Caliban in Shakespeares The Tempest Essay - 1855 Words

The Tempest, considered by many to be Shakespeare’s farewell to the theatre, has of all his plays the most remarkable interpretive richness. The exceptional flexibility of Shakespeare’s stage is given particular prominence in The Tempest due to its originality and analytic potential, in particular in the presentation of one of his most renowned and disputed characters, Caliban. Superficially portrayed in the play as a most detestable monster, Caliban does not evoke much sympathy. However, on further examination Caliban presents himself as an extremely complex character and soon his apparent monstrosity is not so obviously transparent. The diverse range of presentations of him on stage exemplifies Caliban’s multifarious character.†¦show more content†¦In the introduction to Critical Essays on Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’, Editor Alden T. Vaughan describes how the commonly accepted view of Prospero’s character was that of â€Å"a wise and rational ruler [who] could govern the forces of disorder that undermine the family and the state†. Indeed, before the beginning of the nineteenth century Prospero was presented as thus, while Caliban as an abominable, inhuman beast. As the play drew a greater audience worldwide however, that view began to change and post-colonial interpretations began to present themselves in which Caliban was cast in a more empathic light. These critics noted how easily the figure of Caliban converges with the image of the cannibal, the mythical ‘savage’ whom many European travellers claimed to have encountered. The name Caliban even seems to be a pointed anagram of ‘cannibal’. Since that time, views have changed on the savagery of those natives and with it, on the savagery of Caliban. In the 1978 Royal Shakespeare Company production of The Tempest, David Suchet played a humanized, though exploited, ‘third-world’ Caliban, possibly a representative African or West Indian. This interpretation draws on many views that Caliban represents a subjugated native and that the relationship between Prospero and Caliban is, in fact, a relationship between the oppressor, and the oppressed. Indeed, the island was Caliban’s before Prospero and Miranda arrived where he was then reduced to being a slave.Show MoreRelated The Character of Caliban in Shakespeares The Tempest Essay1786 Words   |  8 PagesThe Character of Caliban in The Tempest       This thing of darkness, I must acknowledge mine It is impossible to understand The Tempest without first understanding the character of Caliban. Despite numerous novels and poems praising the virtuous, the pure and the good, everyone has within them a darker side of depravity and evil thoughts. This makes us human. What distinguishes between good and bad people, though, is the way in which this alter ego manifests itself to both the rest of mankindRead MoreThe Importance Of Caliban In Shakespeares The Tempest761 Words   |  4 Pagesâ€Å"morally wrong.† So does Prospero, in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, have a right to enslave Caliban, the probably mentally-impaired son of the witch Sycorax, after Caliban presumably raped Miranda, Prospero’s daughter? Many would say yes, because Prospero ruled the land and held the only prominent voice of government and law. However, if we broaden our view and see Prospero’s true intents and the numerous other actions he could have undertaken rather than enslaving Caliban, we discover Prospero’s illegitimacyRead MoreEssay on The Character of Caliban in Shakespeares Tempest1831 Words   |  8 Pages Caliban is one of the primary antagonists in William Shakespeares play The Tempest. It is impossible to understand the Tempest without first understanding the character of Caliban. Through the exploration of the character of Caliban the reader gains an understanding of his importance within the play and that he is simply not just black and white, there is also a great deal of grey. It is the characters ambiguity that enables him to be human inside although appearing bestial on the outside.Read MoreShakespeares Presentation of the Relationship between Prospero and Caliban in The Tempest1202 Words   |  5 PagesShakespeares Presentation of the Relationship between Prospero and Caliban in The Tempest Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’ is set on a small island between Tunis and Naples. The play is initially based around Prospero; once Duke of Milan, a loving father to Miranda and inhabitant of the island for the past twelve years, after being usurped by his scheming brother Antonio. When exploring the relationship between Prospero and Caliban, a ‘whelp hag-born’ living on the island whenRead MoreShakespeares Influence on the Audiences Response to Caliban in The Tempest1268 Words   |  6 PagesShakespeares Influence on the Audiences Response to Caliban in The Tempest My essay hopes to draw into focus one of the most complex characters in Shakespeares play The Tempest, - Caliban. Shakespeare influences the audiences response to Caliban using in turn, humour and pathos to make the audience relate to the various strands of his character. Caliban can be interpreted in many ways, and only when examining his character as a whole, can we truly understand how ShakespeareRead More Prospero and Caliban of William Shakespeares The Tempest Essay1036 Words   |  5 PagesProspero and Caliban of William Shakespeares The Tempest  Ã‚   Within The Tempest, characters such as Prospero and Caliban share an intimate connection. Without some kind of malevolent force motivating the action of the play, none of the major characters would come into contact with each other. A violent storm, formed by Prosperos magic, subjects the foreign characters to the might of his mysterious power. Issues of control become a central part of The Tempest. One way in which this is highlightedRead MoreProsperos Judgment of Caliban in Shakespeares The Tempest Essay971 Words   |  4 PagesJudgment of Caliban in Shakespeares The Tempest â€Å"A devil, a born devil, on whose nature Nurture can never stick; on whom my pains, Humanely taken are lost, quite lost. And so with age his body uglier grows, So his mind cankers.† (IV.I. 188-192) Prospero’s judgement on Caliban changes considerably throughout ‘The Tempest.’ HoweverRead More tempcolon Confronting Colonialism and Imperialism in Aime Cesaires A Tempest1403 Words   |  6 PagesColonialism in A Tempest   Ã‚  Ã‚   A Tempest by Aime Cesaire is an attempt to confront and rewrite the idea of colonialism as presented in Shakespeare’s The Tempest.   He is successful at this attempt by changing the point of view of the story.   Cesaire transforms the characters and transposes the scenes to reveal Shakespeare’s Prospero as the exploitative European power and Caliban and Ariel as the exploited natives.   Cesaire’s A Tempest is an effective response to Shakespeare’s The Tempest because heRead More Aime Cesaires A Tempest Clarifies Shakespeares The Tempest1683 Words   |  7 PagesCesaires A Tempest Clarifies Shakespeares The Tempest      Ã‚  Ã‚   Negritude, originally a literary and ideological movement of French-speaking black intellectuals, reflects an important and comprehensive reaction to the colonial situation of European colonization (Carlberg).   This movement, which influenced Africans as well as blacks around the world, specifically rejects the political, social, and moral domination of the West.  Ã‚   Leopold Senghor, Leon Damas, and Aime Cesaire are the three pioneersRead MoreWilliam Shakespeare s The Tempest1229 Words   |  5 Pagesplay, The Tempest. One of Cohen’s theses though - thesis four â€Å"The Monster Dwells at the Gates of Difference† - appears quite prominently in Shakespeare’s work. The thesis articulates that monsters are divisive and often arise in a culture to make one group seem superior to another. Further, societies devise monsters in order to create a scapegoat for social and political inequities and instabilities that surface in that society. In Shakespe are’s The Tempest, the idea applies to Caliban, who serves