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“I’ll manacle thy neck and feet together”
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Shakespeare, ‘The Tempest’, I
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461
In this essay, I shall consider Prospero’s role as a while male colonialist
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I believe my essay shall show a possible misrepresentation of the
character to suit post-colonial theorists
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I shall also take into account hierarchy
and how this suits new historical theory, and also what role knowledge and magic plays in
my considerations
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My argument will attempt to draw a critical engagement between
two beliefs: that Prospero is the archetypal colonialist, as supposed by literary theorists, or
that Prospero is innocent of attempting to consolidate power in this role and is much more
sympathetic outside of the theoretical conceit
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I shall first draw the reader’s attention to the historical setting of the play, in order to
get into the mindset of not only the playwright, but of the audience for whom he wrote
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i
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Round the time
Shakespeare was writing his play, settlers and traders were heading towards the Americas,
and had been doing for over a century, only for Britain an Imperialist agenda was emerging
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There is one particular historical account, from which it is
believed the playwright drew inspiration for a storm
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An account
given by William Strachey told of ‘the storm in a restless tumult’ (1) on the way to the
colony
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There are no arguments against the contrary, but to the New Historical critique, this
very fact points to the play being created out of colonialist acts
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The people in question would undoubtedly be the natives – slaves as they would
become
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ii
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The Jamestown trip demonstrates
that colonial ambition was running high, but to link him as Caliban’s oppressor is wrong, if
not historically, then in terms of the characters circumstance
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The
reader cannot ignore the imperialist desire of the time – as one critic sees Miranda’s
comment “echoing the increasingly masculine character of inheritance rights in England”
(2), but this does not mean we can superimpose these feelings onto Prospero, given the
circumstance he finds himself in
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“He [Shakespeare] would have little reason not to assume that, like every other
English attempt at colonizing America, the Jamestown settlement would founder” (3)
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What is also a temptation to the modern critic is to view the play in a
setting not dissimilar to, or directly referencing the West Indies
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To the popular mindset, the inhabitants were mere savages
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I disagree with this line
of thought
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To back my argument, taking Miranda’s quote “brave new
world”, this would surely have been a pointed reference to the newly discovered Americas,
had that been the case
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The reader must therefore take the setting
at face-value – an island between Africa and Italy
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in
exchange, Caliban helped Prospero and his daughter to survive on the island” (4)
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This argument will be
developed later in the essay
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In addition, his actions towards Ariel can also be viewed as benevolent:
“I shall miss/ Thee, but yet thou shalt have freedom” V
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95-6
If Prospero where the colonialist tyrant, I question whether he would he ‘miss’ Ariel
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It is perhaps from these instances

that such a view arises
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It is curious to note that Caliban
was the monster in the text before New Historicist thought became vogue
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I turn now to the theme of power
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“My false brother” so says Prospero – the power struggle between him and his brother caused
the plays situation
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It appears knowledge plays a
part:
“From mine own library with volumes that / I prize above my dukedom” I
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168-9
This sets him immediately opposite to Caliban, who is not a man of knowledge
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Out of this arises a moral
question, as valid now as it was in 1610 –the educated could lay claim to seniority above the
uneducated
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The New
Historicists can easily suggest this is a sign of colonial power
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I shall develop this later on
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Ariel and Caliban serve Prospero, as does Miranda in some respects
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Each serves a purpose – and it is from this viewpoint
one can ascertain a colonial construct
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This construct was brought about by his views on the Jamaica
slave revolt of 1831-32
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In view
of this quote I can appreciate New Historicist views
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However, the oppressor must
be educated in this context in able to exercise power
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i
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These views of power give way to who rightfully owns the island
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ii
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This lends a
sympathetic view towards him, however I am troubled by the rape he had tried to commit
against Miranda
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Such a rape also brings about the moral content of Caliban’s character, and whether it
takes away a New Historicists sympathetic view away from him
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Going
back to my opening quote, a man prepared to use shackles is a man, who is not afraid to
dominate, yet it is his desire to create a relationship for his daughter to Ferdinand for political
and dynastic reasons – and it is here that Miranda’s own power lies – discussed later on
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“Lie there, my art
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ii
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“This
magic garment
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Laying it aside, he ceases for
the moment to represent the Supreme Being,” (7)
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As another critic
points out “The Tempest has long served as an unmistakable embodiment of colonialist
presumption” (8) In this suggestion then, the reader can assume that the power is simply
another too with which to suppress
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ii
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This ‘art’, the alleged object of colonial intent clearly disturbs Miranda, to the point
where Prospero must comfort her:
“I have with such provision in mine art / So safely ordered” I
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28
Here, I must question whether if we suppose Prospero as the white colonial master, then the
emancipation of women would be a natural extension to this
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“The Tempest as a site around which the age-old conflict between colonizer and colonized
continue to be played out and rehearsed” (9) In view of this, I shall consider Caliban’s rape in
a new light
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I find

