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How Is Prospero A Foil Character

Decent Essays

When Prospero calls upon Caliban he refers him to as ‘thou poisonous slave, got by the devil himself’ (1.2.320) this is significant as poison runs through your veins resulting in the deterioration of your body hence, Caliban’s appearance ‘…not honoured with a human shape’. This suggests to the reader that Prospero has no respect for Caliban. The quote conveys Caliban’s flaws of being vulnerable, due to being a foil character he is the opposite of the protagonist; Prospero, this is because his mother Sycorax was wicked to him and did not teach him moral. This is evident when Caliban attempts to rape Miranda stating ‘Though dist prevent me – I had peopled else this isle with Calibans’ the quote is meaningful, as it is an indication of subliminal …show more content…

Dickens might have chosen the name Pip as it suggests that he originated from something small but his ‘expectations’ have resulted in him to flourish into a gentleman. This can relate to the social standing between Pip and Estella as she comes from a higher class. The name Estella is derived from the word ‘stella’ meaning star; it could imply that that Estella is out of Pip’s reach.

Caliban’s submissive behaviour to his yearnings can be seen in Act 2 scene 2 when Stephano offers Caliban alcohol this relates to the trade and discovery of new products such as the potato, spices, coffee, alcohol and much more. Having too much of a good thing has weakened Caliban as it is used against him as a leverage. Stephano also has flaws of his own such as trying to civilise Caliban which goes against his nature which many tried to do in order to colonise indigenous people. Stephano’s flaw can be subliminally noticed in the money given to Pip as the money controls his behaviour. Some might say that the money given to Pip has damaged his true nature as he spends his entire youth trying to better himself and his appearance as he is ashamed, this can be seen in chapter 27 when Joe visits Pip in London, this is demonstrated in Pip’s analysis of

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