Colonial Issues in The Tempest

The post-colonial readers attempt to give a revisionist reading to the literary pieces written during the colonial period. Shakespeare's The Tempest, easily falls into this category because it reflects a "colonial ethos" and it premiered two years after England’s first colonization of Virginia in 1609. Richard P Wheeler (2001: 320) comments,

Many recent readings have rigorously emphasized the importance of the play’s relation to the colonialist enterprise. (p.320)

 The play, in the form of travel literature of its time, gives the accounts of a tempest off the Bermudas that separated and nearly wrecked a fleet of colonial ships sailing from Plymouth to Virginia.

“The English colonial project seems to be on Shakespeare’s mind throughout The Tempest, as almost every character, from the lord Gonzalo to the drunk Stephano, ponders how he would rule the island on which the play is set if he were its king.” (wikipedia)

We can now have a glace at the definition of colonialism. Stanford Ensyclopedia of  Phylosophy states,

“Colonialism is a practice of domination, which involves the subjugation of one people to another.”

Of course, The Tempest centers on the wrong done to Prospero by his brother. But did not Prospero usurp Caliban’s domain? In The Tempest, Caliban suffers the same fate as many New World natives: He loses control over a domain he thought he ruled, becoming a virtual slave of Prospero:

As I told thee before, I am subject to a tyrant, a sorcerer, that by his cunning hath cheated me of the island. (III, 2)

          Thus Prospero's attitude to the island and the islanders is similar to that of a colonizer. It is true that he was made an exile against his will. But as soon as he lands on the island he subjects the two inhabitants of the island and demands unwavering loyalty from them. Moreover, like a colonist, he discards it as soon as his use for it is over.

In order to legitimize the domination the colonizers maintain an ideology or a set of beliefs and assumptions which include that it is God’s given duty of the colonizers to bring the colonized “savages” to right path and civilize them with the colonizer’s superior culture:

In The Tempest almost all of the “colonizers” on the island treat Caliban, the native, as “savage” and a type of meanest creature. Prspero calls it “Caliban my slave”, “slave! Caliban!”(I,2) of “vile race”(I,2) and “savage”( I,2) and  “confin’d into […]his rock”. Even Stephano is surprised to see Caliban at first,

“Have we devils here? Do you put
tricks upon's with savages and men of Ind, ha?”(II,2)

Here, the use of the word “Ind” indicates the European’s craving for India.

Moreover, Prospero as a true colonizer begins to civilize Caliban’s behaviour, culture, and educate him. In Caliban’s speech,

“ Thou […] teach me how
To name the bigger light, and how the less,
That burn by day and night”(I,2)

But, Caliban had no heed to learning, because he always felt subjugated,

“…thou didst not, savage,
Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like(I,2)
A thing most brutish…”

However, for his own benefit, Prospero could teach him his language, and Caliban’s reaction was,       

“You taught me language; and my profit on't
Is, I know how to curse. The red plague rid you
For learning me your language!”(I,2)

I think this is one of the most famous quotes often applied in post-colonial study which resembles to Salman Rushdie’s famous words, “the empire writes back to the centre” That is the colonized respond to the colonizer’s oppression and authority with the very language, education and culture of the colonizer.

Prospero feels proud that he has performed a God given duty to civilize the island, though his arrival was accidentally not intentionally,

Then was this island
…not honour'd with
A human shape.

          But under colonizer’s ideologies was oppression as a basic ingredient of colonialism. Similarly, Prospero controls Ariel who wanted his freedom from the “centre’ by threatening,

“If thou more murmur'st, I will rend an oak
And peg thee in his knotty entrails till
Thou hast howl'd away twelve winters.”(I,2)

                                                               

Moreover, Prospero makes Caliban under constanmt torture which is revealed in the following line,

          Do not torment me, prithee; I'll bring my wood home faster. (II,2)

As a result of such oppression of the colonizers, whenever Caliban feels that Stephano is helpful to him and may fight against Prospero, though he does not know Stephano also will be like Prospero getting power, he prays help of Stephano and revolts against Prospero,

A plague upon the tyrant that I serve!
I'll bear him no more sticks, but follow thee,
Thou wondrous man. (II,2)

          In the Tempest, Caliban is accused by Prospero of ravishing Miranda:

“…thou didst seek to violate
The honour of my child.”(I,2)

This reminds us of the European colonizers’ accusation against Dr. Aziz in A Passage to India of  raping Adela Quested, a British lady.

          Indeed, colonialist tendency is prevalent in most of the characters of the play,Antonio, Sebastian, Gonzalo, Trinculo & Stephano, Boatswain. Another colonialist text Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe shows that every human being instinctively possesses colonialist tendency.

Prospero proves himself a colonialist by the fact that he hates the island in spite of his passing twelve years there. The island gave him shelter, provided him sustenance and created opportunity to accomplish his final mission. Yet, he calls it 'a poor cell', 'a poor court'.

         

The name of Prospero’s servant-monster, Caliban, seems to be an anagram or derivative of “Cannibal.”. Shakespeare seems also to have drawn on Montaigne’s essay “Of the Cannibals,” which was translated into English in 1603.

Now we will sum up our discussion with David Stone’s (2003: 8) observation:

“The Tempest is concerned with notions of colonialism. Prospero has taken over the island and gained control over its inhabitants by his superior knowledge and art [and culture]. He then makes the inhabitants, Ariel and Caliban, work for him and soon arranges for the island to be populated with more Europeans.” (p.8)

Works Cited

Wheeler, Richard P. “Fantacy and History in The Tempest.” The tempest: critical essays. Ed. Patrick M. Murphy. Routledge, 2001

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/The_Tempest>

Stanford Ensyclopedia of  Phylosophy , Metaphysics Research Lab, CSLI, Stanford University. <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/colonialism/>

Stone, David. The Tempest :Nelson Thornes Shakespeare. Nelson Thornes, 2003