Prospero, Caliban, and The Tempest as an Allegory for Colonialism
In his last play, The Tempest, Shakespeare subtly opens a dialogue on European colonialism in the Americas and the social implications of the patterns of dependence and exploitation that drove colonialism. Taken at face value, The Tempest tells the story of the interactions and power struggles among individuals; if one considers the play on a larger scale as an allegory for the exploitation of the New World for European interests, The Tempest’s characters take on the weight of their respective societies. Using Prospero to represent the explorers and conquistadors of the New World and the higher governing powers of Europe that sponsored them, and Caliban to represent the natives of the Americas, Shakespeare examines the relationships between two societies by scaling them down to an individual level. The New World was discovered about 120 years before The Tempest was written, and in just over a century colonialism inextricably entwined the histories of the two continents, making these themes of The Tempest relevant in Shakespeare’s time and still today.
The contrast between Prospero’s roles as a just governor, caring father, and cruel slave master helps explain the mentality of Europeans that allowed them to justify the atrocities of colonialism. Caliban’s complexity of character and the others’ treatment of him as less than human break down the “noble savage” image of Native American peoples and reveal what Caliban has to offer, if only the other characters would acknowledge him. Gonzalo’s speech provides a response from one philosopher-writer to another as Shakespeare refers to Montaigne’s essay “Of Cannibals.” Finally, Caliban’s failed plot to murder Prospero and serve Stephano instead, and the fact that he winds up serving Prospero again anyway, highlight the inescapable cycle of exploitation created by colonialism.
Prospero, the former duke of Milan, is thrown out and put to sea after his brother steals his position. Shakespeare portrays Prospero as a just, dutiful, and benevolent ruler; Miranda acknowledges her father’s compassion, wisdom, and fairness. However, Prospero has a dark side revealed through his abuse of Caliban. Prospero arrives on the island, along with the young Miranda, without the skill and knowledge to survive in the unfamiliar wilderness. Only with Caliban’s help is Prospero able to adapt to life on the island. Prospero relies on Caliban as long as he needs before turning traitor, according to Caliban, who claims, “When thou cam’st first / Thou strok’st me and made much of me… / And then I loved thee… / Cursèd be that I did so!” (1:2:332-339). No longer dependent on Caliban for survival, Prospero enslaves him and begins to treat him as sub-human. With members of his own society, Prospero displays admirable character traits; however, like many Europeans who played a role in colonial expansion, he dehumanizes another person or group of people to excuse his exploitation of them.
None of the characters of the play treat Caliban with any modicum of respect, not even Prospero and Miranda, who seem the most virtuous of the cast. Even the lowest members of the stranded party, the drunken servants Trinculo and Stephano, see Caliban as far beneath them and mock him, calling him “half a fish and half a monster.” Unsurprisingly, Caliban hates Prospero, the master who rewarded his help by enslaving him. Caliban argues, “This island’s mine by Sycorax my mother / Which thou tak’st from me” (1:2:331), showing his anger over Prospero’s stealing of power that Caliban believes to be rightfully his (Antonio steals Prospero’s kingdom; Prospero steals Caliban’s.) The characters hurl insults at Caliban incessantly, calling him "abhorred/poisonous slave," "ignorant/ridiculous monster," "hag-born whelp," "villain," "fish," "good moon-calf,” "half a fish and half a monster," "misshapen knave," "demi-devil," and "this strange thing," among other names. To the characters of The Tempest, Caliban is not even human, just as to the Europeans arriving in the New World the natives were an inferior and subhuman race. Dehumanizing Caliban and treating him as a monster or animal negates Caliban’s own claims of being mistreated and justifies using him for purposes of economics or simple convenience.
The role of language in the play highlights the relationship of dependence and exploitation that developed between the Europeans and Native Americans. As their society was conquered and their culture imposed upon by Europeans, the indigenous people of the Americas naturally had to acquire the language of their conquerors. The Europeans depended on their new subjects, who were basically slaves, learning their language, to maximize the economic efficiency of their exploitation and to systematically crush the existing American cultures. The sharing of language facilitated the flow of trade and new ideas and contributed greatly to the creation of a shared history between two continents. This role of language is presented on an individual scale in The Tempest when Caliban regrets having learned the language that gave Prospero power over him: “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!” (1:2:362-364). Caliban’s knowledge of Prospero’s language makes it easier for Prospero to control Caliban and suppress his spirit. Of course, Caliban is still considered “stupid” even though he, not Prospero or the others, has learned a language, not a simple feat.
To emphasize the wrongness of Prospero and the others’ treatment of Caliban, Shakespeare could have depicted him as a symbol of the innocence and virtue of an uncorrupted, simpler society, as Montaigne tends to portray the natives of Brazil (with some important exceptions.) However, Caliban certainly does not fit the image of the “noble savage.” Caliban has his own set of complexities and serious flaws; Prospero accuses him of attempting to rape Miranda, and he plots to murder Prospero. This lends Caliban’s character a three-dimensionality that lifts him above the simplistic naivete that many opponents of the cruelties of colonialism used to defend their stance.
