colonialism in the tempest essay

Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’ explores colonialism, resistance and liberation

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Last winter, at the Studio Theatre at Ryerson University in downtown Toronto, Canadian actor Antoine Yared played Caliban in The Tempest . He stood, centre stage, looking out over the audience as he reassured his companions that the magic music of the island should not frighten them. He said:

“The isle is full of noises … that give delight and hurt not.”

But his face told the audience a different story — the story of a man heartbroken for what had been taken from him.

We chose Shakespeare’s The Tempest as the centrepiece for our “Playing for Free” workshop because the play has been entangled with the history of slavery and freedom in the west for over 400 years.

The Tempest tells the story of the Duke of Milan, Prospero, who many years before had come to the island with his infant daughter. Upon arriving, Prospero enslaved two of its inhabitants, Caliban and the spirit Ariel. The play follows three interconnecting plotlines: Prospero’s revenge plan against his enemies; how his daughter, Miranda, falls in love with the son of his chief enemy; and how Caliban plans to destroy Prospero and take back the island.

Many consider the play an allegory of European colonization , and throughout the centuries, Caliban’s character has featured prominently in arguments that defend or resist against colonialist tyranny.

The Tempest has also been interpreted as an allegory of liberation. The 20th-century writer Roberto Fernández Retamar declared that the insurgent Caliban spoke for the colonized peoples of the Americas. In 1993, a production by Robert Lepage in Montréal portrayed Caliban as a working-class punk-rocker in open rebellion against the elite Prospero.

The Tempest and religious conversion

In our workshop, we wanted to blend theatre and scholarship to understand how The Tempest could have been used by both European colonialists and also by advocates of resistance. We also wanted to understand how the play might still be relevant.

The workshop brought together four Stratford Festival actors, three student actors from the Ryerson Performance Program and Renaissance scholars from an international initiative dedicated to understanding how Shakespeare’s work helped create the world we live in now.

The artists and scholars worked for a day and a half toward the performance. We talked about the history of slavery and freedom, primarily by thinking about how Christian conversion had served colonization. Indeed conversion has been an instrument of domination in the Americas from 1492 and onwards into recent times .

Forced conversion haunts the play. But there is another kind of conversion in the play where characters achieve the freedom to be true to themselves.

Caliban: Searching for the Other

Prospero attempts to strip away Caliban’s dignity. Prospero forces him to remain “stied” in a hard rock. In the Ryerson performance, Antoine Yared playing Caliban chose his first moments on stage carefully. Rather than obeying Prospero’s commands to “come,” he walked past Prospero, his back turned in a sign of his rebellion. For Caliban, even the act of walking around the Island, his home, was now charged with submission or defiance.

When Caliban encountered the shipwrecked servants he would recruit as co-conspirators against Prospero and when one of them fed him liquor, Caliban thought he had at last come face to face with God. He said to the drunken servant:

“Hath thou not dropped from heaven? … I prithee be my god.”

The drunk Caliban began singing and shouting:

“Freedom, high-day! High-day, freedom! Freedom!, high-day, freedom!”

But when the invisible Ariel began to make her magical music, the two servants quaked in terror. They knelt at Caliban’s feet. Caliban rose up — straight and fine like a young tree. He stood triumphantly over the two trembling servants. The music was something he knew well. It was nothing to be afraid of.

“Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises, Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not. Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments Will hum about mine ears; and sometime voices, That if I then had waked after long sleep, Will make me sleep again: and then in dreaming, The clouds methought would open and show riches Ready to drop upon me, that when I waked I cried to dream again.”

That was in rehearsal. But when Yared played Caliban in front of the audience, he changed the way he did the speech. His lines about the music of the island were no longer triumphant. They were something that could break your heart.

Yared’s Caliban was a man who had once been at one with the natural world, but who had been cast out and could only recapture some sense of the beauty of nature by dreaming. When he said, “I cried to dream again,” it was as if he were a man turning and turning, trying to find the beloved he had lost.

The workshop taught the actors, the scholars and the members of the audience how the play The Tempest , with its depiction of slavery, resistance and love might have challenged people of the past to see Caliban’s humanity and might also speak to audiences in the 21st century.

