Abstract
The Tempest is often regarded as the work of a seasoned playwright. The relationships between the various characters are explored in great depth. One of the most significant relationships is that between Prospero, the magician and Duke of Milan, and Caliban, the native. [...]
This study examines the verbal confrontations between Prospero and Caliban in depth, aiming to uncover their multiple ways of meaning.
Extract
[...] The educated noble, Prospero, comes to the island and the native, Caliban, helps Prospero by introducing him to the island. Prospero reduces Caliban to a savage slave and servant11 " The way Prospero behave can make us feel he's a kind of control-freak, paranoid character: reactive state of mind heavily influenced by anxiety and fear is the paranoia that deals with irrationality and delusion, including persecutory thought processes or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a 'perceived threat towards one. In that context, The Tempest is to a large extent a paranoid play12 " Caliban's perspective: an ambivalence between recognition and revolt: Caliban of course expresses a lot of resentment toward Prospero. [...]
[...] Such a narrative constitutes development for the subaltern or the third world and/or the New World, offering a proposition that has done little to provide any form of evidence to exemplify progress. The texts begin to reveal how absence and loss in the name of progress and education have further created the conditions for liberal notions of freedom14 " The Nuance Introduced by the Maternal Imaginary: Although Sycorax, Caliban's mother, is absent from the play, her maternal influence is evoked in contrast to Prospero's. For example, Prospero seems to take on a maternal role, caring for Caliban, even as their relationship deteriorates. [...]
[...] Language as a symbol of power and enslavement So, the language can be used, can be the symbol, sometimes of domination and sometimes submission. Prospero is expressing his calm superiority with a lot of self-confidence. Caliban uses language to express his rebellion but sometimes in a kind of pathetic, impotent way. The language is used in very different ways by the two characters who seem to be very different in a kind of master-slave relationship: "Therefore, the characters within the two texts navigate the oppressing limitations of language and use it as a tool to further traverse contradictions of freedom and unfreedom9." III - A complex relationship Beginning marked by benevolence and a nearly parental relationship: At the beginning of their relationship, Prospero est very benevolent. [...]
[...] This extract can be considered in a certain historical context of colonisation when people consider superior over other people: "Shakespeare, in dramatization of the New World, neither support nor oppose the process of colonization but he tries his best to show both sides of the issues and let the audiences to decide whether it is legitimate or not1". Bhat agrees with this post-colonialist interpretation of the play: "Prospero in this play represents a colonizer who takes control over the inhabitants of the island, Ariel and Caliban. His actions parallel the actions of the British colonizers: he calls the natives uncivilized and savage. [...]
[...] I identified wit as a faculty of the mind that characters sometimes reject in order to engage in violence16 " IV - Meter and scansion in the tempest: a thematic analysis Emotional intensity through meter: Shakespeare is using the iambic pentameter to express emotions: "All hail, great master Grave sir, hail I come To answer thy best pleasure." The repetition of the word "hail" in the first two lines emphasizes Ariel's humility and the importance of the moment but there is also a lot of fluidity. [...]
