After many attempts of reading the I, II, and III Acts of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, I finally can to somewhat of an understanding that Caliban is without doubt a correlation to the natives and the effect of the dominating culture today. When Prospero was duke, he spent the majority of his time gaining knowledge about the island (which he is currently now living on with is daughter Miranda) and how to ultimately live in harmony with it. Like when the Europeans first came to America
When taking a step back from the book I came to realize that possibly Shakespeare is sympathizing with the Natives today. Evidence of this sympathy is when Caliban was telling Stephano about Prospero’s depraved overtaking of the island, “he used witchcraft to take this island. He stole it from me.” With this statement it makes it seem that Caliban was the innocent one and Prospero was the wicked one; only looking out for his own selfish ambition to take the island away.
When watching the video on Native Americans, I found it to be very accurate in a sense of what they portray to the public eye. Because the white Europeans won over the Natives of America, they have the responsibility to show what the Indians did, whether it’s entirely accurate or not. In the old Hollywood films Indians were seen as bloodthirsty animals who killed the whites. Because the audience was under the influence of a one-sided story, they had very negative views of the Native Americans and very positive views of the white Europeans.
i must admit, you said everything i wished i could have put into words. my blog entry on this topic kinda just bables what you said perfectly!! and i completely agree with it all :] it almost replicates Pocahontas exactly. from the natives point of view i mean. they even came by boat!! :D and i agree that shakespear didn't make caliban like that because he was raised to think that way or anything, i think he did it completely on purpose, and even took his difference in appearance to the extreme for a reason. to point out how we make it sound, how savage and different they are. excellent job :]
ReplyDeleteWow, I wrote my response as if it was normal and Shakespeare was just incorporating the Native outlook. You read much further into it and I absolutely agree. Shakespeare was giving a historic portrayal of what was going on in the colonies and foreign lands that were being taken over. I loved your example of the Europeans and the Native Americans: how the Europeans came and the Native Americans taught them how to survive in America, and then the Europeans tried to civilize the Native Americans and thus enslaved them. That directly relates to Prospero and Caliban. Prospero is the Europeans and Caliban is the Native Americans. Caliban taught Prospero and Prospero took over the island. I found that Shakespeare was just incorporating the customs of the day, how Natives were viewed as savages, but I think I would agree with you, that Shakespeare was actually sympathizing with the natives and how they were being treated. Very good job.
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