Caliban and Prospero in Shakespeare's The Tempest

Caliban and the Paradox of Colonialism

One of the most striking characters in The Tempest is Caliban, the mythical being who plays a dominant role in the play's narrative. Unlike Prospero's servant Ariel, Caliban is portrayed as a savage and adversarial figure — yet he is also capable of speaking some of the most beautiful and stirring poetry in the entire play. Caliban thus illustrates many of the ambiguities of colonization: the island is more rightfully his than Prospero's, yet the play conspires to suggest that because of Prospero's more civilized, European behavior, Prospero somehow has a greater right to govern it.

This paradox is illustrated early on when Prospero summons Caliban. Caliban admits that he attempted to rape Miranda, intending to people the island with monstrous beings like himself. He is thus depicted as embodying many of the stereotypes commonly held about non-white, colonized peoples — that they desire European women and that they are savage and ungovernable. Miranda is portrayed as shrinking from Caliban in fear, and it is only because of Prospero's control over him that Caliban does not act in horrible and savage ways toward her. At the same time, the play makes clear that Caliban has a greater right to the island than Prospero does. Caliban reproaches Prospero, insisting the island is rightfully his, having belonged to his mother Sycorax before Prospero arrived.

There is a great deal of irony in Prospero's domination over Caliban, given that Prospero himself was once a victim of domination — usurped unfairly from his rightful position. In other words, Prospero does to Caliban precisely what others did to him. Yet the play does its best to portray Prospero's actions in a positive light. The first time the audience encounters Caliban, he acknowledges that Prospero taught him language, though he declares that the only benefit he finds in it is the ability to curse. He also credits Prospero with teaching him to identify the sun and moon and to name things — an almost godlike act of imposition. Caliban is portrayed as ungrateful for rejecting civilization and education, even though Prospero had no rightful claim to his island. When Caliban does attempt to reclaim the island, he does so foolishly, aligning himself with the least intelligent of the Europeans shipwrecked there. The play thus implicitly justifies Prospero's control, despite the fact that he came upon the island by accident and holds it by force alone.

Caliban as Sympathetic Yet Marginalized Figure

Yet Caliban does emerge as a sympathetic character in certain respects. When he speaks of the island, he uses heart-stirring poetry, revealing the depth of his emotional connection to the place. The play also gestures toward complexity among the island's original inhabitants. Ariel, for instance, was said to have been imprisoned by Sycorax for refusing to do her bidding. However, the only reason Ariel is portrayed as a morally good character is his obedience to Prospero — he is not an independent being in his own right. Although he begs for his freedom, his compliance with Prospero's wishes is precisely what distinguishes him from Caliban. Crucially, Ariel never challenges Prospero's domination of the island.

Overall, The Tempest validates colonialism through its portrayal of Caliban. Even as it allows the audience to feel some sympathy for him, it renders genuine identification difficult by making him so terrible a figure — most notably through his attempted rape of Miranda. And by rendering Prospero sympathetic despite his imprisonment of Caliban and his exploitation of Ariel, the play inclines the audience to accept Prospero's conquest of the island as legitimate and even inevitable.

Prospero as Playwright and Omnipotent Controller

One of the most unusual aspects of The Tempest is the way Prospero functions as a stand-in for the playwright himself. In many ways, Prospero acts as a powerful author-figure who creates his own play over the course of the narrative. He orchestrates the falling-in-love of his daughter Miranda, engineers the tempest itself that sets the plot in motion, and through the magic of his books achieves a godlike control over everyone around him — making him less a traditional protagonist than a director of the drama as a whole.

This control is established early when Miranda begs him to stop the tempest. Her certainty that her father can end it by the force of his will immediately signals Prospero's mastery over the island and everyone on it. Although Miranda clearly loves her father, she also fears him because of his tremendous power. Prospero exerts similar control over the island's native inhabitants, Caliban and Ariel. Though unlike Miranda they were born there, Prospero's book-based knowledge allows him to do with them whatever he wishes.

The story's central premise is that Prospero was unjustly usurped as Duke — yet despite this apparent vulnerability, the actual events of the play demonstrate that he is supremely powerful. As soon as Prospero learns that his usurper is near, he disables the man's ship, draws him close, and orchestrates events so that the usurper's son Ferdinand will fall in love with Miranda, forging an alliance between the two houses. Ariel serves as his eyes and ears throughout, giving Prospero an awareness of every corner of the island that closely resembles the omniscience of a playwright over his own work.