Dehumanizing Language In The Tempest

Prospero exemplifies the role of a colonizer in The Tempest by enslaving and exploiting his power over Caliban, a man who inhabited the island before Prospero, and Ariel,a spirit who he freed on the island, to take control of the island. In The Tempest, a play by William Shakespeare, Prospero and his daughter Miranda are exiled from their Kingdom Milan, during a time of European colonialism and expansion, to an island which becomes their prison where even there they are not the lowest class the original inhabitant Caliban is. Prospero uses dehumanizing language to associate Caliban with something less than human. Likewise, he threatens Caliban with physical harm. Prospero also establishes power over a spirit named Ariel who was trapped on the island before Prospero got there, although it is argued that whether Ariel is a slave or a willing minion.

When Prospero calls Caliban he says,”What ho, slave, Caliban!

Thou earth, thou, speak!(I.i.i 375-376).Caliban does resist colonization verbally and physically. Caliban says,”This island’s mine by Sycorax, my mother,Which thou tak’st from me. When thou cam’st first,Thou strok’st me and made much of me, wouldstgive me”(I.i.i 365-369). He resist Colonization by refusing Prospero's claim to the island and establishing his own claim to it. But Caliban does give in due to fear of physical harm. Prospero colonizes Caliban by force threatening to inflict physical harm on him. Caliban is manipulated to believe by Prospero and Ariel that Prospero has Magic. In a verbal altercation with Caliban Prospero says,”I’ll rack thee with old cramps,Fill all thy bones with aches, make thee roar That beasts shall tremble at thy din.(I.i.i 445-446). This helps Prospero to control Caliban without as much threat of resistance. The one exception to Prospero's colonization of the island is