INTRODUCTION
William Shakespeare’s The Tempest tells the story of Prospero who is exiled on an island along with his daughter, Miranda. Inhabiting the island is a spirit named Ariel and an ugly monster named Caliban. Miranda, Ariel and Caliban all vary in nature. However, all have been tended to and have been nurtured on the island by Prospero. Especially through Caliban and Miranda, Shakespeare demonstrates that education and nurturing can affect the person’s true nature and self.
NURTURE VS. NURTURE
Nurture is how one is brought up or raised. It includes social standards and customs in the area one was raised. Nurture varies from nature. Nature is one’s biological makeup, or how one was born. Caliban, for example, was born a monster. His mother was an evil witch named Sycorax. When Prospero first came on the island, he and Caliban got along and planned to dually rule the island. However, after Caliban attempted to rape Miranda, Prospero made Caliban his slave. Although Prospero attempted to turn Caliban good, his evil nature took over the attempted nurture. Michael Taylor in Shakespeare Criticism in the Twentieth Century describes the nature of Caliban.
“Absolute natural evil of Caliban in The Tempest in the case of Caliban, it we accept the absoluteness of his natural evil, we must accept what Charney describes as a necessary (and absolute) ‘discontinuity in his character:. . .” (Bloom 128)
Caliban is described as “naturally evil”. Despite any efforts, his nature cannot be changed. His natural evil in The Tempest will always triumph any attempts to change him. His relationship to an evil witch made him naturally evil and will forever be who he truly is.
Miranda has been raised along with Caliban. Pros...
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...it, MI: Gale Research, 1987. Print.
Scott, Mark W. Shakespearean Criticism: Volume 133, Excerpts from the Criticism of William Shakespeare's Plays and Poetry, from the First Published Appraisals to Current Evaluations. Detroit, MI: Gale Research, 1987. Print.
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Taylor, Michael. Shakespeare Criticism in the Twentieth Century. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2001. Print.
Clark, W.G., and W. Aldis Wirhgt, eds. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Vol 2. USA: Nd. 2 vols.
During the course of the play The Tempest, the psychoanalytical criticism can be applied while reading these scenes. As Freud argues that all humans have a dark side to them, we tend to hide this side of us as we get older. This can be shown by the character, Caliban with his uncontrolled side, which is reflected as the dark side in a human. Caliban is seen to be the superego in the play, which is evident when he does not wish to receive Prospero’s physical punishments. Despite the punishments he receives, his desires fail to remain within him. Caliban is also missing his mother in this play, which leads him to feel inadequate. Prospero is one of the only obstacles between him and Miranda. Prospero’s desire for power and control over the characters in the play, shows Freud’s theory coming into play, if one craves power, it is possible because one has lacked in its childhood.
Aurora, N.Y.: The Roycroft Shops, 1929. 133-150. Rpt. in Shakespearean Criticism. Ed. Lynn M. Zott. Vol. 69. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 16 Feb. 2011.
Characters in The Tempest see Caliban as rude, while in the poem he sees himself as damaged by his past. People around Caliban see him as rude because he is never nice to them, but in the poem, he says his past is the reason he’s rude. On page
...elm. Criticism on Shakespeare s Tragedies . A Course of Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature. London: AMS Press, Inc., 1965.
Caliban is rude, crude, ugly and lazy. Speaking in a psychoanalytic manner, Caliban is going to be remembered as bitter and obsessed with sex. This sexual desire is going to be coincided first with thoughts of his mutation-- a feeling of inadequacy-- and then more significantly with the absence of his mother. That he had no parents on which to form an Oedipal complex and knows only who his mother was (nothing is mentioned of his father) makes for interesting observations on how he deals with sexuality. We learn that he does not deny that Prospero is the only barrier between him and the rape of Miranda. It is clear that he has developed only so far as Freud’s theory of id, with small touches of the superego. Caliban’s development of the superego is evident only when he does not wish to receive Prospero’s pinches and cramps. He is otherwise all for anything that will bring him pleasure. Being free of Prospero, fulfilling his sexual desires with Miranda and drinking liquor are all on his menu.
Shakespeare, William. The Norton Shakespeare. Edited Stephen Greenblatt et al. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1997.
Shakespeare shows this by having Prospero, the rightful duke of Milan and Usurping ruler of the island, call Caliban. “A devil, a born devil on whose nature nurture can never stick” but then having Miranda, Prospero’s daughter, say. “I pitied thee, took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour one thing or another.” Prospero is saying that Caliban is a “savage” who can not be educated, yet we hear that Miranda has taught him to speak, amongst other things. This gives a conflicting view of the character of Caliban.
Cohen, Walter, J.E. Howard, K. Eisaman Maus. The Norton Shakespeare. Vol. 2 Stephen Greenblatt, General Editor. New York, London. 2008. ISBN 978-0-393-92991-1
Dartmouth, n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2014. Wells, Stanley. Shakespeare in the theatre: an anthology of criticism.
Schlegel, August Wilhelm. Criticism on Shakespeare s Tragedies . A Course of Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature. London: AMS Press, Inc., 1995.
One way in which The Tempest reflects Shakespeare's society is through the relationship between characters, especially between Prospero and Caliban. Caliban is the former king of the island, and Prospero and his daughter Miranda teach him how to be "civilized." Immediately thereafter, Prospero and Miranda enslave Caliban and he is forced to be their servant. Caliban explains "Thou strok'st me and make much of me...
As some of essays about The Tempest would conclude, the core of The Tempest seems to be the colonialism. Then without any question, the most crucial character under this conclusion, Caliban becomes the symbol of oppressed occurs of colonialism. However, did Shakespeare address this issue intentionally? Is colonialism just an interpretation from a modern perspective? Probably we assert the statement too fast to contemplate author’s focus of his work. As Vaughan mentioned in his essay: “... most Third-World authors who borrow emblems from The Tempest ignore, as irrelevant, Shakespeare’s sources and intentions. The Third World interpretation of Caliban is symbolic, not historic; it adopts Caliban for What he represents to the observer, not for what Shakespeare may have had in mind.” (Vaguhan, 291). Building such a connection between colonization and the exotic characters and settings simply make the fantasy accessible to the audiences, yet it doesn’t necessarily fit the situation at that time. Since colonization evolved throughout the time. “New situations give the play’s characters new meanings.” {Vaguhan, 291). If we delete the cultural background of ourselves and focus on the age of Tempest being created exclusively, we might not see Caliban as a black
... Another instance that Caliban is evil is the fact that he tried to rape Miranda, Prospero’s daughter as stated 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 happened to. It’s 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.