Yared’s Caliban left us with this urgent question. It was as if he were echoing Ariel and asking the audience:

“If you have eyes to see this suffering one, if you are human, your affections would become tender.”

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During the time when The Tempest was written and first performed, both Shakespeare and his audiences would have been very interested in the efforts of English and other European settlers to colonize distant lands around the globe. The Tempest explores the complex and problematic relationship between the European colonizer and the native colonized peoples through the relationship between Prospero and Caliban. Prospero views Caliban as a lesser being than himself. As such, Prospero believes that Caliban should be grateful to him for educating Caliban and lifting him out of "savagery." It simply does not occur to Prospero that he has stolen rulership of the island from Caliban, because Prospero can't imagine Caliban as being fit to rule anything. In contrast, Caliban soon realizes that Prospero views him as a second-class citizen fit only to serve and that by giving up his rulership of the island in return for his education, he has allowed himself to be robbed. As a result, Caliban turns bitter and violent, which only reinforces Prospero's view of him as a "savage." Shakespeare uses Prospero and Caliban's relationship to show how the misunderstandings between the colonizer and the colonized lead to hatred and conflict, with each side thinking that the other is at fault.

In addition to the relationship between the colonizer and colonized, The Tempest also explores the fears and opportunities that colonization creates. Exposure to new and different peoples leads to racism and intolerance, as seen when Sebastian criticizes Alonso for allowing his daughter to marry an African. Exploration and colonization led directly to slavery and the conquering of native peoples. For instance, Stephano and Trinculo both consider capturing Caliban to sell as a curiosity back at home, while Stephano eventually begins to see himself as a potential king of the island. At the same time, the expanded territories established by colonization created new places in which to experiment with alternative societies. Shakespeare conveys this idea in Gonzalo's musings about the perfect civilization he would establish if he could acquire a territory of his own.

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Colonization Quotes in The Tempest

Colonialism and Conversion in The Tempest

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As in The Taming of the Shrew , analysis of conversion in The Tempest (c. 1610) explores the practical feasibility of promoting a profound change of consciousness through the systematic application of persuasion and coercive force—but, rather than domestic relations between husbands and wives, the primary focus is on cross-cultural relations between colonial masters and their prospective subjects. In a plot that draws on the tremendous surge of topical discourse surrounding ventures in Africa, the West Indies, Ireland, and the Americas, Shakespeare interrogates fundamental mechanisms at the heart of colonial ideology, especially the utilisation of conversion as a means to justify and facilitate the subjugation of indigenous peoples.

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See Malone, An Account of the Incidents , 6–12.

For a representative example of critical praise for the supposedly pro-colonial slant of The Tempest , consider the conclusion to Chapter 5 of G. Wilson Knight’s The Crown of Life , which celebrates the play for its alignment with the British determination to “raise savage peoples from superstition and blood-sacrifice, taboos and witchcraft and the attendant fears and slaveries, to a more enlightened existence” (255). Key examples of works that criticized the play for the same supposed slant include Aimé Césaire’s dramatic adaptation, Une Tempête (1969) and George Lamming’s novel, Water with Berries (1971). The key example of a skeptical refutation of colonial readings is Elmer E. Stoll’s Certain Fallacies and Irrelevancies , which adamantly insists that “there is not a word in the Tempest about America or Virginia, colonies or colonizing, Indians or tomahawks, maize, mocking-birds, or tobacco. Nothing but the Bermudas, once barely mentioned as a faraway place, like Tokio or Mandalay” (487).

Frey, “ The Tempest and the New World,” 33–34; Barker and Hulme, “Nymphs and Reapers Heavily Vanish,” 201.

Seed, “This Island’s Mine,” 203–204.

Moryson, An Itinerary , 156.

For background on England’s adoption of Spain’s colonial practices, see Fuchs, “Conquering Islands,” 51–52. For background on English efforts to colonize and convert Ireland, see; Brown, “This Thing of Darkness I Acknowledge Mine,” 65; Callaghan, “Irish Memories in The Tempest ,” 118; Clarke, “Pacification, Plantation, and The Catholic Question,” 187–191; Jefferies, “Conversion by Coercion?,” 14–17. For analysis on the discursive framing of Irish people as savages, see Brown, “This Thing of Darkness I Acknowledge Mine,” 54–55; Baker, “Where is Ireland in The Tempest ?,” 70.

