Month: April 2016

Shakespeare presents Caliban as a devil like person, he is regarded as a monster and is like a devil walking the earth. However we do find out that Prospero and Caliban have a friendly past and a better relationship than now, but what happened? By structuring the scene in this way, the audience wants to know why the relationship has broken and they begin to read on as they want questions answered. We do know one thing, that Prospero and Caliban were great friends when Prospero first came to the Island. Caliban was owner of the island as Caliban says ”This Islands Mine, by Sycorax my mother” which also indicates it was Calibans island. Furthermore Caliban betrays this relationship as he plots to hurt Prosperos daughter we do not know why, but in my opinion Caliban does this as he is angry and feels betrayed and reacts in anger making him do this because he feels like Prospero has stolen his island from him, which is very close to Calibans heart as it was his mothers.

I believe Prospero reacted in a way that any ordinary father would’ve reacted in, as every parent wants the best for there child and wants there child to be safe. So Prospero gave the worst punishment he could possibly think off to Caliban as he also tried to hurt something very close to Prosperos heart. I think Prospero went over the top with making Caliban a slave but he also might’ve reacted in this way as he knows what it feels like to be hurt as he was moved to the island by his evil brother and most likely does not want the same thing for Miranda and he also knows what being hurt feels like and does not want to suffer the pain again. If Caliban was such ‘GOOD’ friends with Prospero, than I think Prospero should’ve forgiven him by now. This structure enables Shakespeare to present this situation as unforgivable for Prospero which also backs up my point of Caliban hurting Prosperos heart by hurting something very dear to him for instance in this case Miranda.

Prospero and Miranda describe Caliban as a slave,who never yields us kind answer. They call him a slave as he does everything on the island, for example Prospero says ”he does make our fire, fetch in our wood and serves in offices that profit us” this quotation shows that he is a slave as he is doing all the dirty work like fetching wood or making the fire.

Prospero rely’s on Caliban to do the dirty work and slave work as he is described as a demi-devil and a slave, by being described in this way we know as an audience that Caliban has to everything which a normal human shouldn’t and should be treated nastier than the average human as well.

Prospero and Caliban were best friends when Prospero first arrived on the island, however during there friendship Caliban had other ideas and he wanted to hurt Miranda, and he also wanted to make Caliban babies to fill up the island, so Prospero felt betrayed and has not forgiven him. Prospero promises to punish Caliban by giving him cramps at night, stitches that hurt him so much he can barely breath and pinches that feel like a big yellow dangerous bee has stang him a million times.

Caliban claims that the island is his as it was his mothers before and claims that Prospero has tricked Caliban in the past. He was treated well when Prospero first came to the island as it says they were good friends, but Caliban broke this friendship as he wanted to attack Miranda and she cannot bear to look at him, so Prospero’s imprisons him due to this and makes him a slave.