Colonialism:
During the time when The Tempest was written and
first performed, both Shakespeare and his audiences
would have been very interested in the efforts of
English and other European settlers to colonize
distant lands around the globe.
The Tempest explores the complex and problematic
relationship between the European colonizer and the
native colonized peoples through the relationship
between Prospero and Caliban. Prospero views Caliban as a lesser being than himself. As
such, Prospero believes that Caliban should be grateful to him for educating Caliban and
lifting him out of "savagery." It simply does not occur to Prospero that he has stolen
rulership of the island from Caliban, because Prospero can't imagine Caliban as being fit to
rule anything. In contrast, Caliban soon realizes that Prospero views him as a second-class
citizen fit only to serve and that by giving up his rulership of the island in return for his
education, he has allowed himself to be robbed. As a result, Caliban turns bitter and violent,
which only reinforces Prospero's view of him as a "savage." Shakespeare uses Prospero and
Caliban's relationship to show how the misunderstandings between the colonizer and the
colonized lead to hatred and conflict, with each side thinking that the other is at fault.
,In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me
The rest 0' th' island.'
(Act 1, Scene 2, lines 342-345)
Caliban questions the authority of a ruler who has only one subject and laments the
conditions of his subjugation.
'Thou most lying slave,
Whom stripes may move, not kindness, I have used thee,
Filth as thou art, with human care, and lodged thee
In mine own cell, till thou didst seek to violate
The honour of my child.'
(Act 1, Scene 2, lines 345-349)
Prospero admonishes Caliban for lying about his situation on the island and reminds him
how well he was treated before he tried to rape Miranda.
'You taught me language, and my profit on 't
Is I know how to curse. The red plague rid you
For learning me your language!'
(Act 1, Scene 2, lines 364-366)
Caliban insists that the only benefit he gained from being taught language by Miranda and
Prospero is his ability to curse.
'Sir, you may thank yourself for this great loss,
That would not bless our Europe with your daughter,
But rather lose her to an African,
Where she at least is banished from your eye,
Who hath cause to wet the grief on 't.'
(Act 2, Scene 1, lines 124-128)
Sebastian blames Alonso for the shipwreck as he married his daughter than a more suitable
man, in his opinion, in Europe.
, 'I' th' commonwealth I would by contraries
Execute all things, for no kind of traffic
Would I admit; no name of magistrate;
Letters should not be known; riches, poverty,
And use of service, none; contract, succession,
Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none;
No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil;
No occupation; all men idle, all,
And women too, but innocent and pure;
No sovereignty-'
(Act 2, Scene 1, lines 148-157)
Gonzalo describes his utopia, or ideal society, in which all people live equal, idyllic lives.
'I say by sorcery he got this isle;
From me he got it. If thy greatness will,
Revenge it on him - for I know thou dar'st,
But this thing dare not -'
(Act 3, Scene 2, lines 50-53)
Caliban tells Stephano that Prospero stole the island from him through sorcery, and asks
Stephano to overthrow him and take the island back.
'A devil, a born devil, on whose nature
Nurture can never stick; on whom my pains,
Humanely taken, all, all lost, quite lost;
And as with age his body uglier grows,
So his mind cankers.'
(Act 4, Scene 1, 188-192)
Prospero, referring to Caliban, believes that all of his effort to 'tame' and 'civilise' him have
been for nothing,
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