The Tempest
William Shakespeare
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Character Analysis: Caliban
Caliban is the rightful owner of the island and this provides the play with a deeply troubling and political underbelly.
Through a postcolonial reading, Caliban’s character is a door to the processes of colonisation in action in Shakespeare’s time. This begins in his first scene, in which he is literally referred to as a slave. But the postcolonial connotations extend beyond the literal here. Yes he’s poorly treated by Prospero and yes he’s had the island taken from him, but the colonial implications bleed through more sinisterly when we look at the way language operates in the play. For example, Caliban highlights that initially Prospero and Miranda’s English lessons were valuable and beneficial, using verse. In Shakespeare’s plays, verse is normally reserved for elite characters while prose (plain text) is reserved for the lower classes, so it’s definitely interesting that Caliban occasionally speaks in verse! to elucidate the wonder that was present early in their relationship: “When thou cam’st first / Thou strok’st me, and made much of me; wouldst give me / Water with berries in’t, and teach me how / To name the bigger light.”
But it very quickly becomes clear that Prospero’s acquisition of English is actually used to control him, rather than uplift him. This is evident in Miranda’s manipulation of Caliban when he arcs up: “I pitied thee, / Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour / One thing or other. When thou didst not, savage, / Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like / A thing most brutish, I endowed thy purposes / With words that made them known.”
This reveals Caliban’s control at the hands of his learned language, but also the “mission civilisatrice” which was apparent in Shakespeare’s context. The “mission civilisatrice,” or ‘civilising mission,’, was a common justification for colonisation, as it implied that through the spread of Westernisation (i.e. through English), Europeans could uplift the ‘savages’ of the Orient. This civilising mission leads us to opportunities to reconsider the relationship between Prospero and Caliban. As Caliban can be read as symbolic of the victims of colonisation, Prospero can therefore be read as a perpetrator of the civilising mission. After all, he initially takes Caliban in and tries to educate him to fit in with the Western ideals, teaching him language and poetry. This is particularly clear in Shakespeare’s choice to make Prospero speak in both prose and verse (which as aforementioned, is pretty symbolic!) Plus, Prospero acknowledges in the final scene that Caliban is, in a way, his responsibility: “This thing of darkness I / Acknowledge mine.”
This dynamic perhaps explains why Prospero and Miranda are in fact so hurt by Caliban’s curses and actions. If Prospero knows Caliban can’t actually enact his curses, why then does Prospero react with anger to Caliban’s curses and later usurpation attempt? Perhaps because Prospero had desired to turn Caliban into his Western ‘unsavage’ ideal, but has routinely failed? In this vein, Caliban’s poetic speech about his island in Act 3 Scene 2 represents what Caliban could have been under Prospero’s teaching, if he had been able to overcome his intrinsically ‘savage’ nature.
This postcolonial reading invites the audience into a reconsideration of Prospero’s control of the island and Caliban. Even though Caliban is on a mission to usurp him, the audience is encouraged to empathise with his goals and re-evaluate the legitimacy of Prospero’s claim to the island.
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The Tempest
Sample Essay
The Tempest begins, conveniently enough, with a tempest. The courtiers – the main ones being Alonso (the King of Naples), Ferdinand (Alonso’s son), Antonio (the Duke of Milan), Gonzalo (adviser to the King), and Sebastian (the brother of the King) – are on board a ship with the Mariners and Boatswain. The storm worsens and chaos ensues.
The conductor of the storm is then revealed – the wronged Duke of Milan, Prospero, who after being usurped by his brother Antonio, King Alonso, and Sebastian, fled to the island which he and his daughter, Miranda, now live on. After years of keeping her in the dark, Prospero decides now is the time to tell Miranda of their past seeing as the storm “hath mine enemies / Brought to this shore.” He then calls his spirit/servant Ariel to the stage and bids him to report on the shipwreck they have just caused together. Ariel recounts the tale of the shipwreck with sheer delight, and reports that all of the royal party are in fact safe upon the shore with “not a hair perished.” After Ariel gets a little bit volatile, Prospero awakens Miranda and off they go to visit Caliban – the ‘monster’ which Prospero has imprisoned within the rocks. It’s revealed that Caliban is furious with Prospero and resents his capture, which will eventually lead to his usurping desires later in the play.
Next, Ariel brings Ferdinand to Prospero and Miranda, and since Ferdinand is the first man that Miranda has ever seen except her father and Caliban, she instantly falls in love. He promises that he’ll make her Queen of Naples and off the happy couple go.
The other courtiers (who Ferdinand believes are drowned!) enter and become absolutely enthralled by the island, confused by its music, wonders, and mystique. Their scenes mostly consist of good-natured Gonzalo trying to cheer up poor Alonso who believes that his son is drowned, as they wander confused around the island. But while Alonso mopes (and naps), Antonio and Sebastian rile each other up to kill Alonso and thereby transfer the throne to Sebastian, seeing as Alonso’s heirs are gone (with Ferdinand believed to be drowned, and Claribel married to the King of Tunis).
We are then introduced to the final set of characters, Trinculo and Stephano, two lower class members of the courtier party. After getting mixed up with Caliban, who proclaims them his new masters, they decide to murder Prospero and take the isle for themselves.
Meanwhile, as Ferdinand and Miranda fall deeper in love (and eventually get married!), Prospero and Ariel haunt and taunt the courtiers drawing them not only closer to Prospero, but closer to the brink of insanity. Eventually, just before meeting with his enemies (both the usurpers of his past and of his present), Prospero decides to part with his magic and rather than pursue revenge, decides upon forgiveness.
Upon Prospero revealing himself to them, the courtiers are dumbstruck. Alonso in particular is so affected by both seeing Prospero and the horrors he has experienced on the island that he immediately revokes the Dukedom from Antonio and restores it to Prospero. Prospero indicts Antonio and Sebastian for their immoral actions before revealing to Alonso that not only is his son Ferdinand alive, he is healthy and in love with Prospero’s daughter Miranda.
After the happy reunion between father and son, Ariel brings the new usurpers (Caliban, Trinculo, and Stephano) to Prospero and they apologise for their actions. For Ariel’s obedience, Prospero decides to set him free, but Caliban’s future is unclear. While Prospero and Miranda will be travelling back to Italy with the courtiers, Shakespeare leaves us in the dark regarding Caliban’s fate, ending with a grand epilogue delivered by Prospero, begging the audience to release not just Prospero from his role, but the actor too.
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