The figure for the number of native Irish converts derives from Jefferies, “Why the Reformation Failed in Ireland,” 151.

In an elaborations of this idea, David J. Baker writes that Ireland “served as a testing ground for England’s New World colonies” (“Where is Ireland in The Tempest ?,” 71); and Barbara Fuchs writes that the English “perceived Americans through an Irish filter” (“Conquering Islands,” 51).

Brown, “This Thing of Darkness I Acknowledge Mine,” 57; Callaghan, “Irish Memories in The Tempest ,” 137; Vaughan and Vaughan, introduction to the Arden 2019 edition of The Tempest , 54.

For background on the Virginia Company’s propaganda campaign, see Wright, Religion and Empire , 86–114; Fitzmaurice, Humanism and America , 58–78.

For examples of (relatively rare) instances where Tempest criticism has taken Virginia Company propaganda under consideration, see James, The Dream of Prospero , 94–95; Gillies, “The Figure of the New World in The Tempest,” 188.

For background on public sentiment surrounding the Virginia Company in 1609, see Fitzmaurice, Humanism and America , 58–59.

Orators speaking on behalf of the company received cash payments and stock. See Fitzmaurice, Humanism and America , 63–64.

For discussion of the propagandists’ approach to profit motives, see Fitzmaurice, Humanism and America , 58. For analysis on the framing of aboriginal resistance as a justification coercive measures, see Williams, The American Indian in Western Legal Thought , 209–210.

Notably, many of the people behind colonial ventures in Ireland were also behind the ventures in Virginia. For discussion of overlap between the two efforts in terms of argumentation and personnel, see Williams, The American Indian in Western Legal Thought , 211; Fitzmaurice, Humanism and America , 35–39; Fuchs, “Conquering Islands,” 50–51.

See Joshua Eckhardt’s introduction to Symonds, A Sermon Preached at White-Chappel , 9; Parker, “Religion and the Virginia Colony,” 247.

Stuart, “The First Charter, April 10, 1606,” 1.

See Joshua Eckhardt’s introduction to Symonds, A Sermon Preached at White-Chappel , 6–7.

Stuart, “The Second Charter, May 23, 1609,” 54.

Crashaw, A Sermon Preached in London , G4.

Johnson. Nova Britannia , C2.

Council of Virginia, “Instructions From the Virginia Council in London,” 6.

Council of Virginia, A True Declaration , 10. Some scholars have suggested that the anonymous author of the pamphlet may have been Francis Bacon. See Porter, The Inconstant Savage , 357n43.

See Eckhardt’s introduction to Symonds, A Sermon Preached at White-Chappel , 10.

Crashaw, A Sermon Preached in London , H1. For further discussion of anti-theatricalism in Virginian material, see Fitzmaurice, Humanism and America , 78; Wright, Religion and Empire , 101.

Wright, Religion and Empire , 101.

See Donna B. Hamilton’s introduction to Middleton, The Puritan Widow , 511.

See Orgel’s introduction to Shakespeare, The Tempest , 11.

On the connection between Caliban and cannibals, see Alden and Virginia Vaughan’s introduction to Shakespeare, The Tempest , 30–31.

The reference to Setebos comes from the account of Magellan’s encounter with the Indians of Tierra del Fuego in Eden’s History of Travel (See Gillies, “The Figure of the New World in The Tempest ,” 196–197). In another example of the same pattern of association, the dramatis personae describes Caliban as “a savage and deformed slave” (my italics). Shakespeare may have written this description himself, but there is also a good chance that it is the work of a compositor or playhouse scribe. In any case, it is an informative indicator of how people understood the character around the time of the original production. The term “savage” (spelled “salvage” in the First Folio) is especially telling because it was one of the most common epithets used to disparage and dehumanize indigenous people across a wide variety of colonial contexts, including the Irish. For further details, see Orgel’s introduction to Shakespeare, The Tempest , 26.

Seed, “This Island’s Mine,” 206.

Connolly, Contested Island , 296; Clarke, “Pacification, Plantation, and The Catholic Question,” 187.

Johnson, Nova Britannia , C3.

For Caliban’s references to Setebos, see 1.2.372 and 5.1.265.

