caliban Flashcards
prospero and caliban
Caliban showed him friendship, and in return Prospero educated Caliban. But Caliban eventually came to realize that Prospero would never view him as more than an educated savage.
“Thou strok’st me and made much of me”
caliban’s feelings
Though capable of sensitivity and eloquence, Caliban mainly shows a bitter and angry side of his character
cannibal
Caliban’s name is a near anagram for the world “cannibal,”
language
“You taught me language, and my profit on’t
Is, I know how to curse.”
bedfellows
“Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.”
isles of noises
“a thousand twangling instruments”
“The clouds methought would open, and show riches”
Caliban’s language and demeanor are gentle and lyrical, expressing a heartfelt love for the island. The speech makes it difficult to see Caliban as a brutal savage, and emphasizes the depth of his human desire for freedom and autonomy.
darkness
“thing of darkness, I acknowledge mine”
It’s unclear whether Prospero’s comment about Caliban suggests that he sees him as his property, or that he takes some responsibility for what has happened to Caliban.
Prospero and Miranda call him
“poisonous slave,” “monster”, “A thing most brutish”
Prospero first befriended Caliban, educated him, and then enslaved him is similar to methods of European explorers
” “human care”
savage
“savage”
comes from the French word ‘sauvage’ meaning wild - Caliban is “the epitome of all things natural” - Joanna Williams
torture
Caliban describes in vivid language the various torments Prospero uses to subdue and punish him. These examples supply motivation for the murder plot Caliban will devise in the next act.
“bite me”
“pricks at my footfall”
“wound with adders”
Caliban and S+T
Trinculo’s instinct to capture and sell the “strange fish” reflects the desire common among Europeans in Shakespeare’s time to exploit the people living in lands visited by European explorers and colonized by European nations.
violence towards Prospero
“batter his skull, or paunch him with a stake, or cut his wezand with they knife”
planned to murder Prospero
Prospero’s attitude to slavery
Prospero’s remark about Caliban that certain races are naturally indecent and inferior. This rationale was a common justification for colonization and slavery.
“a born devil, on whose nature nurture can never stick”
Caliban’s naivete
it’s hard not to pity Caliban’s ignorant naiveté when he curses himself for worshipping Stephano
“What a thrice-double ass was I to take this drunkard for a god and worship this dull fool!”
Concept of ‘the other’
process by which society excludes ‘others’ whom they want to subordinate or who do not fit into their society
the concept of ‘otherness’
people construct roles for themselves in relation to an ‘other’
his comedic
relief helps audiences accept his attempted rape of Miranda
The Gregory Doran 2016-7
production depicted Caliban with a twisted spine, yet when he is relegated to his lone island, he finally stands up straight
contrast to Ariel
who is a “fine apparition”, Caliban is “hag-seed”
Freud
Caliban seems very id driven
seen by his attempted rape of Miranda
caliban needs to be controlled
“thou didst seek to violate the honour of my child”
“peopled the isle with Calibans” - an immoral and animalistic response
montaigne’s essay
describes the “savages” as “unfettered” and “unadorned”
Caliban is perceived
as a “swarthy and base monster, he is poetic in his own way” - Anne Barton
poetic language
“cloven tongues” and “kiss me to sleep”
oddly sensitive
due to Prospero’s imperialism
Caliban represents the conquered voice, disillusioned by fake promises
Prospero: “then, I loved thee”
shows that Caliban is a response of imperial dominance
theatrical device
Caliban’s appearance and presentation
brutal, unrefined and savage
animalistic qualities
“moon calf” and “strange fish”
a monster
“got by the devil himself”
casting list
he is described as a “deformed slave”
‘Cauliban’
a Romany word for black or something associated with darkness
contrasts Miranda’s name, which Shakespeare created from the latin ‘Mirandus’ meaning admirable or wonderful
Caliban is
“demoralised, detribalised and dispossessed” - Miller
innocence
“Caliban is not innocent” - Nuttal
“I am
subject to a tyrant” “cheated me of the isle”
his “gaberdine”
was a loose cloak of coarse material, which would have contrasted the finery of the courtier’s clothes
David Lindley - “an outsider garment”
service to prospero
A.D. Nuttall - suggests that Caliban expects to be retained in service and leave the island with his master
Caliban and King of Tunis parallel
Miranda was able to resist Caliban and her father punishes Caliban, however, Claribel is forced into the “black embrace” - Richard Jacobs
natural man
“Caliban represents the primitive and unrestrained appetite, untouched by civilised notions of self-control” - ‘I must eat my dinner’ - Joanna Williams
with S+T
is he a murderous savage, excited to kill Prospero or is he a man driven to murder by the colonisation of his home
his appearance is important
as the Jacobean dislike of Caliban partly come from the fact that he was non-white, non-anglo Saxon and not a protestant
as his character begins to unfold
the audience realises that there is much more than an unattractive exterior
the Beerbohm Tree production 1904
Caliban sees off the departing ship, appearing lonely and miserable
