​ENGLISH LITERATURE

‘The relationship between Prospero and Caliban is that of the coloniser and
the colonised.’Discuss.

Power is a second-hander’s prime emotion,since he seeks satisfaction not from within the
domains of his own existence but through default and moral aptitude in others.Power has
perpetually appealed man.The search and incessant pursuit of power is one of the prime
themes of the play.Since the theme does not restrict itself merely to the pursuit of power but
also it active exercise,there is a sense that it is all pervasive in the play.

Colonialism is defined as control by one power over a dependent area or people. It occurs
when one nation subjugates another, conquering its population and exploiting it, often while
forcing its own language and cultural values upon its people.’’The play has been examined
with many different literary theories.One of them is a postcolonial reading of the
play,especially when the focus is on the character of Caliban.

Prospero, the educated noble, comes to the island and is at first at a disadvantage because
of his ignorance of the land. Caliban, the native, helps Prospero by introducing him to the
island and is undoubtedly responsible for his survival. Despite his aid, Prospero reduces
Caliban to a servant, and dismisses him as savage. The power dynamic quickly turns into
Prospero as a self-proclaimed ruler of the island and Caliban as the wretched slave.

“All the infections that the sun sucks up from bogs, fens, flats, on Prospero fall, and make
him by inch meal a disease”​ - Caliban. The above lines prove to us the hatred of the native
inhabitant towards his ruler. ​“His spirits hear me, yet needs I must curse. But they’ll nor pinch
me. Fright me with urchin shows, pitch me i’th’ mire, not lead me like a firebrand in the dark. For
every trifle are they set upon me. Sometimes like apes that mow and chatter at me, and after
bite me, then like hedgehogs, which lie tumbling on my barefoot way, and mount their pricks at
my footfall, sometimes am I all wound with cloven tongues, do hiss me into madness.” -​ Caliban.
The above lines prove to us the inhuman treatment meted out to a so-called ​“inferior” , “slave” ,
“hag-born monster”.

He,as a sense of superiority, takes Caliban as half man. Pushing the native
to the side, he places himself at the helm of all affairs. He displaces Caliban’s mother and treats
her as a beast. He has full control over everything on the island. He makes Caliban work as his
servant and calls him a thing of darkness. Caliban is dehumanized. Prospero, in this play,
describes Caliban as deformed,treacherous,drunkard, violent, savage and
devil-worshipping.According to Prospero, he is barely human , in
fact he calls him a ​“poisonous slavish devil”​.

Prospero:​ “This thing of darkness, I call my own.’’​This shows the colonizer’s attitude of
looking down on the colonized people. Caliban is seen as a despicable entity.The white man
looked down on the people of colour.Their belief being,“some are born to dominate while
others are born to be dominated’.Caliban is treated as an inferior.The colonizer used words
like ​“light”, “knowledge” ​and “​wisdom​” to refer to himself while he used terms like “darkness’’,
“ignorance”, “savage”​ and​ “elemental”​ to describe the colonized.This binary opposition
shows how Prospero as a colonizer creates essences about the colonized people.

The play explores the complex and problematic relationship between the European colonizer
and the native colonized peoples through the relationship between Prospero and Caliban.
Prospero views Caliban as a lesser being than himself. As such, Prospero believes that
Caliban should be grateful to him for educating Caliban and lifting him out of "savagery." It
simply does not occur to Prospero that he has stolen rulership of the island from Caliban,
because Prospero can't imagine Caliban as being fit to rule anything. In contrast, Caliban
soon realizes that Prospero views him as a second-class citizen fit only to serve and that by
giving up his rulership of the island in return for his education, he has allowed himself to be
robbed. As a result, Caliban turns bitter and violent, which only reinforces Prospero's view of
him as a "savage".

Des​pite the fact,that critics have made much out of his goodness,the fact remains that he
usurps Caliban’s natural habitat.To a Christian sensibility,Caliban may well appear a
savage,and Prospero may well want to teach him Christian values,but this did not require
enslaving him.At best, Prospero is an unwelcome guest,as all colonists were.At worst, he is
a bully who uses his powers to force Caliban into submission.Caliban is a creature of nature
and Prospero had no business to displace him from his natural habitat.The colonists had
called entire population of the lands they had visited as savage and uncivilised and then
slowly enslaved and destroyed their race to such an extent that most of them all but
vanished from the face of the earth.It is in this light that Prospero’s powers must be seen as
well.

In addition to the relationship between the colonizer and colonized,the play also explores the
fears and opportunities that colonization creates. Exposure to new and different peoples
leads to racism and intolerance, as seen when Sebastian criticizes ​Alonso​ for allowing his
daughter to marry an African. Exploration and colonization led directly to slavery and the
conquering of native peoples. For instance, Stephano and Trinculo both consider capturing
Caliban to sell as a curiosity back at home, while Stephano eventually begins to see himself
as a potential king of the island. At the same time, the expanded territories established by
colonization created new places in which to experiment with alternative societies.
Shakespeare conveys this idea in Gonzalo's musings about the perfect civilization he would
establish if he could acquire a territory of his own.

I​n conclusion,The Tempest deals with colonialism and power in a nuanced way.While
demonstrating how Caliban is viewed by the coloniser,Prospero,and the Old World
newcomers to the island,the play also portrays him as a sympathetic and oppressed
character.Shakespeare's combination of contemporary,topical references to colonialism and
natives and the wider,overarching themes of effects of colonisation and legitimacy of
power,make this play feel relevant to this date.After all,just like Caliban stays with us after
the curtain goes down,so do issues related to power and (post) colonialism.