Greenblatt, “Learning to Curse,” 24–25.

Callaghan, “Irish Memories in The Tempest ,” 115.

The term “race” typically referred to categories of class and family in early modernity, but nevertheless entailed a notion of blood-based differentiation that bears a conceptual affinity to the legal concepts of race that would emerge in the following centuries. For further discussion of this topic, see Feerick, Strangers in Blood , 3–24.

Brown, “This Thing of Darkness I Acknowledge Mine,” 64.

Scholars have not found any direct evidence of incidents where English exhibitioners displayed the corpses of indigenous people for profit. Nevertheless, it is entirely possible that such displays could have taken place. As Alden T. Vaughan has noted, English adventurers brought approximately thirty-five American aboriginals to England over the course of Shakespeare’s lifetime. Many of these people became the subject of various sorts of public displays, many converted to Christianity, and most died within a short time after their arrival in the country (see Vaughan, “Trinculo’s Indian,” 49–50). On a similar note, it was entirely common for exhibitioners to display marvels such as strange fish or deformed children in inns and other London venues (see Cressy, Travesties and Transgressions , 29–50).

Gillies, “The Figure of the New World in The Tempest ,” 198.

Gurung, “Coercion and Conversion,” 363. Notably, Gurung’s analysis seems to presume that Caliban is onstage to witness the moment when Prospero forgives his enemies, but that is not the case.

Fleissner, Shakespeare and Africa , 64.

Willis, “Shakespeare’s Tempest and the Discourse of Colonialism,” 285; Greenblatt, editorial introduction to The Tempest in The Norton Shakespeare , 3211.

Lupton, “Creature Caliban,” 19.

Novy, Shakespeare and Outsiders , 150.

Cartelli, “Prospero in Africa,” 102; Willis, “Shakespeare’s Tempest and the Discourse of Colonialism,” 286.

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Wittek, S. (2022). Colonialism and Conversion in The Tempest . In: Shakespeare and the Cultural Politics of Conversion. Early Modern Literature in History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11961-3_7

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The Tempest

A post-colonial interpretation of the tempest ed o'donovan.

A post-colonial interpretation of The Tempest is an interpretation which has gained popularity in the latter half of the twentieth century. This particular reading of the play implies that Shakespeare was consciously making a point about colonialism in the New World in the guise of the magician, Prospero's, usurpation of Caliban, the 'slave'. It can be argued that Caliban represents the native American, whilst Prospero can be seen as the European imperialist. This interpretation calls into question values and opinions of the past. It renders Caliban in a sympathetic light and it shows increased understanding for his plight while also raising questions about Prospero's rule over the island. However, this reading is not universally accepted in modern times. One critic comments that it is "simply absurd to impose our twentieth century concern with the imperialist rape of the third world" onto The Tempest.1 In contrast to this, Stephen Greenblatt responds that it is "very difficult to argue that The Tempest is not about imperialism."2 This essay aims to show that colonialism is a major issue in the play, and although Shakespeare may not come down in outright condemnation of it, he certainly...

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English 15 summer 2015.

Otherization in The Tempest

In her article “Shakespeare’s Tempest and the Discourse of Colonialism”, Deborah Willis seeks to criticize the current state of discourse regarding the depiction of colonialism in The Tempest . Specifically, she seeks to criticize the arguments made by Paul Brown in a recent essay.  

Willis first sets out to explain the arguments Brown creates in his work.   Brown believes that Shakespeare’s Tempest is a confirmation of British colonialism. By emphasizing the otherness of Caliban, and then having Prospero assume control over him, Brown claims that Shakespeare is furthering the argument for colonization. He sees the play as making the savage Caliban seem inhuman and naturally subservient, representing potential groups to be colonized, and the rule of Prospero to represent the benevolent British colonizers.   Brown also believes that Shakespeare ultimately fails in his quest to promote colonization because the “other” ultimately serves as a place of potential societal disruption, that is, some aspects of the “other” still have appeal to civilized man, such as illicit sexuality and masterlessness.   Willis concludes this section with her own conclusion: that one of the most problematic aspects of Brown’s work is that he seems to conflate the character of Prospero with Shakespeare.

