The Tempest: a coloniser and a colonised

In this passage, taken from the second scene of the first act, Caliban and Prospero curse each other using the power of language more than the magic’s one. Caliban cannot stand his state of slavery any longer because he reminds Prospero that when he arrived on the island they established a relationship based on mutual help and learning : Prospero taught him his language while Caliban showed him the “qualities” of the island. Unfortunately Caliban’s gratefulness did not lead to friendship but to slavery because, thanks to the power of his magic, Prospero overwhelmed Caliban confining him in a “hard rock”. This kind of relationship recalls the one between powerful colonisers and weaker colonised people who are obliged to learn and accept the invaders’ culture and language and to give up the control over their own lands. A modern example can be the way Native Americans were confined in reservation. On the one hand Prospero justifies his spell on Caliban as the only possible way to protect Miranda’s chastity from Caliban’s savage instincts, on the other hand Caliban had behaved spontaneously like any human being trying to preserve the species. The Elizabethan perception of the natives of England’s new colonies was the belief that they were savages without any values and culture so it is easy to understand why from Prospero and Miranda’s point of view it was inconceivable that Caliban could be Miranda’s partner, thus putting a coloniser and a colonised on the same level.

Shakespeare’s opinion was probably the same as Prospero and most English Elizabethan people’s but we can also think that Shakespeare’s position as an artist was the same as Caliban’s in verse 59 when he says “I must obey” because the sovereign’s power is so strong that he could be defeated.