analysis of caliiiii

analysis of caliiiii

1. general

   • Prospero’s dark, earthy slave, frequently referred to as a monster by the other characters Caliban is the the offspring of the witch Sycorax and the devil. and the only real native of the island to appear in the play.

2. mirrors

   • Mirrors Prospero, In his first speech to Prospero, Caliban insists that Prospero stole the island from him. Through this speech, Caliban suggests that his situation is much the same as Prospero’s, whose brother usurped his dukedom
   • mirrors antonio and sebastian-Caliban’s desire for dominance of the island mirrors the lust for power that led Antonio to overthrow Prospero. Caliban’s conspiracy with Stephano and Trinculo to murder Prospero mirrors Antonio and Sebastian’s plot against Alonso.
   • ARIEL- Caliban both mirrors and contrasts with Prospero’s other servant, Ariel. While Ariel is “an airy spirit,” Caliban is of the earth, his speeches turning to “springs, brine pits” (I.ii.341), “bogs, fens, flats” (II.ii.2), or crabapples and pignuts (II.ii.159–160).
     • While Ariel maintains his dignity and his freedom by serving Prospero willingly, Caliban achieves a different kind of dignity by refusing to bow before Prospero’s intimidation.
   • FERDINAND- Caliban also mirrors and contrasts with Ferdinand in certain ways. In Act II, scene ii Caliban enters “with a burden of wood,” and Ferdinand enters in Act III, scene i “bearing a log.” Both Caliban and Ferdinand profess an interest in untying Miranda’s “virgin knot.” Ferdinand plans to marry her, while Caliban has attempted to rape her.
     • The glorified, romantic, almost ethereal love of Ferdinand for Miranda starkly contrasts with Caliban’s desire to impregnate Miranda and people the island with Calibans.
   • PARODY OF HIMSELF- In his first speech to Prospero, he regretfully reminds the magician of how he showed him all the ins and outs of the island when Prospero first arrived. Only a few scenes later, however, we see Caliban drunk and fawning before a new magical being in his life: Stephano and his bottle of liquor.
     • Soon, Caliban begs to show Stephano the island and even asks to lick his shoe. Caliban repeats the mistakes he claims to curse. In his final act of rebellion, he is once more entirely subdued by Prospero in the most petty way—he is dunked in a stinking bog and ordered to clean up Prospero’s cell in preparation for dinner.

3. victim of colonisation

   • Caliban stands for uncountable victims of European domination and colonization. Like Caliban colonized people were deprived, exploited, and conquered. -this "interpretation of Caliban is symbolic for what he represents to the observer, not for what Shakespeare may have had in mind."
     • 1. Like him, they learned a conqueror's language and perhaps that conqueror's values.
     • 2. Like him, they endured enslavement and hatred by European usurpers and eventually rebelled.
     • 3. Like him, they were torn between their native culture and the culture superimposed on it by their conquerors.

4. born to serve?

   • Regardless of whether Caliban is a victim of colonization, he's s slave and the play suggests he was born to be one. Miranda says when she points out that she helped teach Caliban language: (1.2.334)
     • 1. In other words, Miranda suggests that Caliban's "vile race" and lack of language makes him deserving of his status as a slave. (This, of course, is exactly what European imperialists said about the people they colonized.)
     • 2. Caliban seems like he lives to serve. When he conspires with Stefano and Trinculo to kill Prospero, he promises to serve Stefano: I'll show thee every fertile inch o' th' island; And I will kiss thy foot: I prithee, be my god. (2.2.11)

5. monster or man

   • man
     • he can be seen as civilized becuase he can speak in black verse and is also loving of the island
       • His beautiful speeches about his island home provide some of the most affecting imagery in the play, reminding the audience that Caliban really did occupy the island before Prospero came, and that he may be right in thinking his enslavement to be monstrously unjust.
     • is an innocent man, reacting to emotional and physical needs without the ability to think through and fully understand the events and people who surround him.
   • monster
     • first seen as a human by Miranda but she says that before he was taught language he spoke 'like a thing most brutish' (1, 2, 357-358
       • yet through the play his nature is unkown- (in 4, 1, 188-189) when prospero remembers his plot to kill him he calls Caliban the 'devil, born of a devil, on whose nature/nurture can never stick on whom my pains, Humanley taken , all,all lost, quite lost! / and as with age his body uglier grows, / so his mind cankers.
         • this means he was born a savage and even after good upbringing is still a savage, Propspero claims he has tried to help the monster but he only grows uglier and more poisonous.
     • monster- once Trinculo sees him he refers to him as a fish-
     • his name
       • • A term derived from "carib" (as in the Caribbean), which became a European term used to describe flesh-eaters.
       • Romany word "Cauliban," which means "black" or something associated with blackness-
     • Hag-born" "whelp," not "honored with human shape."- "Demi-devil."-"Poor credulous monster."- "Hag-seed."- "Strange fish- "A freckled whelp, hag-born — not honoured with / A human shape" (I.2, 285-286). The audience learns more about Caliban's physical description from Trinculo and Stefano, who describe Caliban as less than human. Trinculo asks if the form before him is "a man or a fish?" (II.2, 24), and Stefano describes Caliban as a "moon-calf" (II.2, 104), a deformed creature.
     • He is truly a child of nature, uneducated and reacting to his surroundings in much the same way that an animal does.
       • insolent and rebellious and is only controlled through the use of magic.