TEMPEST Essay -- essays research papers

The Other in the Tempest In order to understand the characters in a play, we have to be able to distinguish what exactly makes them different. In the case of The Tempest, Caliban, the sub-human slave is governed largely by his senses, making him the animal that he is portrayed to be and Prospero is governed by sound mind, making him human. Caliban responds to nature as his instinct is to follow it. Prospero, on the other hand, follows the art of justifiable rule. Even though it is easy to start assessing The Tempest in view of a colonialist gaze, I have chosen instead to concentrate on viewing Caliban as the monster he is portrayed to be, due to other characters that are not human, but are treated in a more humane fashion than Caliban. Before we meet Caliban, we meet Ariel, Prospero’s trusting spirit. Even though Ariel is not human either, he is treated kindly and lovingly by his master who calls him â€Å"my quaint Ariel.† Caliban, on the other hand, is called a â€Å"tortoise† and a â €Å"poisonous slave† by Prospero. As Caliban enters in Act 1 Scene 2, we realise his fury at both Prospero and Miranda. He is rude and insulting and Prospero replies with threats of torture. Prospero justifies his punishment of Caliban by his anger at the attempted rape of his daughter, something Caliban shows no remorse for. Miranda distinguishes herself from Caliban by calling him â€Å"a thing most brutish† and inadvertently, a thing that has only bad natures. She calls his speech â€Å"gabble,† but doesn’t stop to wonder whether it was she that didn’t understand him because she didn’t know how to speak his language. Surely Caliban communicated verbally with his mother for the twelve years before Prospero killed her? It seems that Prospero and Miranda expect Caliban to be grateful for the knowledge of their language, but Caliban has just learned â€Å"how to curse† and justifies his anger by claiming rights to the island. Even thou gh they obviously detest each other, Prospero needs him, as he tells Miranda: â€Å"We cannot miss him: he does make our fire/Fetch in our wood, and serves in offices/That profit us†¦,† Caliban stays on because he is afraid of Prospero’s â€Å"art†¦of such power,† making Prospero the feared conqueror ad dictator. Prospero is the â€Å"right duke of Milan† and Caliban is the â€Å"savage and deformed slave.† They represent two different extremes on the social spectrum: that of the natural ruler,... ...e will let Stephano rule- showing himself to be naturally ruled, not ruler. At the end of the play, when he recognises that his choice of Stephano as ruler was foolish, it is not mental reasoning that has led him to this conclusion, but the evidence of his senses and experience. Caliban had mid enough to function as part of society, but training him to become part of that society cannot be abstract, like Prospero’s failed attempt at educating him with Miranda – Caliban’s education must be practical and hammered home with his own senses. If the senses represent something natural and the mind represents an art like knowledge or in Prospero’s case, magic, then we can say that Caliban represents Nature and Prospero Art. While the need for control over nature is asserted continually, the ending suggests that art must ultimately come to terms with nature (hence Prospero’s â€Å"this thing of darkness I/Acknowledge mine†); for while Caliban†™s limitations are apparent, his wish to improve himself is promising, and his new relationship with Prospero seems to be more stable and more reassuring than the resentment-filled and extremely uneasy jailer-prisoner/master-slave relationship shown earlier