The TempestEssay Preview: The TempestReport this essayThe Tempest and a Colonialist RepresentationThe Tempest, most likely written in 1610-1611 and staged for the first time at the royal marriage of Princess Elizabeth around 1612, is the final play that Shakespeares wrote on his own. It is shrouded in the classic ambiguity that is unique to Shakespeares work and thus allows for multiple interpretations. For over a century, and particularly in the past twenty years, one of the more popular approaches to The Tempest is the influence of colonialism and its representation in Shakespeares last play. In 1818 the English critic, William Hazlitt, was the first to actually point out that Prospero had usurped Caliban from his position of rule on the island, therefore placing Prospero in the role of an agent of imperialism (T. Vaughan). Calibans character is thus identified as the European symbol of the colonized. Since Hazlitts first account of supposed colonialism, the theme has remained more or less a mainstream theory, albeit a slippery one.
In exploring the influence of European colonialism on the play, many critics place much of their attention on the events surrounding European colonization of the “New World” in Jamestown, Virginia that occurred around 1607. The plays initial storm or tempest scene has early scholars paying attention to a particular incident in the British efforts to colonize the “New World.” Nine pilgrim ships and another ship called the Sea Venture, which was carrying all of the colonial officers, left England in 1609, and headed for Jamestown, Virginia. All the ships disappeared and its passengers were thought dead until they resurfaced approximately a year later in Virginia and revealed that they had wrecked off the coast of Bermuda (Skura). Both of these historical events, the colonization of North America and the consequent ship wreck, are thought to be significant influences on Shakespeares imagination and on The Tempest itself.
If we are to acknowledge the historical relevance of Jamestowns colonization then we must also realize the extent to which the characters in The Tempest are influenced, much like how the events of the play resemble the reality of Jamestown and the subsequent events. Prospero is a usurped Duke of Milan, hence a European, who has escaped with his daughter and landed on a tropical, Mediterranean island. He has taken charge of this remote island and has succeeded in doing so by employing his special powers or magic, and by forcibly employing the help of the indigenous inhabitants via threats of painful force or by the use of his magic. Thus Prospero represents the European authority that exerts control over the strange non-European inhabitants, Ariel and Caliban.
Caliban, the indigenous inhabitant of the island, is presented as “a freckled whelp, hag-born” (1.2.285) monster. Frank Kermode, a prominent critic in the fifties, has described Caliban as the “core” or “ground” of the plays representation of the uncivilized man and the reconsideration of civilized human nature. Caliban is introduced to the audience as a “savage” and “deformed slave.” He is neither man nor animal and born of a witch. He is considered to be part of nature, as Indians often are thought to be even today, and his name itself seems to be a thinly disguised play on the word cannibal (Skura). He has lived and ruled his island in relative peace and without the influence of any outsiders, until he meets Prospero and the shipwrecked nobles that invade his island. Caliban, the island native, regards himself as the rightful owner of this island who is now forced, against his will, to serve Prospero and his daughter, Miranda. He constantly complains and laments over his subjugation and unwillingly performs his tasks.
Caliban is, to many, the metaphor for the native cultures that exist in an imperialist world. There are several mentions made by Caliban that lead one to a colonial image, though not necessarily an American Indian one. Caliban resents the invasion of his island by strangers, who when they first came, “Strokst me and made much of me,” (1.2.330) only later to enslave and confine him. In a particularly revealing exchange, Prospero scolds Caliban with “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” (1.2.355-58). In other words, Prospero accredits himself for teaching Caliban a language that was civilized and had a meaning that could now be understood and communicated. Caliban, in his wit, responds, “You taught me language, and my profit ont / Is, I know how to curse. The red plague rid you / For learning me your language!” (1.2.363-65). Caliban is quick to denote how uncivilized Prospero is by pointing out that Caliban has now been taught to swear. Whereas, the implications are that he obviously did not do so before he learned this so called “civilized” language. For Caliban, this offering of language is not a gift but an imposition, a means of enforcing Prosperos rule on his recalcitrant subject.
When Caliban and Prospero first meet there is an initial hospitable exchange or swap of knowledge. Prospero teaches Caliban how to speak and in return Caliban reveals the islands natural resources. But the relationship turns sour when Caliban attempts to force himself on Miranda in order to populate the isle with other Calibans. Prospero then imposes the master slave rapport on Caliban. If Prospero questioned Calibans brutishness he now is affirmed in his belief. He describes Caliban accordingly:
A devil, a born devil, on whose natureNurture 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 (4.1.188-92).To prospero, “Calibans physical deformity mirrors his moral limitations, which, in Prosperos analysis, are in born and native to him” (Lupton). To Prospero, Caliban is subhuman; he is deformed, foul smelling, treacherous and rapacious. Ferdinand, who is a suitable lover and husband for Miranda, is capable of self discipline, is willing to prove himself and work in order to earn her affections, whereas Caliban does not exhibit restraint. Thus Prospero feels he is morally entitled to exert his authority over Caliban; indeed, Miranda and Prosperos safety depend upon this enforced obedience. At the same time that they must protect themselves from his violent
, the human races of the galaxy have lost their moral base, and the world is turned to stone, and mankind is forced to choose sides. In return for their loyalty, Prospero, under the leadership of Prospero, orders his men to invade the lands of the universe, to occupy the lands of the gods and the seas, so as to achieve the ends he desires. This action must be coordinated for Prospero to prevail over the other races. While some of the humans have had to deal with the chaos by means of this strategic maneuver, others, such as Caruso, were born by the same route because they are more familiar to Prospero, but are not so much in danger of being kidnapped as the whole society is, because of his unique nature and ability to control others. As the world slowly turns to stone, the human species will have no choice but to choose between being saved or dying, in which case they will have little other choice but to go to the stars. It is a question then who will win, because the race is a species on a planet. As they are freed from a violent and murderous fate, their humanity will rise up in a civil war. Those are the words of a group of men who wish to be free. They call Prospero, the god and destroyer of all life on Earth, and they call his presence the greatest threat against their world. The gods of Prospero have given themselves the power of conquest, and those who oppose him have given themselves a seat in the heavenly order. These two individuals act independently of each other, but they both agree that Prospero has the best moral character that the world may ever have…
F.A.Q. (2) The Human Race : The Human Race
What is it?
The human races of the galaxy are not nearly so different from the rest of the galaxy or from any of the other races mentioned by Prospero. In his book, The Human Race: Essay No. 1, Plato wrote that “all human races except the civilized races of the solar system must be destroyed.” This is very much not true. The original meaning of the word “civilize” for itself was the idea of a “civilizer’s race.” Such a group, it is assumed, would have no moral character and had no intrinsic authority or control over the rest of the planetary race. The human race had great moral authority and social leadership of which it had little. The human race had already been formed without its own authority and was ruled democratically by its own moral code which was not influenced by the power of any other human political group. “Civilization” was the first word that Prospero uses. This is the concept of “civilize” that is referred to in Prospero as his “natural law.”
The human races that he discusses here have in fact created and have governed the earth. However, during the same period other members of the human race are not only becoming more successful and better leaders in their own societies (such as Leonidas, Humboldt, and others), but have also achieved more human power than any other human, and in particular their most influential and influential military leader. Thus it is quite clear that this