The Tempest and Colonization

I thought it was interesting when Professor Little made the comment in lecture that The Tempest is Shakespeare’s most popular play in some countries, especially those that have experience with colonization. In many ways, events in The Tempest do resemble European colonization. All of the characters who land on the island find it within their rights to claim it and make it their own. Gonzalo is an example of one character who dreams that he can transform the island into what he wants it to be, creating a perfect society nostalgic of the golden age, with Gonzalo as its leader. Prospero, though, is the main allegorical colonizer figure in the play. He thinks he has complete authority over the island, even though Sycorax and Caliban had already been living there prior to his arrival. Prospero immediately turns Caliban into his servant, forcing him to do all of his work on the island. According to Caliban, he was once his “own king” (I.ii.342), but now he is a prisoner. Prospero and Miranda, acting as the colonizers, use very patronizing language toward him and act as though he owes something to them. They feel he should be happy that they found him and supposedly taught him how to be more civilized, particularly by teaching him to speak their own language. While they continue to deny Caliban his freedom throughout the play, Prospero also constantly denies Ariel his freedom. Prospero seems to promise Ariel that he will have his freedom soon, but up until the very end of the play, he withholds Ariel’s freedom, in an assertion of his own control.

Throughout the play, there are many examples of outsiders craving power and feeling they can simply go in and take it. Antonio usurped the dukedom from Prospero, Sebastian plotted to usurp the throne from Alonso, and Prospero usurped freedom from Caliban. These characters in The Tempest all want power and control. As Professor Little suggested, Shakespeare faced his own disillusionment in The Tempest, and he began to reflect on the absolutism he saw in himself as an artist through these characters.

Laura Anderson, 1B