The Tempest

The ostracism and exploitation of Caliban because he is perceived as a brutish animal compared to “civilized” folks is in keeping with the theme and intent of the play-to show that reality is more a manifestation of mentality and conscious perception than concrete black and white, definable phenomena. As one scholar of Elizabethan imagery suggests, “The poet who imitates not the visible world but the intelligible as manifested in the visible will not consider that the use of artifice to emphasize form makes imagery less ‘true to nature’” (Scanlan 1). In The Tempest we see a great deal of artifice to understand what is manifested in the visible, however, with Caliban we see that all the artifice in the world does not help him be accepted by those who inhabit the island once his own. Prospero has enslaved the son that Sycorax “did litter” on the island, and his lovely daughter Miranda says of his slave, “’Tis a villain, sir,/I do not love to look o

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y does Prospero enslave Caliban, albeit with a compassionate demeanor, but so do the shipwrecked travelers who come upon Caliban. Immediately, they are taken by this half-human who represents the odd and unusual to them because he is the unknown, at least in terms of culture and behavior. Because he is so different he is seen as potentially profitable and open to exploitation. Yet, as much as he is viewed as being worth money, he is still seen as a savage who needs tamed by the interlopers on his island. As Stephano, a drunken butler, exclaims, “If I can recover him, and keep him tame, and/get to Naples with him, he’s a present for any/emperor that ever trod on neat’s leather/…If I can recover him and/and keep him tame, I will not take too much/for him: he shall pay for him that hath him,/and that soundly” (Shakespeare 11). Like many conquering cultures, Stephano intends to get his “prey” drunk in order to subdue him, much as Native Americans were often plied with liquor in order to make it easier to take advantage of them. The ironic thing about Caliban is that, despite the fact that he was a native of the island, he has developed an inferior perspective of himself in relation to those who try to control him. He knows he
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1630
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)