The Tempest - Caliban Flashcards
The first line of dialogue from Caliban <– sets up his character as very rebellious and angry
He is cursing Prosp. and Miranda <– his own mother Sycorax is a witch
Horrible features
Alliteration
Exclamatory sentence <– states a very strong emotion - raging against his master
“As wicked dew as e’er my mother brushed with raven’s features”
He’s the only native of the island <– his freedom usurped by Prosp. and Miranda.
Repetition <– accusatory of Prosp.
Contrast <– antagonism established between Caliban and Prosp.
“Here you sty me in this hard rock, whiles you do keep form me the rest o’ the island.”
“A plague upon the tyrant that I serve.”
Structure: declarative sentence <– states a fact, feeling or mood.
Cursing Prosp.
Alliteration <– shows how emphatic (emphasis) Caliban is in his hatred for Prosp. - makes the plot to murder him very unsurprising to an audience.
“I am a subject to a tyrant, a sorcerer, that by his cunning hath cheated me of the island.”
He is governed by Prosp. <– has tricked him out of what he believes is rightfully his
Nouns <– belong to the semantic field of evil - shows he truly believes Prosp. is evil for enslaving him.
Alliteration.
Caliban spits out these angry words in response to Miranda’s self-satisfied claim in Act I that as a “savage,” he should be grateful for the education she gave him.
Caliban implies that he has, in fact, gained nothing of real value from this education. Given that he has been stripped of all meaningful agency, the only thing he can do with his captors’ language is express just how much he despises them.
Adjective ‘red’ <– semantic field of evil
“You taught me language, and my profit on ’t
Is I know how to curse. The red plague rid you
For learning me your language!”
Deborah Willis - Colonialism, Caliban as a monster
the presentation of Caliban as a monster; as “the threatening ‘Other’ is used by colonial power to display its own godliness and to justify the colonial project morally”
Anna Larson - Caliban can’t be civilized v. Caliban is intelligent, Trinculo, Stephano
“we might be forced to conclude that his nature is beyond regeneration by civilizing processes and that the civilising process is infinitely slow”
“Caliban proves himself continually more intelligent than Trinculo and Stephano. It is significantly when he learns the ways of men and takes to the bottle that he seems diminished”
Diana Devlin - Caliban is intelligent
“Caliban sees himself as a man, but he is so unlike those from Italy that his humanity is ambiguous to them”
Hazlitt - Caliban is noble
“Caliban’s deformity whether of body or of mind is redeemed by the power and truth of the imagination displayed in it”
Q - “Debauched fish”
Q - “The isle is full of noises, sounds and sweet airs…”
Jonathan Miller - Caliban is mistreated
“Caliban is demoralized, detribalized, dispossessed”
