miranda. Prospero tortures him because of this and this can represent how the colonists treated Native Americans. Prospero does not want more Calibans, and the colonist felt the same way towards Native Americans. They did not want them to have children. This would only lead to more problems and would benefit anyone. They were also concerned they would lose their power. Prospero and the colonists both want to ward from reproducing so they can keep their power over Caliban and the Native Americans. The treatment of Ariel can be seen as the Native Americans that accepted the culture of the colonists and they were able to use the Native Americans in a useful manner. Ariel and the Native Americans that had accepted the colonists’ culture complied to whatever restrictions they were given. They did this to survive the colonization of their …show more content…

A master servant theme can be seen throughout the whole play. Prospero has a this relationship with both Ariel and Caliban clearly, but it is the way he goes about the relationship. He prefers Ariel because he is more compliant than Caliban and has more uses. Prospero’s relationship with Caliban is more toxic. These show what kind of person Prospero really is. He is a manipulative person that is willing to whatever he needs to get what he wants. This is compared to how the colonists interacted with the Native Americans. They would trade and help each, and were able to tolerate them. Eventually the colonist learned what they needed and then turned their backs on

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