PO ST- CO L O N I A L I SM A N D TH E TE M PE ST
ANNA SWOBODA
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Shakespeare's The Tempest is interesting because it comes at a period when the English
were just beginning to make their colonial mark on The New World. The play, therefore, represents
many of the attitudes of the time while also showing a remarkable ambivalence towards the issue.
Throughout the text, Shakespeare presents both the tradition Colonial perspective as well as
depicting the perspective of the colonized as epitomized by Caliban, the only human native to the
mystical island on which the play is set.
Prospero is the mouthpiece of the colonizers. He is a benevolent father figure, a powerful,
magical punisher, and a entrepreneurial man of means. He sets forth from Europe, conquers a land
for him and his young, and then proceeds to tame and exploit its natural resources (lumber, fresh
water) as well as its natives (Caliban and Ariel). Caliban, on the other hand, is interesting because
he offers an alternate point of view. As the exploited he is at the mercy of the colonizers. Instead of a
voiceless lump, Shakespeare shows us a man with the ability to speak and a particular perspective
on the use of the island.
This is nowhere highlighted more completely than their distinct portrayals of Caliban’s
attempted rape of Prospero’s daughter, Miranda. To Prospero this is a violation of his total control
of the events on the island and it proves that the native, Caliban, is so utterly “other” that he is
beyond the healing graces of civilization. Prospero describes Caliban’s action in terms of their
relation to the perceived asset he sees in Miranda’s virginity, “thou didst seek to violate/The honor
of my child,” (pg. 26, lines 350-351). Prospero is angry less because Miranda was unwilling, and
more because he, Prospero, would have had an asset and resource (Miranda’s maidenly virtue)
taken away from him without his consent. Caliban saw the act as a natural and inevitable turn of
events and sought to take advantage of it.
The play as a whole portrays the indigenous peoples of the island as something different
and, often, horrible in comparison to the aristocratic grace of the Italians. Caliban is an ugly,
fish-like, monstrous, libidinous, and uncivilized creature that represents the colonizers fear of “the
other.” He is both subservient to the colonizers, and resistant to them and through this he embodies
the contradictory views towards the conquered that were felt during Shakespeare’s time. Ariel
also exemplifies the mysterious “other” and this strange ambivalence in attitude towards the
colonized but in an entirely different manner. The spirit possesses great power and influence
through his magic which is to be feared since it can generate such dangerous majesty as a tempest
but he is still entirely under the thumb of Prospero and the power of his education and
book-learning.
Throughout the play the metaphor of usurpation is of immense importance. The theme
appears not just once, but four times throughout the play. The three obvious ones, Antonio’s take
over of Milan, Antonio and Sebastian’s attempted regicide, and Stephano’s half-witted attempt to
overthrow Prospero are all examples of white colonizer usurping white colonizer. The final
instance of this theme is never directly mentioned in the play, and would never be referred to as a
usurpation. When Prospero arrives on the island he is directly responsible for overthrowing
Caliban’s implicit control of the island and taking it himself. The play operates on the assumption
that a crime is only a crime when it is committed against a European. Since the play is written by a
colonizer, or at least a colonizer-by-association, such an instance would never be put on the same
level or categorized as the kind of crime of courtly intrigues of Kings and Princes, it wouldn’t be
categorized as any sort of crime at all.
Another part of the play that is of notable interest is the parallels and contrasts between the
island under the control of Sycorax and the island under the control of Prospero. Sycorax is another
European exiled on the island who takes control over all of its inhabitants. Her reign, however, is
portrayed as malignant and malevolent. She viciously imprisons the spirit Ariel in a cloven pine.
Prospero describes her: “this damned witch Sycorax/For mischeifs manifold and sorceries
terrible/To enter human hearing,” (pg. 23, lines 264-266). Prospero’s reign, on the other hand, is
never described in such harsh terms. He acts as the forgiving, paternal, and wise leader who leads
all of the characters back to their rightful places neatly within the confines of the play. Sycorax’ role
makes the role Prospero plays all the more benevolent by comparison. This comparison could also
be looked at as a metaphor for the real-life patterns of colonization of the British and the Spanish.
The Spanish, who under took their colonial mission before the English carried out a campaign of
often violent and ruthless measures to bend the areas under their control to their will. The pattern
of English colonization was, on the whole, much less bloody. This was a fact that could not have
escaped Shakespeare, and the differences in practices between Sycorax and Prospero seem to vilify
the violent, Sycorax and the Spanish, and idolize to some extent the moderately more benevolent
practices of the English colonizers.
The play as a whole is an example of an often contradictory attitude towards the
phenomenon of colonization. The characters of Prospero and Caliban act as two mouthpieces of
opposing ideals. The other characters all fall neatly into categories of “Conqueror” and “Conquered”
and behave accordingly throughout the text.