Caliban from a Different Mirror Essay Sample

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Caliban in “The Tempest” was the boy of Sycorax. and his character is a symbolic representation of autochthonal or “savage” people. His character represents the stereotypes of autochthonal or barbarian people and a direct contradiction of his more “civilized” opposite numbers. most specifically Prospero who is seen as his vanquisher or maestro. and how he is below that of Prospero and hence the autochthonal people of the Americas were below that of the European settlers. This can besides be seen as a contemplation of William Shakespeare’s position of colonising North America and what was imagined the American autochthonal people were like.

Caliban being both the boy of Sycorax and the Satan. besides seen as the merchandise of nature. is really representative of how European people at the clip viewed the indigens in the Americas and his intervention foreshadows the barbarous interactions between settlers and the American indigens. As we see in Prospero’s position his feeling of him is that of antipathy as he calls Caliban “not honored with human form ( I. I. 17 ) ” . This can be interpreted as Prospero seeing Caliban as non holding “human shape” due to his vesture. skin colour and earthly expression which automatically places him below that of Prospero and Miranda. It can besides be seen as perchance a first feeling of a colonialists and how they would see indigens in the Americas as inferior due to their deficiency of vesture and cleanliness.

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This initial position of Caliban can besides be seen to stand for the “De-evolution” or “dehumanization” of indigens and of what was seen at the clip in the African people. as referenced by Takaki in his analyzation of the drama where Shakespeare depicted him as a “barbarian” and “savage incapable of raising ( I. two. 37 ) . Using this as non merely a description of Caliban’s nature but besides as justification for the treatement of non merely him but besides citing a justification for the mistreatment of autochthonal people in Africa and the furture mistreatment of the American indigens. Overall Caliban’s character is a petroleum and excessively exaggerated of a common stereotyped description of that of already enslaved persons and biased premise of other autochthonal people that would be found in the Americas throughout the drama.

In the drama Shakespeare’s imagination and how he represents Caliban can be seen as a direct prefiguration of the experience European colonists’ interactions and future intervention of American indigens. Caliban’s being seen every bit inferior as clearly stated in many cases in the drama including Mirdanda depicting him as holding “vile race. / Though thou didst learn. had that in’t which good natures / Could non stay to be with” ( I. two. 361–363 ) . This mentioning to her and Prospero learning him and how their instructions could perchance drive out the “devilish” side of him with their “nurturing” of his intelligence. They see him as an inferior monster of which they can alter with their infliction of their instruction him to be more “British” . We can besides take Caliban being the merely antecedently colonized individual before that of Prospero and how he is viewed as a skewed vision of how possibly a little group of indigens or what has already been antecedently seen in antecedently enslaved autochthonal peoples as representative in European colonists’ eyes of all native people and hence automatically presuming they are of low intelligence and below that of “civilized” settlers.

Besides reading of actions by Caliban did a figure on his intervention. where he felt he was sort to Prospero which in bend was repaid by Prospero “imprisoning him” ( I. two. 347 ) and Prospero would implore to differ claiming his mistreatment was due to Caliban seeking to ravish Miranda ( I. two. 347–351 ) . This misinformation dealt greatly on the intervention of Caliban and farther did a figure to skew the position placed upon him which was already dehumanising and degrading. Besides utilizing this as justification to handling Caliban severely Prospero felt he did nil wrong. as Europeans felt the demand to supply skewed accounts for their mistreatment of enslaved African indigens and fostering the decision that the same would be done to American indigens during the colonisation of North America. These illustrations and Takaki’s account of how the opinion of indigens in early colonists as “lacking everything identifiable in civilised society” can be seen as both foreshadow of future colonists in the Americas and the intervention of the indigens in North America.

Due to the European prejudice of indigens whether it be African. North American or in Shakespeare one can deduce that there is a stereotyped position that because indigens lack the same instruction. understanding and culturalization of that of “civilized” society it has lead to mistreatment to people who may hold even tried to be peaceable with them. Whether from Shakespeare or Ronald Takaki we can see that “civilized” people lack the sense of compassion that is require in interacting with indigens and how the drama foreshadowed the farther maltreatment of Europeans on autochthonal people during colonisation.

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