If Shakespeare rejects the image of the noble savage, he does not vilify Caliban either, and therefore suggests that even if the utopia of Gonzalo’s vision is a misrepresentation of New World societies, they may have something else to offer. Caliban is the resident expert of life on the island: Prospero would not have survived without his help, and Caliban puts to words the excitement, beauty, and sometimes frightening awe of a new and exotic land, as the first European explorers must have felt upon discovering the New World:
Be not afeard: the isle is full of noises,
Sounds, and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears; and sometimes voices…
…[I]n dreaming,
The clouds methought would open and show riches
Ready to drop upon me, that, when I waked,
I cried to dream again.
In these lines, Shakespeare captures the essence of exploration through Caliban’s voice. The mysteries of the new land, so far associated with the catastrophe of the shipwreck and the chaos of power struggles, in fact “give delight and hurt not.” The description of the dreams of the explorers of “riches / Ready to drop upon [them],” which drove their intrusion into the Americas and their economic exploitation of the natives, perhaps reminds readers how easy it must have been for the new arrivals to see everything as a plentiful harvest waiting for them, without any respect to the existing cultures of the New World.
Shakespeare also includes commentary on Michel de Montaigne “Of Cannibals.” The first reference to Montaigne is Caliban’s name, which is an anagram of “canibal.” This detail suggests that the readers or audience should stay alert for more allusions to the themes of Montaigne’s essay. The clearest example lies in Gonzalo’s speech that indirectly cites part of “Of Cannibals.” Gonzalo describes what he would do as king:
….For no kind of traffic
Would I admit; no name of magistrate;
Letters should not be known; riches, poverty…
No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil;
No occupation, all men idle, all;
And women too, but innocent and pure;
No sovereignty-- (2:1:145-152)
Antonio and Sebastian mock Gonzalo’s quixotic vision: “Yet he would be king on’t!” (2:1:153) and “The latter end of his commonwealth forgets the beginning” (2:1:154) and saying Gonzalo’s subjects would be “whores and knaves” (2:1:162). Gonzalo’s description of a utopic society paraphrases Montaigne’s description of the indigenous people of Brazil. Montaigne romanticizes this society in order to create a stronger juxtaposition with his own European society and point out the hypocrisy of Europeans who call themselves civilized while their society has much more suffering and injustice than that of the “savages” of the New World. However, this greatly idealized image of the Brazilians’ society denies the sophisticated culture and technology of indigenous Pre-Columbian societies, and when spoken by Gonzalo about a hypothetical European society, sounds completely implausible. By putting Montaigne’s description in a new context, and adding criticism through Antonio and Sebastian’s mocking comments, Shakespeare points out that the society Gonzalo describes does not exist, and, furthermore, does not align the actual values of European society but puts forth a set of romanticized ideals that would not be accepted by most Europeans.
In the middle of the play, the drunken servants Stephano and Trinculo encounter Caliban. After they mock his appearance, Caliban offers Stephano his loyalty, saying, “A plague upon the tyrant that I serve! / I’ll...follow thee, / Thou wondrous man” (2:2:157-159). Caliban is willing to follow any new master, since no one can be worse than Prospero. Trinculo laughs at his pledge of service, saying “A most ridiculous monster, to make a wonder of a poor drunkard” (2:2:160). Caliban calls Stephano, who represents his chance for an escape from Prospero, a “wondrous man” and tells how Prospero “by his cunning / Cheated me of the island” (3:2:41-42). Caliban then offers to lead Stephano to the napping Prospero so that they may murder him. Caliban has nothing to lose from the change of masters; he has no reason to believe that Stephano will treat him well, but he still sings that he is “free” because he has a new master. However, Prospero, with the aid of Ariel’s powers, stays one step ahead of them and foils the murder plot. Even Caliban’s sad idea of “freedom,” which is really just exploitation by a new master, does not work out. In the end, nothing changes for Caliban; he remains trapped in a cycle of being abused and devalued. Prospero forgives Caliban for the murder plot and suggests that this shows largesse on his part as a slavemaster.
In the scene where Trinculo and Stephano first find Caliban, Trinculo discusses how European society might perceive Caliban. In England, he says, “would this monster make a man….they will lay out ten [coins] to see a dead Indian” (2:2:29-31). Trinculo emphasizes how the English would make a spectacle of Caliban, treating him as a beast and a curiosity rather than as a human being. Stephano also chimes in on this subject, saying, “If I can recover him, and keep him tame, and get to Naples with him, he’s a present for any emperor that ever trod on neat’s leather” (2:2:65-67). Not even addressing Caliban directly although he is present, Stephano shows an attitude of complete disregard of Caliban’s worth as a human except for economic purposes. These scenes show how one society looks at another as merely a source of profit and entertainment.
In conclusion, the characters of The Tempest may be viewed not just as isolated individuals but as representatives of two different cultures, scaled to the individual level. This reading of the play reveals a complex commentary on the relationship between the societies of Europe and the New World, especially the cycle of dependence and exploitation that characterizes the nature of European colonialism in the Americas. With Prospero representing the ruling European interests and those of the explorers, Caliban representing New World societies, and Gonzalo and other characters adding different aspects of European society, Shakespeare examines the complicated roles of language, loyalty, dehumanization, and basic misunderstanding in the European colonial system that forever bound the histories of two continents together.