Willis disagrees wholeheartedly with that last idea. She points out that though Prospero has control in this play nearly unmatched in Shakespeare’s work, he is still a character with flaws, criticisms of whom are made clear. Special emphasis is paced on the way Caliban views Prospero. Most obviously, Prospero can be seen through Caliban’s eyes as a usurper with no more right to the island than Antonio has to the dukedom of Milan.

The author also makes the case that Caliban isn’t so “othered” after all. In addition to the sympathy his rightful claim to the island might garner, his childlike demeanor can also be said to grant him an air of harmlessness. Willis addresses the attempted rape of Miranda by Caliban as certainly being problematic for this characterization, but notes that Caliban repents for what he has done. He has some sense of morality. The author notes other relatable characteristics as well, such as Caliban’s appreciation for art and ability to learn.   For these reasons, Willis believes Caliban to be a far too relatable and sympathetic character to be depicted as the “other” in colonialist discourse. Finally, Willis ends by disputing Caliban as a source of potential disruption because of his conversion. She believes he has assimilated adequately.

In Caliban’s stead, Willis states that Antonio is far more “othered” than Caliban. She suggests that his conspiring with Sebastian to kill Alonso is a symptom of a “pathological addiction to treason and fratricide” (281).   Willis points to Prospero referring to Antonio as unnatural because of his evil, noting his complete lack of fraternal affection. Unlike Caliban’s repentance for nearly raping Miranda, Willis notes no obvious signs of repentance from Antonio at the end of the play. He is shown to be rather heartless. Because of these depictions of Antonio, Willis finds that he is set up as an unnatural “other” far more than Caliban.

While I agree with Willis assessment to a certain extent, there are a few problems with her argument. I don’t dispute her claim that Antonio is far more “otherized” than Caliban, but I think that she nonetheless downplays Caliban’s role as the other. Most obvious are the real life parallels between Caliban’s situation and that of a colonized group. Prospero has come to Caliban’s island from his homeland and assumed control over him. There isn’t a lot of metaphor there. That describes the process of colonization too closely to ignore. Furthermore, she completely disregards Caliban’s attempted coup against Prospero. Despite the comedy and its unsuccessful nature, this is still a direct conflict against Prospero, the metaphorical colonizer, further “othering” Caliban. Finally, Willis neglects to properly address the issue of racism in the play against Caliban. Racism by default works by “otherizing”, and to ignore this is to ignore a large part of Caliban’s characterization.

WORKS CITED

Willis, Deborah. “Shakespeare’s Tempest and the Discourse of Colonialism.” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 29.2 (2006): 277-89. Rice University. Web. 19 Aug. 2015. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/450475>.

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — The Tempest — A Post-Colonial Interpretation of The Tempest

The Tempest from a Post-colonial Point of View

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Prospero's assumption of his right to rule the island, 'to be lord on't', is the natural assumption of a European prince...There is ample testimony to the corrupting effect upon natives of contact with dissolute Europeans - 'Christian savages sent to convert heathen savages', as Fuller put it.3

Caliban is not cannibal - in fact he rarely touches meat at all - his name seems more like a mockery of stereotypes than a mark of monstrosity, and in our haste to confirm the link between 'cannibal' and 'Indian' outside the text, we lose track of the way in which Caliban severs the link within the text.4

Be not afeard; this isle is full of noises, Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not. Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments Will hum about mine ears; and sometimes voices, That if I then had waked after long sleep, Will make me sleep again; (3.2 174-182).

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Colonialism and The Tempest.

Related Papers

Zahra Sadeghi

Colonization and imperialism are of those interesting critical conversation throughout the world and this study examines how English theater addressed, promoted, and at times challenged ideologies of colonization and notions of civility and civilization. The Tempest in regarded as a New World drama by many critics because of colonization and civilization debates presented on the London stage and depiction of the colonizers and the colonized to present and, at the same time, question those colonial debates. Shakespeare depicts the New World’s indigenous cultures in an ambiguous way to both present and question the ideologies of empire. This dramatization of the “other” helped sixteenth and seventeenth century audiences to recognize New World indigenous peoples as different rather than uncivilized and reevaluate what they have read or heard of these native peoples. Shakespeare presented the contemporary rhetoric through the medium of the theater and helped audience to visualize the process of conquest and colonization. He helped to civilize audiences about the reality of colonization, civility, and the New World. This theatrical medium makes audiences to challenge those established stereotypes of the New World natives and understand them as different, not inhuman or monster, and ignorant of European language and cultures, but no incapable of being civilized. 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 not. This ambiguous representation of both colonizers and the colonized encourages the audience to examine colonial debates in as objective manner.

