imprisonment/freedom (marginalised)

“a devil born on whose nature/nurture can never stick”

• biblical imagery, epithet

• imprisonment of Caliban through the lens of eurocentric new world dominance, demonising the exotic ‘other’

• Prospero’s belief that Caliban’s assimilation is his duty

“I know thou canst not choose”

• manipulative tone

• limited autonomy of women due to male control, Prospero informs her of her own existence

• inversion of the Great Chain of Being, Prospero acts as God in the dictation of her actions

“I must obey. His art is of such power, it would control my dam’s God”

• asyndeton

• fear and acceptance in Caliban’s analogy suggests he has manifested his predisposed conifer as a savage

• Caliban now marginialises himself

“it goes on I see, as my soul prompts it”

• aside, metatheatrical control

• refrences the fate of women to be limited by being exchanged from man to man

• Miranda’s childlike characterisation removing her sexuality as it presents something that can not be controlled

• refrences to ‘my’, exerting himself on the fate of his daughter

“nods from the cast. They’re all listening intently: they really care what happens to Caliban”

• imperative

• marginalisation of Caliban and native peoples are metamorphosed into a contemporary context

• Atwood reflects 21st century marginalisation through the collective of incarerated prisoners

• Atwood’s palimpcest, inaccessible education as a form of imprisonment

“Felix ordered a local craft beer for Anne Marie”

• antithesis

• her imprisonment comes in the form of her character being described in relation to something stereotypically masculine

• inability to escape a heteronormative portrayal, limiting her self expression and identity

“Because they’re all animals! Sal almost shouts. They should be put in cages”

• zoomorphism

• sal’s perception that he is above others due to status, education, wealth depicts imprisonment in a contemporary context that is now theoretical

• regression to animalistic portrayal

“This Island’s mine by Sycroax my mother, which thou tak’st from me”

• aphorism, high modality language

• power struggles emulate the hereditment structure of Jacobean England

• caliban asserts his deep connection to the land alluding to colonised people

• authority assigns a sense of internal justice in Caliban regaining his stripped autonomy, forcefully asserting his original connection to the land

“why speaks my father so ungently? This is the third man that I e’er saw”

• parallelism

• innocent facade extrapolates the duality and performative nature of the female identity

• Shakespeare attributes women agency by being able to manipute their submissive representation

“Oh brave new world, that has such people in it”

• personification

• naivety is liberating, allowing her to self actualise away from a construed understanding of the true corruption and evilness that exists

“watching the many faces watching their own faces as they pretended to be someone else…for once in their lives, they loved themselves”

• repetition, elongated, authorial comment

• Atwood’s palimpsest engages with a contemporary setting through employing prisoners within the Canadian Penal System and highlighting that although they are othered, they are able to redeem themselves

• Prisoners are able to fully embrace themselves and their identity

“Plus he’s a land stealer, Adds Red Coyote. Suckin’ old white guy. He should be called Prospero Corp. Next thing he’ll discover oil on it, develop it, machine gun everyone”

• tricolon

• lasting effects of colonism felt today as people remain vengeful

• generational trauma, agency is achieved but there are still some limitations due to the past

“the rarer action is in virtue rather than in vengeance, he hears inside his head. It’s Miranda. She’s prompting him”

• allusion

• Miranda’s ghost regulate Felix’s psyche

• Somewhat falling into a traditional ‘muse’ representation

• still depicts limitations of fourth wave feminism and there is further for women to go to adopt complete liberation