Caliban / colonialism

“(for the son that she did litter here, a freckled whelp hag-born) not honored with a human shape”

• “litter” - dehumanizing, rubbish that’s just been dumped, lacking value & worth. OR animalistic like the offspring of a dog, linking to “whelp”. Non-human & uncivilized, intangible & defined

• “hag-born” - inherited evil/witchcraft. Racialised language of othering

• Reflects colonial attitudes of the early modern period, where colonised peoples were frequently depicted as sub-human in order to justify domination.

“he does make our fire, fetch in our wood, and serve in offices that profit us”

• Tricolor - 3 structured actions suggests routine labour & creates a repetitive rhythm of exploitation where Caliban is reduced to subservience

• Forced to physical labour & functions only for Prospero’s advantage & survival. Instrumentalised within a system of domination,

• “profit us” - colonizers exploitation of natural resources for economic benefit

“as wicked dew…with raven’s feather from unwholesome fen drop on you both. A southwest blow on ye and blister you all over”

• Caliban

• Natural imagery to transform the environment into a vehicle of vengeance and suffering. The references to “dew,” “fen,” and “blow” personify natural forces, suggesting that Caliban draws power from the elemental world that surrounds him.

• Although he is oppressed and dehumanised, he is also given the richest natural imagery, suggesting he is more closely aligned with the island’s true power than Prospero who relies on physical violence

• Positions Caliban as both part of the natural world and a conduit for its destructive potential, complicating his role as both oppressed figure and embodiment of untamed nature.

“This island’s mine by Sycorax, my mother which thou taken from me”

• Caliban presents himself as rightful ruler, legitimate due to lineage & inheritance of land from his mother. Challenges Prospero’s power & exposes moral ambiguity

• Accusatory tone - frames Prospero as the coloniser who has seized his land unjustly & exploited its natural resources

“I loved thee and showed thee all the qualities o’th’ isle”

• Emotive language - compassionate & loving, contrasting his dehumanized portrayal in the play. Does have some human qualities despite being described as sub-human & bestial

• “showed” - positions him as teacher & leader, shift in power dynamics. Prospero’s power built of his knowledge. Deep connection to island & natural elements

• Reflects colonial encounters in which indigenous peoples shared resources and understanding, only to be subsequently dominated & exploited

• Complicates Caliban’s character, presenting his hostility as a response to betrayal and exposing the exploitative foundations of Prospero’s control.

“I have used thee with human care and lodged thee in mine own cell, till thou didst seek to violate the honor of my child”

• “till” creates a cause-and-effect narrative that frames Caliban’s enslavement as a consequence of his actions, tries to justify his actions due to attempted assault of Mirada

• Presents himself as benevolent & loving at first, offering protection & guidance. However, "lodged thee in mine own” can be read cynically as it reinforces entrapment & ownership

• “honor” - virginity & chastity, patriarchal values

“peopled this isle with Calibans”

• Frames his attempted violation of Miranda as an act of natural reproduction rather than moral transgression. Nature vs nurture

• “peopled” suggests generative expansion, while the plural “Calibans” constructs the idea of an emerging lineage or race.

• Shakespeare thus presents a clash between Caliban’s instinctive, nature-driven perspective and Prospero’s civilize moral framework, highlighting how colonial power extends beyond land ownership to the control of population and legacy.

• The line’s unsettling bluntness resists simple moral judgement, complicating Caliban’s role as both victim of dispossession and agent of potential violence.

“thy vile race”

• “vile” - disgust, morally inferior, innate evilness

• Racial profiling of the ‘other’

• Deterministic language reflects colonial ideologies in which difference was equated with moral deficiency, allowing domination to be framed as natural hierarchy.

“You taught me language and my profit on’t is I know how to curse?”

• Economic metaphor to undermine Prospero’s claim to have civilised him

• Positions Prospero as teacher, reframes education as oppression

• Language as double-edged power - Prospero uses language to control & demand but Caliban uses it to resist & defy. Tool of oppression and rebellion

“wound with adders, who with cloven tongues do hiss me into madness” “pinch, bite, wound”

• Caliban Act 2 Scene 2

• Semantic field of violence - Prospero’s physical torture

“What we have here, a man or a fish? Dead or alive?”

• Trinculo Act 2 Scene 2

• Rapid questioning creates confusion & certainty, unable to organize him into simplistic, limiting categories. Object to be examined, reflecting colonial tendencies

• Animalistic language - dehumanizing, defined of full humanity. Something to be caught & sold for profit. AO3 freak shows & commodification of the other

• Comedy masking cruelty - Xp uses comedy to deliver social commentary about racial prejudice

“they will not give doit to relieve a lame beggar, they will lay out ten to see a dead Indian”

• Trinculo Act 2 Scene 2

• Economical monetary language. Stark financial contrasts shows human hypocrisy & declining morality where they’re unwilling to help real suffering but eager to pay for spectacle.

• Xp uses Trinculo as mouthpiece to critique society’s ignorance & racial prejudices. Values spectacle over compassion, revealing how colonial and economic systems dehumanise individuals by transforming them into consumable curiosities.

• AO3 freak shows where suffering is exploited into profit/entertainment

“If I can recover him and keep him tame and get to Naples with him, he’s a present for any emperor”

• Stephano Act 2 Scene 2

• “recover” - dehumanization, objectification, object that can be retrieved & owned. Property rather than human

• “tame” - animalistic, domestication, control. Uncivilised, wild & capturable

• “present” - commodification & complete removal of autonomy. Transferable property for economic advantage, currency within systems of power. Exploitation

• Stephano adopts the colonizer attitude which sees indigenous as trophies & has clear intentions to exploit him. Delusions of grandeur as really he is just a drunken sailor with illusions of imperial power

“moon-calf”

• Stephano Act 2 Scene 2

• Deformed, unnatural creature. Biologically abnormal, deviation from human norms

• Othered through language, reflecting broader colonial discourses that defined unfamiliar peoples as subhuman in order to justify domination.

• Comedic tone of the insult further normalises such prejudice, revealing how humour can mask and reinforce systems of exclusion.

“My cellar is in a rock, by th’ seaside, where my wine is hid”

• Stephano Act 2 Scene 2

• Possessive pronouns “my” - instinctively frames island in terms of ownership which is ironic as he has only just arrived, yet assumes entitlement & control

• Has no legitimate power due to lower-order position as sailor but tabula rasa setting gives him a false illusion, as seen in master-servant relationship with Caliban

• Reflects European colonialism where colonizers arrive in new spaces & immediately reclaim them as theres

• Imposition of a “cellar,” a symbol of European domestic order, onto a natural landscape reflects an attempt to restructure the island according to familiar civilised frameworks.

“we will inherit here”

• Stephano Act 2 Scene 2

• modal verb “will” to assert certainty, while the verb “inherit” evokes lawful succession and legitimate ownership.

• However, this language is deeply ironic, as Stephano possesses no rightful claim to the island, revealing his delusional perception of authority.

• From a colonial perspective, Shakespeare critiques the way European expansion often justified territorial acquisition through language that framed conquest as inheritance, erasing prior ownership and naturalising domination