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Shakespeare in his last play The Tempest (1610-11) dramatizes Prospero to display a cultural consciousness and a way of seeing in which the self is highly exalted and ennobled while the other is degradingly condemned as the wicked and the rapist savage. Such an ideology is conspicuously presented through demonstrating two extremely contradictory characters of Prospero, the dethroned Duke form Milan and Caliban, the native citizen of the island Prospero controls. Prospero is presented as the wise and the powerful duke who can control not only human and spirits but also nature and natural phenomena. He is the rational, civilized and the benevolent agent with humanitarian concern whose source of power is magic that he uses for good tasks in contrast to the malignant magic power possessed by his rival Sycorax, Caliban’s mother. Soon Prospero starts to show irascible, tetchy characteristics and furious rage in dealing with the natives he controls by the power of his books of magic. At an...

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This paper examines William Shakespeare's The Tempest as a text where colonial education backfires as Caliban resists the colonial teachings of Prospero and Miranda and doublecrosses them to assert his agency. Although The Tempest has received ample attention from post-colonial critics, little study has been done on the role that colonial education played in the power dynamics of the play. The article postulates that like a typical colonizer, Prospero acted like an educator to distort the socio-semiotics of Caliban with a view to eradicating his ancestral way of being, knowing, and doing but his attempt ultimately results in a failure as Caliban carries out a linguistic rebellion. The qualitative analysis of this research pinpoints Caliban's conscious attempt to decolonize himself by rejecting the colonial offerings of submissiveness and servitude, using the language of the colonizers as a weapon for counter-assault, and initiating the process of destroying the source of colonial knowledge.

Farhana haque

Shakespeare's 'The Tempest' represented the emblem of colonialism, racism, and social hierarchy. Prospero's superlative attitudes have created the prevalent touch of suppression over the native people in the play The Tempest. He was the man to supress the inhabitants in the strange land which he has been occupied illegally. Most of the characters in this play remained in a civilized way, although perfectly all of them were not civilized. Several times Prospero was referred as a tyrannical figure who was responsible about the concept of colonialism, racism and illustrated the ideas of social hierarchy. In the Renaissance world this social hierarchy has paved the way of rigidity, extreme political attitudes, God of higher class society. Prospero showed him as the true representator of Elizabethan social higher class. Hence the suppressive conquest has arrived over the lives of African, Asian and North American regions during the 16 th century which was known as Shakespearean era. Later on, this process came to be known as colonialism, racism and the phase of social hierarchy. As a whole the effort of this paper is to unfold the character of Prospero to present the British colonization over the inferior peoples in a strange native land.

Early modern literature in history

Stephen Wittek

arzu rahman

In this theses paper I tried to explore the postcolonial features in the play ‘The Tempest’ of William Shakespeare. This is my personal intention to prove that The Tempest by William Shakespeare plays an important role in the development of post-colonial literature and criticism. It was created in a moment when the colonial system was just beginning to come into being and that is now falling apart from us. I tried to investigate what the post-colonial writers and critics found in The Tempest evidence of a history of colonial context. Because my argument depends on the contention that The Tempest was created in a world where colonialism was coming into being. I explored the historical context surrounding the moment of the play’s creation , in spite of the contention of many historians and some literary critics to the contrary. After verifying and illustrating the historical roots of several popular themes in The Tempest that post-colonial writers have discussed , I turn to the work of writers and critics from the Third World to show how The Tempest plays a significant role in postcolonial studies. It is a matter of analyzing the issues such as subjugation, dominance and language in relation to power. It also discusses the complex relationship that exists between the master and slave. This text “Tempest” have dealt with each issue in its own way. Frantz Fanon‘s Black Skin White Mask , Edward Said‘s Orientalism, Peter Barry’s Beginning theory, Key Concepts Of Post-Colonial Studies and some more texts that I have studied in perspective of Post-Colonial view. I have been used these texts from Post-colonial perspective just for making my point of view a practical one. Except from these texts as primary sources I also took help from many journals, articles and other online resources that i have been used as secondary sources.

