The Tempest By William Shakespeare

     In Shakespeare's The Tempest, Prospero's magic is the means that Prospero teaches his lessons to the plays various characters. Whether or not those lessons were learned or not is irrelevant. The main issue is that Prospero's character is indeed a complex one, and one that deserves much attention. Two essays that look at the complexity of Prospero and his magic are Stephen Miko's "Tempest," and Barbara Mowat's "Prospero, Agrippa, and Hocus Pocus." Both of these essays, in dealing with Prospero and his magic reveal things about Prospero that only enhance the mystery of his character.

In the play, The Tempest, by William Shakespeare, Caliban is an important character. Caliban is a character who plays as a victim to be pitied, as well as a villain to watch out for. In this essay, I will show clearly how Caliban is a victim and villain by exploring his relationship with Prospero, Miranda, and the island.

The concept "knowledge is power" is reaffirmed through Prospero’s character. As long as he has his books he has knowledge and thus power. Prospero uses his knowledge to attain reason and consequently power. The play begins with his creation of a storm, giving him the ability to initiate and control problems. Using his knowledge as a catalyst for power David L. Hirst argues, “From the extension of reason, Prospero derives a power which he uses in an attempt to influence everyone on the island” (9). To Miranda, he is the strong protective father, who educates; to Caliban he represents the colonizer. Prospero describes Caliban as “a poisonous slave got by the devil himself” (1.2 323-324) who serves as his oppressed slave. To Ariel he represents the rescuer and constantly reminds her that it was he who freed him, yet he fails to grant the very liberty from which he saved. To the shipwrecked “he is a surrogate providence who corrects errant aristocrats and punishes plebeian revolt” (Brown 59). Recognizing themselves as subjects to Prospero validates Prospero’s position as governor.

In Shakespeare's play, “The Tempest”, Prospero, the main character, is the rightful Duke of Milan. He found refuge on a distant island after his brother, Antonio, seized Prospero’s title and homeland. These events and experiences of being exiled advance character to become isolated and enriched at the same time. As a comic hero, Prospero start off as being frustrated and vengeful due to his separation from his title and homeland, but is later refined due to those experiences.

William Shakespeare once said, “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none”. When exclaiming that, he meant that love should be given to all, trust should only be given to those with pure intentions, and harm to others should never be done. This play is not like the classical tragedy plays that Shakespeare used to write. On contrary, this is a story where revenge is an option, but forgiveness is ultimately shown. The Tempest has many non-human characters, one of them being Caliban. Shakespeare uses juxtaposition between Caliban and Prospero to depict confinement and freedom, and he also uses positive connotations to display forgiveness and reconciliation

In particular, Prospero’s fully straightforward anger is presented on when Caliban is in question (Sokol). Within this epiphany, Prospero has realized that he needs to take responsibility of what Caliban has become. He sees how his own actions have contributed to Caliban’s plot to assassinate him. “ Two of these fellows you must know and own; this thing of darkness I acknowledge mine” (Shakespeare 66). Prospero calls Caliban a “thing of darkness”, but he knows Caliban is only a thing of darkness because of what he has done to Caliban.

Magic can be portrayed as doing many different things as both a source of good and evil. Prospero is portrayed as being a sorcerer of great power.

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

The character of Prospero underwrites the theme of black magic or in other words liberal arts. In difference from those who, by a group made with devil, agree to be his instruments, paying for the enjoyment of the supernatural power then gaining the salvation from their souls. however we find Prospero using his power through the spirit of Ariel in most cases but in some cases h3 use his boundless knowledge about liberal art in the case of defeating the witch Sycorax.

In order to understand the characters in a play, we have to be able to distinguish what exactly makes them different. In the case of The Tempest, Caliban, the sub-human slave is governed largely by his senses, making him the animal that he is portrayed to be and Prospero is governed by sound mind, making him human. Caliban responds to nature as his instinct is to follow it. Prospero, on the other hand, follows the art of justifiable rule. Even though it is easy to start assessing The Tempest in view of a colonialist gaze, I have chosen instead to concentrate on viewing Caliban as the monster he is portrayed to be, due to other characters that are not human, but are treated in a more humane fashion than Caliban.

Prospero even creates the actual tempest of the play through Ariel, which allows the creation of the rest of the story to happen. Prospero’s art is truly powerful and permits Prospero to conjure up and wield anything he must to attain his desired purpose or fancy. As Stopford A. Brooke states about Prospero: “He acts like a divine Providence, moulding nature and human wills to his purposed end” (Brooke 307).

The Tempest is a play that has a theme of nature and civilization. It has a strong theme that deals with issues of colonizer and the colonized. While to many people this play may simply be just a play, it really has a story of what happens when nature and civilization collide. The character Caliban represents a being of pure nature. The character Prospero is civilization. These characters can also be seen as the colonized and the colonizer. The relationship they have is very complex and is a constant struggle, much like any relationship between a colonizer and colonized. It questions what is pure nature? Is it savage and monster like, as Caliban is? In this paper I will examine the relationship between Caliban

     During the time of Shakespeare, society had a hierarchical structure. In Shakespeare's play, The Tempest, the characters of Prospero and Caliban, represent two different extremes on the social spectrum: the ruler, and the ruled. Their positions on the social hierarchy are largely due to the fact that Caliban responds almost wholly to passions, feelings of pleasure -- his senses, while Prospero is ruled more by his intellect and self-discipline -- his mind. However, the fight that Prospero has against his own natural tendency to ignore the discipline of his intellect, and give in to pleasures such as vanity and self-indulgence, cannot be ignored.

Prospero and Miranda are both civilized, like the Europeans Montaigne refers to. Caliban, on the other hand, is more akin to the cannibals whose life Montaigne writes about and lauds. In the essay, Montaigne argues in favor of the cannibal way of life by asserting its proximity to nature, and nature’s inherent superiority. He compares the cannibals to wild fruit and the Europeans to “those that we have changed artificially and led astray from the common order that we should rather call wild”. He states that “the laws of nature still rule [the cannibals] very little corrupted by ours; and they are in such a state of purity that I am sometimes vexed that they were unknown earlier” (153). He hails purity as part of nature’s superiority and the ruling of natural laws as supreme. This brings us back to The Tempest, where natural laws so clearly rule Caliban. It is no coincidence that the name Caliban is almost an anagram for the word

     Late in the fourth act, Prospero interrupts Ariel masque when he suddenly overcome with rage at the thought of Caliban’s plot against him (“Go charge my goblins that they grind their joints/With dry convulsions, shorten up their sinews/With aged cramps, and more pinch-spotted make them/Than pard or cat o’ mountain.'; 4.i.259-262). This fury makes him a flesh-and-blood human being rather than a godlike figure. In that same scene, Prospero shows his human quality again when, for a while there, he is absentminded in forgetting the plot of Caliban against him.