Character Analysis: Caliban, This Thing of Darkness

Prospero enslaves Caliban and Ariel, seizing the island for him and Miranda, just like Alonso and Antonio had done to him. The rightful ruler of the island is Caliban, and although Caliban at one time tried to rape Miranda, Prospero repeatedly punishes him for this one event that occurred much before this play takes place. Prospero initially “helps” Caliban by educating him and in exchange, Caliban taught Prospero and Miranda how to survive on the island. Prospero uses the act of attempted-rape to justify his seizure of the island. This take-over should have been enough punishment but Prospero enslaves Caliban, threatening to hurt him if he does not do his bidding. By endlessly punishing Caliban, Prospero inadvertently shows his malicious side. Although Prospero freed Ariel from the tree he was bound inside, Prospero blackmails Ariel and essentially enslaves him too. Prospero repeatedly tells Ariel that he will set him free but, it seems as if that is an empty

In the play several characters are contrasted with Cyrano, to show his inner and lack of outer beauty. Count De Guiche, the villain of the story is used to show Cyrano's honor and bravery. Count De

Originally, he was a fair duke that showed love to everyone he met; however, his love of magic gets him exiled by his own brother. Once on the island of his banishment, Prospero develops monstrous characteristics of greed and domination. He imposes his beliefs upon initial inhabitants by teaching them his own language so that they could communicate with him (Tempest. I.ii.352-364). Prosper felt he had the superior form of communication and higher level of intellect, so the previous occupants should have to learn his language. He also forced his self-proclaimed authority on this creature who was the birth-right land-owner. This creature, Caliban, is upset and claims, “This island’s mine by Sycorax my mother, / Which thou tak’st from me” (Tempest. I.ii.331-332). Just as Prospero’s kingdom was taken from himself, he retaliated by taking Caliban’s kingdom from him. To do this, Prospero enslaved Caliban as well as another he finds on the island through use of his magic and forces them to do his menial tasks. It is through his exploiting and dominating actions that Prospero is seen as a monster. He cultivated his supremacy over everyone to a malicious extent that he was a malevolent monster disguised as a

Caliban’s strong emotional attachment to the island in The Tempest motivates him to actively respect nature. During Caliban 's first interaction with Prospero in the play, he states, “This Island’s mine, by Sycorax my mother.” This assertion of dominion by Caliban sparks a desire for him to protect the nature on the island. As a result, he values nature like it is an extension of himself and strives to maintain harmony with it. Caliban follows this up by reminding Prospero, “And then I loved thee and show 'd thee all the

In this motif tracing, I argue that the epithet “monster” is used as an agent of othering, a way to remove Caliban from the other characters and depict him as something other than human. In Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Caliban’s name is only said eight times, while he is addressed as “monster” the rest of the 34 times he is spoken to. This motif is used to belittle and dehumanize a unique character that plays an essential role in the plot. Shakespeare’s use of this epithet combined with Caliban’s servile role, restraint of his speech to simple diction, and portrayal as an insurgent, causes the uncultured native to be born. This plays into the 16th century view of the native: one who is there to serve the more sophisticated, knowledgeable masters.

Prospero uses his language to minimize and blame Caliban. Prospero not only refers to Caliban as “filth,” but also accuses him of “lying” and “seek[ing] to violate / [t]he honour of my child” (i.ii. 348- 351). Prospero blames his treatment of Caliban to the actions of Caliban; the quote: “with human care, and lodged thee / [i]n my own cell, till thou didst seek to violate / [t]he honour of my child” illustrates how Prospero blames Caliban for how Prospero treats him (i.ii. 349-351). This is violent because it shifts the blame from Prospero to Caliban essentially blaming the

Prospero, the self-appointed king of the island upon which everyone eventually becomes shipwrecked, immediately oppresses Caliban and claims him as his slave, even though Caliban was the original inhabitant of the island. Prospero and his daughter are technically guests in Caliban's home. Caliban is the son of the devil and Sycorax, a witch. Prospero uses Caliban's unsavory origin as an excuse to enslave him. He claims that he is a bad seed, and he deserves a life of servitude. He never actually justifies the situation with a logical explanation, so he must use whatever information he can think of as a poor excuse to exploit Caliban for his own self-propagation. Prospero is even bold enough to suggest that by enslaving Caliban, he is actually extending charity towards him. He feels that