International Review of Humanities Studies

amir mohammad

The paper focuses on how the colonizers who in this play are Prospero and Miranda in particular, endeavor to inflict their own socio-cultural precept including their language to make the colonized fully unprotected in The Tempest as a colonial play, but eventually fail to fulfill this attempt. In addition, the high importance of learning the language of the colonizer by the colonized gets illuminated which finally contributes to Caliban so as to undermine the roots of the colonizer in the colony. This article fully evaluates affected literary works by The Tempest, the importance of transferring the colonizer's language to the colony, and the main colonizer and his manners and attitudes towards the colonized; it also brings forth postcolonial concepts including Mimicry, Orientalism, the double consciousness of the colonized and his unhomeliness. Furthermore, it features the dirge situation of mimic men who come across a disappointing dead end from both colonizers and the colonized. After all, this article reflects on the ever-presence of ambivalence and mimicry in colonial discourse and also the vital importance of violence as an inseparable part of the decolonization.

International Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Translation

International Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Translation (IJLLT)

The twentieth century brought about a new form of understanding, producing and living art that has become a mean to react against the oppression that different groups suffered for centuries. Post-colonial criticism is an approach of analysis that questions racial identity and gender equity. This study investigates how Shakespeare's plays relate to the social codes and the more recent history of the reception of Shakespearian drama within decolonization movements. The Tempest by Shakespeare is defined as a postcolonial text because the colonised is represented in regarding cultural hybridity in which the Self and the Other enlace the colonial experience. Literature has naturally given a voice to these omitted groups and this play is thought to be an early post-colonial work by some scholars. Shakespeare had intended to criticise the European attack of the new lands to the West, and the theme of colonialism is outrightly presented in The Tempest. Post-colonial reading of the text examines the projection of the colonial experience back to Europe. Slavery, colonialism, and the power of changing other civilisations by the West are themes to make inferences.

Chung Chin-Yi

Prospero&#39;s magical powers are that of a God like creator who seeks not to imprison and merely subjugate his subjects to bend them to his will but to redeem them and lead to their moral betterment and growth, as was seen in his attempt to give Caliban an education, his attempt to discipline Ferdinand through hardship, and his attempt to bring Alonso and Sebastian towards repentance. A postcolonial reading merely highlights colonialism as violence without acknowledging the redemptive nature of civilization as Alonso and Sebastian learn that sin has consequences, as does Caliban when he is punished by Prospero after his attempted rape of Miranda. Indeed it is true that Prospero tyrannically subjects all his subjects on the island to hardship but it is for their betterment and moral growth, like God desires towards sinners, that Prospero also desires and hence Prospero is not a mere tyrant but like God, a teacher of lessons through the suffering that he brings about in order to inst...

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Colonialism & Post-colonialism

Back to: The Tempest by William Shakespeare

The Tempest, written by Shakespeare, deals with colonialism and post-colonialism in a topical manner. The protagonist Prospero and his relation with his slave Caliban offers a case of such an interrogation.

Prospero exiled from his dukedom in Milan arrives at an unnamed island. Through his expansive learning, he knows how to use magic and it enables him to rule over the island.

His relation with Caliban provides us an understanding of how this play may address issues of racial identity and equality.

One may notice how it also reflects the social conventions by which Europeans of that age defined non-European people whom they encountered while establishing themselves as colonial powers.

This play can be considered as one of those texts which shows the way of seeing new places and situating one’s mother nation historically. Prospero outrightly from the very beginning shows his masterly indulgence and disappointment with Caliban.

While talking to his daughter, Prospero talks of Caliban as ‘ my slave, who never yield us kind answer. ” Most of the conversation between him and Caliban shows that for him Prospero has no regard, he is a “ poisonous slave, got by the Devil himself. ”

The legitimacy of power is questioned when Caliban answers to Prospero that the “ island’s mine by Sycorax my mother .” Prospero has enslaved Caliban and Caliban revoltingly says that “ I am all the subjects that you have, which first was mine own king. And here you sty (confine) me in this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me the rest o’th’island. ”

Prospero while ruling, as a colonialist, also imposes his own culture upon Caliban. Miranda addresses Caliban as a “ savage” who didn’t know his “ own meaning ” before she (with Prospero) “ endowed his purposes with words that made them known. ”

Here, Caliban’s character dramatizes a form of colonial otherness. Just like colonists, characters like Trinculo and others who came from outside, keep seeing Caliban as a “ monster .” He evokes an exoticism for them.