this suggestion troubling
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“thou dids’t seek to violate / The honour of my child” I
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348
In balancing the view of Prospero as colonialist monster, we must also view him as the
outraged father
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ii
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Caliban is in violation of the accepted codes of conduct
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I would argue the rape
can be viewed as a threat to colony; Miranda’s virginity is key to securing dynastic honour
and a safe inheritance
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To a modern reader too, his actions are
abhorrent
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This third section will focus specifically on Caliban, and some of the issues discussed
with arise again
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We have spoken of dynastic rights – and indeed Sycorax’s status to the island informs him to
his rights
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It becomes beautified,
for example:
“
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ii
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This shows
how he is as one with the very soil of the island
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It is here I feel that sympathies are yoked to the slave
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The language as previously touched upon is given in mutual exchange of help
“He does make our fire/fetch our wood and serves in offices” I
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318
We can pit this quote against one in the same part of the text, where Caliban is castigated as a
“poisonous slave [and] devil
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The New Historicist could easily draw parallels to say, 1960’S
South Africa, or Imperialist Britain at its zenith
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The critic Retamor takes the view that “Prospero invaded the islands, killed our ancestors,
enslaved Caliban, and taught him his language to make himself understood” (10)
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I however
do have a problem with vindicating Caliban because of the rape
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The reader is aware of the animalistic tendencies leant to Caliban, but I would like to make
aware the first impressions Miranda gives to him, when speaking to Ferdinand, when she says
‘This/ Is the third man that e’er I saw” – presuming she means Prospero and Caliban
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I have chosen specifically an antiquated text from 1921 by the
critic Colin Still
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It is as we might expect; Caliban is a mere animal
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is explicitly a monster and implicitly amphibian; for, although he lives upon
the Island, he has the appearance of a fish” (11) It is true in the text at one point he is referred
to as a “fish”, but the modern reader would not necessarily identify him solely through this
one description
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We could
even suggest that his fish-like description would be written by Shakespeare to symbolise he is
capable of an inhuman action such as rape, which for me attributes towards his dubious moral
standing
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Take the view, for example that the Prospero – Caliban
relationship actually encouraged future generations to seek literary figures into which they
could categorise their ancestral evolution
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So, even now, it resonates
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but that he should claim to be a person in his own right and
from time to time show that he has a will of his own” (13)
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The critic needs to explore the former point made by Mannoni
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He is linked

often to an animal, or a thing, a view picked up by the critic Still, but the text supports this:
“Mooncalf” (II
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111), “strange thing” (V
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290), “fish” (V
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266), and more elaborately,
“thing of darkness” (V
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275)
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For those
critics looking at these through a New Historicist perception, I can of course understand the
idea of a demonology of natives
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These descriptions
to me seem to show the playwright’s desire to show his character as different from the other
characters
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He is the ‘other’, against
which the other characters can be represented against
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Caliban is grateful for
his education:
“Thou Strok’st me and made much of me
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ii
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However, the reader can question whether his savagery arose from the alleged abandonment
of his master
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He is seen by many characters as a “thing”, yet Miranda recognises him as a man
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As a reader I struggle to
make sense of Caliban as one individual
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Of course, it can be viewed that Caliban is
guilty of the same intentions of English colonial ambitions – in effect ‘peopling’
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The
writers Ngugi Lamming sees the text as a “paternalistic ideology that is basic to the material
aims of Western imperialism” (14)
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I ask whether
this can be justified, given the evidence I have brought in this essay
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This could be true
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But this view is narrowed only to the fact that Prospero has in effect
subdued Caliban, ignoring the interpretation that this was punishment to the attempted rape,
and Ngugi’s view ignores Prospero’s magic tampering as heresy
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The extent to which the theory can
exploit the text is entirely down to the renderings of the critic in question
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The argument between Sovereignty and Status continues
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I consider whether it is this particular power play that brings
about the characters to a simplistic level – merely a hierarchy to which they have no control
over
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ii
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And further, Prospero in the Christian mindset
(and therefore the mindset of the Elizabethan/ Stuart audience) is using witchcraft to subdue
the island – behaviour totally unfitting to what Ngugi is suggesting
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it carries
implications
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Given
this, I see no reason why Prospero would be emulated
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I
interpret this as seeing the master-slave relationship as being seen as acceptable
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Collectively, they
seem to suggest that the Prospero-Caliban is the very model upon which imperialists
themselves based themselves on it; it could be a simple accident of history, and it is later
critics misinterpreting Prospero’s consolidation of power
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To quote from an article by Hulme: “once published, once in
the public domain, words are open to all kinds of (mis)representation over which we have
very little control” (17)
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In conclusion to my argument, I believe Prospero can only be seen as a consolidator of power
if the interpretations of the New Historicists are understood as absolute
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It is as if Prospero’s apology has taken on a new significance:
“Let your indulgence set me free” Epilogue, l
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The modern critic has trapped Prospero within history; it is up to the reader now to set the
character free by understanding the spirit of Shakespeare’s Tempest and releasing him from
the baggage of colonial history
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Butler, Martin
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Xxvi
(2) ‘ ‘The Tempest’ and its Travels’’, Ed
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; Reaktion
Books, London, 2000
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221
(4) ‘Critical Essays on ‘The Tempest’; Longman Literary Guides, Ed
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p
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& Vaughn, Virginia Mason;
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1991
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145
(6) ‘Prospero and Caliban: The Psychology of Colonization’, Mannoni, O
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Powersland,
Pamela
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p
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p
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Routledge, London, 1999
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89
(9) Ibid
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89
(10) Vaughn & Vaughn, p
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171
(12) Vaughn & Vaughn, p
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117
(14) Carletti, p
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89
(16) Still, p

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