In fact, the name of Caliban is a mere metathesis and anagram of cannibals; and the word cannibal is used by Christopher Columbus in describing Caribs' cannibalistic behaviors in 1498. Therefore, Shakespeare's bias in the play, The Tempest, illustrates Caliban as a savage, "a born devil whose nature nurture can never sticks and as with his body uglier grows so his mind cankers" (4.1.188-192). "The European claimed that they had a God-given responsibility to inhabit and reform so barbarious a nation and to educate to uplift the filthy people" (Takaki p 145). One of their responsibilities is "planting of religion among those infidels and increase the force of the Christians" (Hakluyt p.125) and others were showed by Shakespeare through actions of Prospero. He attempted to nurture, teach, and civilize Caliban. Despite Prospero's contributions, Caliban is incapable of learning anything but curses in foul language and even attempted to rape Prospero's beloved daughter, Miranda. Caliban's savagery is vividly portrayed in his sexual assault with lack of affections, and his animalistic innate instinct of reproduction and expanding its own kind. Judging against Ferdinand's conduct in accepting his slavery

Prospero uses his status as the father of Miranda to enact his own self-righteous deeds. Furthermore, Prospero uses his position of power within the patriarchal system with leisure. Prospero hides behind a powerful woman and declares all deeds in the name of his daughter. In actuality, all Prospero's actions are to advance his quest. Prospero uses Miranda to regain favor with the king and become Duke of Milan, yet again. Finally, Prospero is a symbol of all that is wrong with the patriarchal system, which is used to legitimate the deeds of evil men. Prospero inflicts great harm upon the female gender, who must live under its immense societal oppressive

The concept of dehumanization is seen all throughout the Shakespeare’s play. We begin to see this pattern through Trinculo and Stephano’s first encounter with Caliban in Act II, scene II. Due to Caliban’s animalistic appearance, Trinculo discredits his humanity: “What have we here? A man or a fish?” (2.2.24).

Prospero's relationship with Caliban differs from that of Prospero and Ariel's. Prospero does not view Caliban as a being who could be his equal. He is blinded by his prejudice against Caliban's appearance and manners. Caliban is portrayed in a negative light. He can be seen as the depiction of the victims of colonial expansion. Although Prospero seeks this righteousness, he both mistreats and insults Caliban, who ultimately attempts to kill Prospero.  In comparison to Ariel who acts only when commanded by Prospero, Caliban is wild. He refuses to be colonized and tamed. This can be taken as a reference by Shakespeare towards those who were

Caliban is disliked among the island.  He is repeatedly mocked and tormented.  In Act 2, scene 2, Trinculo repeatedly makes jokes of Caliban.  Caliban does not like this and 3 different time replies, (Act 2 scene 2 line 61)

            Caliban further demonstrates his childish instincts when he rebukes Prospero for first stroking and then disciplining him, and he claims to object to being made a subject when he was "mine own king."  Again, like a child, the character of Prospero is outraged at his parent-figure Prospero for punishing him when he has done wrong.  Also like a child, the idea of being his own ruler runs rampant through every child, who is treated like a royal until he or she is forced out into the real world and then expected to follow laws and social concepts.  Childhood can be defined as the

Caliban is subjected to a way of thought that is utterly new to him, given to him from Miranda and Propsero, and it is said by Montaigne that those who think and act in these way are savage, not just those who they imposed these ideas upon simply because in their eyes they were deemed as savage. Even though Caliban is a slave to Prospero and had wicked notions towards him, it is only because his natural state was altered, which can sometimes lead to an opposite effect than intended. Montaigne also describes that a nation that is closest to perfection is one with no knowledge of political systems, letters, numbers etcetera, and Shakespeare concurs with this through representing it in Gonzalo, who contemplates that if he had the island to rule, he would rule congruently with Montaigne’s belief. The characters of Caliban and Gonzalo both represent Shakespeare’s agreement with Montaigne and his philosophy of cultural

The previously mentioned literary piece was created right before Shakespeare`s death in 1616. The most controversial character in Shakespeare`s play the Tempest remains Caliban. Literary scholars have shared different ideas regarding the embodiment of this character and it has had different representations throughout the years. Caliban embodies social and political events which took place in Shakespeare`s lifetime. His name could not be far distinguished as anagram for “cannibal” or “Carib”, words which according to Vaughn, entered European languages after 1492, after Columbus discovered that some of the tribes encountered were cannibals, and they were reffered to as Caribs as potential reference to Caribbean languages. (Vaughan and Vaughan). Caliban`s lines in the Tempest in some way could be considered as a clear indication of Native American, as a character whose territory was occupied by a European and who was bound into