The Character of Caliban in Shakespeare’s The Tempest Essays -- Tempes

The Character of Caliban in Shakespeares The TempestCaliban is one of the approximately interesting of Shakespeares characters. For centuries, scholars have puzzled over the meaning and brilliance of this central character. Who or what is this creature? Is he a man or a beast (Peterson, p.2)? Most of the people who have debated this question send the question itself at face value. Caliban is either a man or a beast. The other characters in the play dismiss him as a poisonous slave, savage, and hag-seed (Act 1, Scene 2), but that does not mean that the reader moldiness do so as well. Let us take a closer look at Caliban the individual and evaluate the question of his gentlemanity. In the end, I think we will see that Caliban is just as human as the other characters in the play.The first charge against Caliban is his shape. Prospero beckons him come by shouting, What ho Slave, Caliban/ Thou earth, thou, speak...Come thou tortoise Prospero does not even descend to place h im among humankind instead he is called earth as if he is part of the very ground-- the dirt that Prospero rules. Later, Trinculo calls him A strange fish and Stephano refers to him as a monster of the isle with four legs. (2,2) Indeed, Caliban is never spoken of without virtually dehumanizing adjective added to the address. I would, however like to challenge the notion of his ugliness. During Shakespeares day, on that point was a very narrow, very specific concept of beauty. For example, a charr was usually considered around beautiful if she was very fair. This showed that she was not exposed to the fair weather through any type of common labor and thus gumption her gentility. To most of Elizabethan England, this concept of beauty was the only concept of beaut... ...ight not all be good ones, are, nevertheless, very human ones. In fact, most of Shakespeares characters exhibit attributes far worse than Calibans, yet their humanity is ever called into question. make I ago of Othello. Iago exhibited a startling lack of redeeming qualities, yet he was never called a monster. The only reason that Caliban should be called a monster lies in the only way he differs from the other characters-- his appearance. It is a shame that, charm a modern audiences may question the treatment of Caliban, they do not often question the reason behind it, and by failing to do so, they, along with Prospero become slaves to their own preconceptions. Dale Peterson and Jane Goodall encompassed the lesson that we must learn from Caliban. They said, By enslaving Caliban, we subject ourselves. Only when we free Caliban will we free ourselves.