CHARACTERIZATION OF CALIBAN IN ‘THE TEMPEST’ AND

‘A TEMPEST’

Prepared by- Urvi DaveCourse- M.A.Semester- 3

Enrolment Number- 14101009Email id- dave.urvi71@gmail.com

Batch Year- 2014-16Paper no- 11

Paper Name- Postcolonial LiteratureSubmitted to- Smt. S B Gardi

Department of EnglishMaharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar

University

COLONIALISM Control and governing influence of a nation over a dependent country, territory or people.

POST COLONIALISM means after Colonialism. It is the study of a culture after a physical and political withdrawal of an oppressive power.

THE TEMPEST

Written by William ShakespeareSon of SycoraxReal native of the Island“Savage and deformed slave”Less resistance and uses Prospero's languagePlays the role of discourse of Colonialisms.

A TEMPEST

Written by Aime CesaireRaises voice against his white master Prospero Expressed his thought more emotionally and descriptively Alienation from his own Identity Opposes against Prospero Journey to gain freedom under Prospero’s rule

Caliban in the central figure. Caliban’s name is probably an anagram of “ Cannibal”.

Caliban, a half-monster, son of Sycorax and enslaved by Prospero’s magic. He was treated kindly and taught to speak by Prospero and his daughter, but fell from grace when he attempted to rape Miranda.

Notion of Monster

The implication is that the natural and instinctively, without any of the controls of social or moral order. Caliban is then denounced as “a thing most brutish”. The attempt by Prospero and Miranda to teach Caliban to talk wherently produces the second affecting note in the portrayal of Caliban. It is a sentence of Caliban’s which is typically Shakespearean in its brevity and compressed meaning.

“You taught me language; my profit on it is, I know how to

curse”.

The Colonising analogy is not so much with Prospero. Caliban’s relationships as it is with the perversely “civilised” influence of Stephano and Trinculo, who are Europeans, on the ‘servant-monster’.

Character of Caliban has a certain pathos.

Poetry

Caliban’s relation with Stephano and Trinculo

Caliban’s character may be attributed to two factors which makes his ultimate repentance more plausible; he is not entirely a beast, but shows throughout a potential for finer things. This alternations between the time and the gross sides of Caliban is a sort of link between the Noble and the ignoble characters.

The monster is based on the wicked spirit type in the Italian pastoral, though Cesaire develops him to a considerable extent. He is an elemental, earthbound man, without a soul, but with a direct and shrewd natural intelligence.

Language

Though he is bestial, immoral and gross, there is still an elementary poetry about him, and one must notice that most of his lines throughout the play are in verse, and that some of the finest poetry is put into his mouth.