Caliban?
This island’s mine, by Sycorax my mother,
Which thou takest from me. When thou cam’st first,
Thou strok’st me, and made much of me; wouldst give me
Water with berries in’t; and teach me how
To name the bigger light, and how the less,
That burn by day and night: and then I loved thee,
And showed thee all the qualities o’ th’ isle,
The fresh springs, brine-pits, barren place and fertile:
Cursed be I that did so! All the charms
Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you!
For I am all the subjects that you have,
Which first was mine own King; and here you sty me
In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me
The rest o’ th’ island.Caliban | Act I, sc ii | lines 335 – 348
Are there any reasons for us to sympathize with Caliban, or should we demonize him as Prospero seems to want us to?
Don’t forget, guys, this post is not mandatory, but REMEMBER TO COMMENT ON THE POETRY POST FROM MONDAY, AS THAT ONE IS!
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13 Comments
I think we should sympathize with him to a certain extent because he seems helpless or powerless compared to Prospero. He was on the island before they came or actually he was born on the island (right?) but he welcomed them to the island which one could say was kind of naive. In turn for Caliban showing Prospero what the island had to offer Prospero educated him but then he just sort of turned around and enslaved him which was apparently because Caliban tried to rape Miranda but we don’t really get the full story on that. He seems to fear Prospero’s magic which is used to keep him under control and Prospero clearly threatens to use it on him and give him cramps or something. I think all of this especially lines 335 – 348 can be compared to the poem Meditation on Yellow by Olive Senior where the Europeans first came to the island and won the indigenous people’s trust and then turned around and exploited them. Consequently, saying we do not sympathize with Caliban at least a bit would be like saying we do not sympathize with the people in that poem. We should sympathize with him because he was taken unfair advantage of and we can say that his island was taken away from him. Even though he is portrayed as a beast of some sort he is indeed a human being, therefore, he should be treated as one and not as some lesser creature. I’m not saying he is a good person or if he really did try to rape Miranda as is suggested he shouldn’t be punished, however, he should not be exploited for someone else’s benefit.
From this extract we can certainly sympathise with Calibian. Having his birthright forcefully taken away from him and being turned into a slave to a stranger is cause enough for anyone to have even the slightest amount of sympathy towards Caliban. Also this situation described in the extract holds a very close resemblance to slavery/colonisation in the Caribbean which would also cause the reader to pity Caliban and his unfortunate situation.However, if the reader continues past this extract the may condure a differnt feeling toward Caliban because he tired to rape Miranda which may give cause for his treatment, although his treatment can justify the reason for him trying to rape Miranda as a form of revenge (much like active and passive rebellion in slavery). Had he been treated as an equal the situation may have been avoided, so there can still be a slight amount of sympathy towards Caliban.
Caliban, Caliban.. “Oh a divine thing, for nothing natrual I ever saw so noble.” Even when all the world hates Caliban i will sympathize with him eventhoug he’s a hag-seed. Caliban has a right to do whatevr he wants on the island or atleast he should have such a right. However there’s the wonderful Prospero who refuses to give him such a right. I love both characters so i cannot pick a side, i do however think that what Prospero is doing to Caliban isn’t wrong because he has the power and why not abuse it. Prospero is only human and any human with such power will abuse it, atleast i will and i mean that in the best way possible.
On the other hand there is Caliban and i think hes sensitive dispite the fact he tried to ‘rape’ Miranda. (If that did happen that would be a strange twist to Shakespeare’s plays.) Caliban so far is strange but so very interesting and thats why i’ll get along with such a character.
Also i must admit i like the fact that Prospero is trying to put the audience agaisnt Caliban by making him appear to be such a ‘demon’. Prospero is such a twisted character and to me its funny the way he tortures Caliban but then on the other hand its funny an pretty brave of Caliban and the ways he talks to Prospero. Thus showing his bravy eventhough behind the shadows he is scred of Prospero and his magic staff.
I know what i just said is all over the place but i think you should get what am trying to say.
By the way, Mr Abbott are you saying that Caliban is dispossessed? Because i resent such a comment, he is not ‘Caliban the Dispossessed’ he’s just Caliban a mortal with a brave form who speaks my language. : )
Ummm. I think you need to look up the word “dispossessed”.
mr abbott i do know what dispossessed means, it simply means homeless or impoverished, right? anyway i think you missed my point : ) what i was really ‘trying’ to say is that dispite Caliban being dispossessed he is brave and doesn’t really have a bad attitude towards it, atleast not so much. Oh and where i added before that ‘…who speaks my languge’ i was only trying to give a dramtic effect, that apparently didn’t work out
I think we should sympathise with Caliban :/ after all he was on the island first… first come first served ryt? He’s totally disposessed and it’s really unfair for people to just come storming in out of nowhere and taking away your things and calling them their own. Especially if they pretend that you mean something to them before they do it! Prospero justifies he’s maltreatment by claiming that Caliban tried to rape Miranda but somehow I don’t get the impression that it was so serious a situation. I feel that Prospero was waiting for an opportunity like this is order to justify his exploitation of the ignorant (not as in stupid.. as in not knowing better) It’s only natural that Caliban react so resentfully and I don’t blame him for reacting.. he behaves a whole lot more humanly than Prospero would like to portray
then again this could just be the extremely cynical side of me.. :/
or you could be making a lot of sense…
yayy
in spite of the grammar errors lol :/ need to get into the habit of reading over
While I can take Prospero’s word for it and demonize Caliban… I would sympathize for Caliban especially with hearing that speech of Prospero coming and taking over an island where he found Caliban first. My first reason would be that Caliban never did anything to me so I wouldnt be as hard on him…
and be too quick to take on Prospero’s troubles with him. Secondly even though Prospero expressed kindness it still sounds like a takeover to me and a total conquering of the island… ummm 
I would sympathize with him because if you met me alone on an island I hope you would know am the queen of the island still… whether am darker than you, less civilized than you or choose to do what I please, you met me here so I run things.
There are reasons for us to sympathise with Caliban because of the way he’s being treated as a lesser being.He welcomed prospero on the island which according to him was given to him by his mother Sycorox(we know how people thought back then),and we see him being mistreated by the ‘civilised’ Prospero,so should’t Caliban as the ‘lesser being’ be resentful? But it must be really considered what Prospero’s real motive was all along.why is he so mean to Caliban(we know what he presumably tried to do,but still)and he wants Miranda to hook up with the son of his enemy…what is this telling us about Prospero and the society at that time…I was just wondering.Caliban’s experience is synonymous to the experience of the Caribean people and it is because of this that we feel obliged to sympathise with him.(I probably just went around the question…I think…)
lol I agree with your evidence on Prospero.. he really does seem like the manipulative type of fellow… hookin up your daughter with your enemy’s son :s wat’s up with that? He must have some sort of underhand motive or at least one to secure some sort of invincibility in the future idk :/ way off the island? Securing a good place to start over maybe?