Compare and Contrast of Uprisings in Tempest and Oroonoko

¶ … Island's Mine!" (Caliban, in Shakespeare's "The Tempest," 1.2)

Comparison between the slave rebellions of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" and Aphra Behn's "Oroonoko"

One of the most poignant statements in all of Shakespeare's "Tempest" is the assertion by the work's 'villain,' Caliban, that the island of the play's setting really and rightfully belongs in his ownership, not Prospero's. "This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother, / Which thou takest from me." (1.2) It is Prospero, Caliban alleges, who is the interloper, who took the island away from the control conferred to him by the witch who gave birth to him. Caliban, of course is right in the sense that other than possessing a greater power of sorcery, and by virtue of landing upon the island, Prospero as a human man has no right to control and dominate the island, any more than the protagonists of Aphra Behn's later work "Oroonoko" have to be dominated as slaves.

However, Caliban's claim upon the island, however territorially justified, and indeed justified by the right of succession (which was something quite important as a value in Shakespeare's Elizabethan and Jacobean England) is constantly deflated by the 'creature's own brutality. Caliban attempted to rape Prospero's daughter Miranda. He is powerless in the face of Prospero's book knowledge and learning. And lastly, Caliban is very easily taken in by the machinations of the two clownish imports from the mainland, Stephano and Trinculo. These two alcoholic individuals proceed to get Caliban drunk for the first time. All the while they comically (in the audience's eyes) plot overthrowing Prospero. Caliban wants what is rightfully his, but Stephano and Trinculo merely want to be rulers because they do not have a similar claim to power in their own society and royal milieu back home. Caliban is so naive he calls these fools both powerful sorcerers. "I'll swear upon that bottle to be thy true subject;/for the liquor is not earthly." (2.2)

Caliban is so intoxicated, not only upon alcohol, but also because of the slave mentality -- instituted by Prospero, a modern observer might say, or 'natural' to a heathen savage, an Elizabethan audience might infer -- that he calls the two men master. All while he cries out in celebration for freedom, his cries are undercut by his needless, slave-like abasement before Stephano and Trinculo, who take advantage of him at every turn. Although Caliban makes a convincing argument for his rebellion, given his lineage and previous treatment, and current imprisonment, his easily abased and credulous character and immoral sexual conduct, to say nothing of his intoxication, undercuts the rational nature of his claims.

For this, be sure, to night thou shalt have cramps, / Side-stitches that shall pen thy breath up," said Prospero to his captive. (1.2) But, even when crying out for freedom, Caliban says, "No more dams I'll make for fish/Nor fetch in firing/At requiring;/Nor scrape trencher, nor wash dish/'Ban, 'Ban, Cacaliban/Has a new master: get a new man. / Freedom, hey-day! hey-day, freedom! freedom,/hey-day, freedom!" (2.2) No matter how cruel Prospero was to him, he cannot conceive of freedom, only the wonders of having a new master.

Caliban's confusion may arise from the fact that when he initially came in contact with Prospero, he was stroked and petted before he was rejected. He never knew what life was like, to be truly free. However, Aphra Behn notes in "Oroonoko: The Royal Slave," that this practice was common when transporting slaves. "But before I give you the story of this gallant slave, 'tis fit I tell you the manner of bringing them to these new colonies; those they [the owners] make use of there not being natives of the place...caress 'em with all the brotherly and friendly affection in the world; trading with them for their fish, venison, buffalo's skins, and little rarities..." (Behn, 1668) Like Caliban too, Behn notes how the natives showed the human interlopers into the islands the best way to make use of its natural foodstuffs, as they were "knowing all the places where to seek the best food of the country, and the means of getting it; and for very small and invaluable trifles, supply us with that 'tis impossible for us to get." (Behn, 1668) But this kindness was repaid in captivity. Behn condemns this, rather than justifies it as Shakespeare does in fiction. Even in slavery, her title character exhibits dignity.

Also, rather than portraying these real, rather than fictive individuals like sexually rapacious savages, Behn notes that "not but I have seen a handsome young Indian dying for love of a very beautiful young Indian maid; but all his courtship was to fold his arms, pursue her with his eyes, and sighs were all his language: while she, as if no such lover were present, or rather as if she desired none such, carefully guarded her eyes from beholding him; and never approached him but she looked down with all the blushing modesty I have seen in the most severe and cautious of our world." (Behn, 1668) While Caliban is foul and smells like a fish, Oroonoko the royal slave is tall, beautiful, and majestic in his presence, despite his currently abased status. He is enraged when his beloved is taken advantage of, rather than attempts to take physical control over the daughter of a Caucasian individual.

The only falling to the feet in Behn's tale is done, not by the prince, but by Oroonoko's own people "who was too generous not to give credit to his words, showed himself to his people, who were transported with excess of joy at the sight of their darling prince; falling at his feet, and kissing and embracing him; believing, as some divine oracle, all he assured 'em." (Behn, 1667)