His otherness is further reiterated when they are consistently unable to sense any humanity in him and keep calling him as “ mooncalf, ” or “ servant monster. ”

In the post-colonial context, Caliban’s verbal abuse against Prospero can be celebrated. Caliban understands Prospero has control over his language because, with her daughter, he taught him that language.

Caliban denies that such an imposed language has provided him no profit and he can only use it to curse them. It clearly means that he is in unease with this alien language.

Every time Prospero shows his disappointment with Caliban’s “ savagery, ” it shows his colonial paternalism. Prospero clarifies that “ with human care ” he has attempted to humanize Caliban until he tried dishonoring Miranda.

The post-colonial critic can strongly challenge when Miranda accuses that the “ vile race ” of Caliban can’t sustain any goodness in it.

The play provides enough content for a post-colonial criticism by hinting at the legitimacy of Caliban’s claims upon the island.

Revolutionizing Financial Stability: the Impact of the Emergency Banking Act of 1933

This essay about the Emergency Banking Act of 1933 explores how this pivotal legislation reshaped American finance during the Great Depression. Delving into its enactment and impact, it highlights how the Act stabilized the banking sector, paved the way for regulatory reforms like Glass-Steagall, and established the FDIC. Through decisive government intervention, it restored public trust and set the stage for a more resilient financial system, leaving a lasting legacy of stability and regulation.

How it works

Amidst the tempest of the Great Depression, as the nation teetered on the precipice of financial collapse, a beacon of hope emerged in the form of the Emergency Banking Act of 1933. Born from the crucible of economic turmoil, this landmark legislation wielded unprecedented power to quell the storm ravaging the American financial landscape.

Enacted with lightning speed on March 9, 1933, under the newly inaugurated presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Emergency Banking Act wasn’t just a lifeline; it was a seismic shift in the nation’s approach to financial stability.

Its mission was clear: to staunch the bleeding of failing banks and resuscitate faith in the banking system. But its impact transcended mere rescue operations; it laid the groundwork for a reimagined financial order, one fortified with resilience and bolstered by regulation.

Central to the Act’s strategy was the audacious move to declare a national “bank holiday,” effectively halting all banking activities to assess the solvency of institutions. This pause, though brief, was pivotal, disrupting the cycle of panic withdrawals and forestalling the impending collapse of the entire banking edifice.

Yet, the Emergency Banking Act’s significance transcended its immediate crisis response. It served as a harbinger of a new era, one where the government’s hand in financial affairs was no longer a taboo but a necessity. Through provisions empowering federal agencies like the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) to extend financial aid to ailing banks, the Act marked a departure from laissez-faire economics, embracing a more interventionist approach to crisis management.

Moreover, the Act catalyzed a cascade of regulatory reforms, chief among them the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933. By erecting barriers between commercial and investment banking, Glass-Steagall aimed to inoculate the financial system against the speculative excesses that had precipitated the crisis. This regulatory framework not only sought to safeguard the integrity of the banking sector but also laid the groundwork for a more stable and equitable financial ecosystem.

In tandem with its regulatory provisions, the Emergency Banking Act birthed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), a guardian of depositor confidence. By insuring bank deposits up to a certain limit, the FDIC quelled fears of losing hard-earned savings, providing a bulwark against future bank runs and fostering trust in the banking system.

The impact of the Emergency Banking Act reverberated far beyond the tumult of its time. It became a cornerstone of financial stability, shaping the trajectory of American finance for decades to come. Its legacy serves as a testament to the power of decisive action in the face of crisis, affirming the indispensable role of government in safeguarding the nation’s economic well-being.

In summation, the Emergency Banking Act of 1933 stands as a testament to resilience in the face of adversity. It wasn’t merely a response to crisis; it was a catalyst for enduring change, ushering in an era of regulated stability and imbuing the financial system with newfound strength. Its story is a reminder that even in the darkest of times, there exists the potential for transformation and renewal.

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