colonisation

Question 1

colonisers

Answer 1

at the time when The Tempest was written and first performed, both Shakespeare and his audiences would have been interested in the efforts of settlers to colonize distant lands around the globe.

Question 2

prospero and caliban

Answer 2

the Tempest explores the complex and problematic relationship between the European colonizer and the native colonized peoples through the relationship between Prospero and Caliban.

Question 3

educating caliban

Answer 3

Prospero views Caliban as a lesser being than himself.

Prospero believes that Caliban should be grateful to him for educating Caliban and lifting him out of “savagery.”

Question 4

attitude of settlers

Answer 4

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

Question 5

caliban as a savage

Answer 5

Caliban soon realizes that Prospero has robbed him

Caliban turns bitter and violent, which only reinforces Prospero’s view of him as a “savage.”

Question 6

shakespeare

Answer 6

uses Prospero and Caliban’s relationship to show how the misunderstandings between the colonizer and the colonized lead to hatred and conflict, with each side thinking that the other is at fault.

Question 7

racism

Answer 7

he 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

Question 8

exploiting natives

Answer 8

Exploration and colonization led directly to slavery and the conquering of native peoples.

Stephano and Trinculo both consider capturing Caliban to sell as a curiosity back at home, while Stephano sees himself as a potential king of the island.

Question 9

new societies

Answer 9

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.

Question 10

caliban and language

Answer 10

“You taught me language, and my profit on’t

Is, I know how to curse”

Question 11

Gonzalo’s society

Answer 11

“No occupation, all men idle, all;

And women, too”

Question 12

Caliban a devil

Answer 12

“a born devil, on whose nature

Nurture can never stick”

Question 13

ownership of Caliban

Answer 13

“this thing of darkness, I

Acknowledge mine.”

Question 14

Prospero views caliban

Answer 14

as a second-class citizen fit only to serve

Question 15

Caliban’s attempted rape

Answer 15

is an infringement on Prospero’s established social order and relegated him to the role of household drudge

Question 16

Shakespeare depicts

Answer 16

, with almost prophetic insight, the history of the white man’s attitude to indigenous populations in the colonies, for example, the change from kindness to oppression

Question 17

a post-colonial focus

Answer 17

on the tempest puts emphasis on the colonisation of the Americas, and it produces a reading that differs radically from traditional European validations of Prospero’s dominant role

Question 18

post-colonial critics

Answer 18

view Prospero’s and Miranda’s relations with Caliban as an allegory of European colonisation

Question 19

post-colonial readings

Answer 19

of The Tempest were inspired by the decolonisation movements of the 1960s and 1970s in Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America.

Question 20

Adaptations which emphasise the colonial politics

Answer 20

of The Tempest shift the focus to the cross-cultural relationship of Prospero as the coloniser and Caliban as the indigenous inhabitant who is dispossessed and subjugated.

Question 21

Claribel’s story

Answer 21

sharpens the racist representation of Africa and underlines the questionable morality of Prospero’s colonising power over Caliban

Question 22

Jonathan Miller performance 1970

Answer 22

chose two West Indian actors to play Ariel and Caliban - made it a commentary on imperialism

Question 23

travel writing

Answer 23

a source for the Tempest is thought to be William Strachey’s ‘A True Reportory of the Wrack’

if so, then Joanna Williams asserts that this places Caliban in the “role of native”

Question 24

Prospero as usurper

Answer 24

Joanna Williams points out that Prospero considers himself a victim of usurpation, yet never sees himself as usurper

Question 25

awareness

Answer 25

Joanna Williams points out that the post-colonial interpretations of Caliban are to make people aware of the barbaric nature and terrible consequences of racism

Question 26

Caliban is presented in the play

Answer 26

as colonists tended to portray their colonial subjects - ugly, untrustworthy and “savage” - David Norbrook

Question 27

Michael Boyd Production 2002

Answer 27

The magical feast provided for the courtiers was an unplucked swan. The savagery lying beneath the surface of the courtiers’ civilised manners burst out as they fell on the food and devoured it like beasts.

Question 28

Adrian Noble 1998 Caliban and Ariel

Answer 28

Wearing only a loincloth, with manacles, Caliban was caked with mud. Ariel, his counterpart in slavery, was also dressed only in a loincloth but without the manacles

Question 29

Sam Mendes 1993

Answer 29

in response to Prospero’s affectionate words of farewell, Ariel spat in his face.

Question 30

at the end of the play,

Answer 30

Caliban is effectively set free. In colonialist times, if natives would not comply, they were enslaved or killed. A colonialist reading of the play is valid in some respects, but falls short in many others.