The Purpose of Caliban in The Tempest
One of the indispensable themes displayed in The Tempest is the duality of nature and society. This is made apparent through the character of Caliban. Caliban is a dis-figured fish-like creature that inhabits the island where the play The Tempest, takes place.
Caliban is the son a witch-hag, and the only native on the island. In Caliban's first speech, he suggests that Prospero stole the island from him. (Act 1, Scene 1, line 331-342)
"This island's mine by Sycorax my mother
Which thou tak'st from me. When thou camest first,
Caliban is a servant to Prospero, the right duke of Milan. Caliban is a monstrous, and ugly creature. He is often referred to as servant-monster by others characters. At the start of the play, Caliban curses at the authority of Prospero because his dislikes him. (Act 1 scene 2 line 321-324)
"As wicked dew as e'er my mother brush'd
with raven's feather from unwholesome fen
Drop on both! A south-west blow on ye
And blister all o'er"
Although Caliban has a foolish tongue, he is very knowledgeable on the island. Prospero recognizes his survival on the island but shows no respect for this. (Act 1 scene 2 line 366-371)
""Hag-seed, hence!
Fetch us in fuel; and be quick, thou'rt best,"
Caliban shows inconsideration and greed when he attempts to rape Miranda. Miranda is Prospero's only daughter. Caliban admits to the accusations of the attempt of rape, and states that he would have populated the island with his offspring. (Act 1 scene 2, line 349)
"O ho, O ho! Would't had been done!
Thou didst prevent me; I had people else
This isle with Calibans"
Caliban is intimat...
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... creature. Caliban is a character that learned to survive, just as every one does through life.
Works Cited and Consulted:
Davidson, Frank. "The Tempest: An Interpretation." In The Tempest: A Casebook. Ed. D.J. Palmer. London: Macmillan & Co. Ltd., 1968. 225.
Kermode, Frank. Introduction. The Tempest. By William Shakespeare. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1958. xlii.
Palmer, D. J. (Editor) The Tempest - A Selection of Critical Essays London: MacMillan Press Ltd., 1977.
Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. The Riverside Shakespeare. Ed. G. Blakemore Evans, et. al. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1974.
Stott, Jon et al. The Harbrace Anthology of Literature. Second Ed. Harcourt Brace and Company, 1998.
Solomon, Andrew. "A Reading of the Tempest." In Shakespeare's Late Plays. Ed. Richard C. Tobias and Paul G. Zolbrod. Athens: Ohio UP, 1974. 232.
Does the Sweatt case show that " separate but equal" cannot exist as a law? Yes.
People with bulimia, known as bulimics, indulge in bingeing, which are episodes of eating large amounts of food to satisfy their hunger and craving for food. Then there is purging, this happens after bingeing and it is a means of getting rid of the food by vomiting or using laxatives.
Shakespeare, William. The Norton Shakespeare. Edited Stephen Greenblatt et al. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1997.
Even Miranda, Prospero’s daughter, speaks in a way that categorizes Caliban as an uneducated and uncivilized savage. “I pitied thee, Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour […] When thou didst not, savage, know thine own meaning […]” (1.2.356-359) Miranda doesn’t stop there; she continues labeling Caliban, “But thy vile race, though thou didst learn, had that in’t which good natures could not abide to be with; therefore wast though deservedly confined into this rock […]” (1.2.361-364). Exactly this kind of discourse turns Caliban into a subject. If Caliban had not been alone on the island, then Prospero and Miranda would have categorized a whole group of human beings rather than just one.
Another way that the treatment of Caliban by Prospero is similar to the treatment of Native Americans by the Europeans is the adaptation of the language. When the Europeans came to the New World they forced the Native Americans to learn their languages and live according to the European culture. People who had spoken one language all their lives, now had to learn another. They had to live by customs they have never heard of even before. In the Tempest, Prospero does this also. When Prospero came to the island he forced Caliban to learn the language that he spoke. Caliban had to adapt to a style of living that he had never experienced before. Caliban had to change completely to adapt to the life forced upon him.
Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. The Norton Shakespeare. Ed. Greenblatt, Stephen. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. Inc., 1997.
When Caliban is first introduced in the play it is as an animal, a lazy beast that tried to rape Prospero’s daughter, Miranda. Prospero wastes no time referring to him as, “Thou poisonous slave, got by the de...
Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. Second Revised Ed. United States of America: First Signet Classics Print, 1998. 1-87. Print.
In this whimsical play, Prospero, the former Duke of Milan, after being supplanted of his dukedom by his brother, arrives on an island. He frees a spirit named Ariel from a spell and in turn makes the spirit his slave. He also enslaves a native monster named Caliban. These two slaves, Caliban and Ariel, symbolize the theme of nature versus nurture. Caliban is regarded as the representation of the wild; the side that is usually looked down upon. Although from his repulsive behavior, Caliban can be viewed as a detestable beast of nature, it can be reasonably inferred that Shakespeare’s intent was to make Caliban a sympathetic character.
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The role of language in Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest” is quite significant. To Miranda and Prospero the use of language is a means to knowing oneself. Caliban does not view language in the same light. Prospero taught Caliban to speak, but instead of creating the feeling of empowerment from language, Caliban reacts in insurrectionary manner. Language reminds him how different he is from Miranda and Prospero, and also how they have changed him. It also reminds him of how he was when he wasn’t a slave. He resents Prospero for “Civilising” him, because in doing so he took away his freedom.
Prospero appears to be a ruthless tyrant that strikes fear into Caliban to make him work but further on in the text we learn that this is not the case. Caliban's foul-mouthed insults,
The Tempest. Arden Shakespeare, 1997. Print. Third Series Smith, Hallet Darius. Twentieth Century Interpretations of The Tempest; A Collection of Critical Essays, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1969.
Caliban is evil is the fact that he tried to rape Miranda, Prospero’s daughter as states 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 happen to. It 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. As a servant, he does evil deed and by himself he is evil.
In Shakespeare’s play The Tempest, there are two characters who appear to be polar opposites. The characters of Caliban and Ariel both play very important roles in the play. The term caliban is defined as “a brutish or brutalized man,” and the term ariel is defined as “a spirit of the air” (Dictionary). The definitions of these two characters names even show the huge difference in the two characters before readers or viewers even get to know the characters. There are also differences in how the two characters feel about the self-proclaimed king of the island, Prospero. However, regardless of their many differences the one thing that they do have in common is the fact that they are both oppressed by Prospero who has deemed himself king of the island and seek freedom.