Caliban

Caliban Mowat’s essay emphasizes Caliban’s significant role in The Tempest, by William Shakespeare. Caliban’s character, in relation to Prospero’s, expresses the actual relations between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries of settlers and natives, Caliban being the native of the island, and Prospero, the settler. Miranda and Prospero introduce Caliban to the reader as a “villain”, “slave” and even a “tortoise”. Caliban and his mother, Sycorax, a witch, were the only inhabitants of the island. After Sycorax’s death, Prospero with Miranda settled on the island and enslaved Caliban. Caliban offered them the knowledge of the island and in return, they taught him language. Caliban is described as a “monster”, “thing of darkness” and “a freckled whelp”. He is intended to represent the “savage” of the island by his appearance and language. Caliban extremely resents Prospero’s actions, as he says, “…and here you sty me In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me The rest o’ th’ island”. Caliban shows remorse caliban, prospero, island, language, caliban’s, appearance, shakespeare, prospero’s, colonization, william, very, tempest, situation, settler, says, return, plague, native, miranda, lead, actions, act, witch, wishes, whom, whiles, whelp, warped, villain, unjust, two, tries, translation, towards, tortoise, thing, therefore, taught, taken, symbolizes, sycorax’s, sycorax, sty, slave, significant, shows, settlers