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How The Power Of Language Influences Society

Satisfactory Essays

Emily Petersen

CSCL 1401 Reading Literature

Dylan Mohr

Essay One Rewrite

30 November 2015

How the Power of Language Influences Society

Language, simply defined as a system of human communication, has an immense amount of power. Language has the ability to intimidate, inspire, inform, innovate, and influence. It gives one not only the power to speak, but the opportunity to communicate one’s ideas with others. The implications of language can yield results that are both positive and negative, but ultimately one quality must outweigh the other. In Shakespeare’s The Tempest, the relationship and interactions between Prospero and Caliban dramatize that the power of language does more harm than good, because it determines how people think, it contributes to a person’s sense of value, and it establishes a system of control.

The language you speak can determine your thought process. One can only think and express one’s ideas with the words and expressions in the language one knows, so one’s ability to communicate is restricted. After Prospero arrived on the island Caliban resided on, Caliban was stripped of his native language. His ability to speak and think in his native language was replaced with the language Prospero taught him. When Caliban is speaking back against Prospero, the curses he is trying to place upon Prospero have no meaning in Prospero’s language: “All the charms / Of Sycorax - toads, beetles, bats, light on you!” (339-340). Caliban is attempting to

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