The Tempest How is Caliban presented and what is his dramatic significance to the play Essay Example

The Tempest How is Caliban presented and what is his dramatic significance to the play Essay Caliban is the son of Sycorax, a witch that originally inhabited (and so is the only true native) of the Island on which the play is set. He is the misshapen slave of Prospero who claimed the island as his own when he was banished to it 12 years previously.Prospero refers to him using earthly names, such as tortoise, making very clear quite early on that Caliban is not considered an equal by Prospero or Miranda. He is seen as a lower, uncivilised life-form because of the uneducated and primal state they originally met him in, making their actions to correct this mirror the current events during the Elizabethan period in regards to the discovery of the Americas. Shakespeare has used the character of Caliban to represent the natives of such countries, giving the role of the civilised invaders to Prospero and Miranda who attempt to educate Caliban in a bid to make him an acceptable person in the eyes of the society Prospero was usurped from. This was a failure, as although they took pai ns to make [him] speak they could not rid him of his primal nature or his uneducated sense of morals and so he could see nothing wrong with endeavouring to rape Miranda. This was the point where Prospero stopped trying to nurture Caliban into a respectable man and started seeing him as filth. Shakespeare chose to include such an occurrence to highlight the fact that we cannot judge natives from undeveloped countries by western standards, as however much semantic knowledge they acquire, it is made completely redundant if they are taught western morals to which we feel they should abide by, making Caliban crucial to conveying this theme.Despite the deficient schooling, he is very close to the natural aspect of the island, which is shown in his passionate and almost poetic description of it (The isle is full of noises / Sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not) which is quite contradictory to the image of poisonous slave that Prospero describes.The theme of nature being tai nted with magic is also explored in the character of Ariel, as well as Caliban and Shakespeare presents these two characters as almost a representation of good and evil. Another common characteristic is that they are both under the control of Prospero, but they respond to their captivity in very different ways. Caliban sees his imprisonment as an injustice as he claims This islands mine by Sycorax, my mother, which thou takst from me and so responds to his captor in a negative way, whereas Ariel remains on the good side of Prospero and so receives much better treatment. Ariel is described as his fine apparition and is an airy spirit which corresponds more to the elements, leaving Caliban discussing springs, brine pits keeping the connection between him and the earth very strong.The actions of Caliban towards the end of the play draw parallels with the actions of Antonio as well, in the way his ambition leads him to attempting to usurp Prospero from his position. The only difference is that Antonio actually achieves this, but the raw ambition that led them to commit the deeds are the same, which is demonstrated when he tells Stephano and Trinculo The dropsy drown this fool I what do you meanTo dote thus on such luggage? Lets alone, And do the murder first