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Research Paper On The Tempest

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William Shakespeare was and still is a very famous English poet for his works such as Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, and many others. In his life he wrote around 39 plays and 154 sonnets. I highly agree with the statement “Caliban represents the deprived colonial subject and Prospero the usurping European colonizer”. This statement slightly reminds me of a time in history when Columbus who was also European colonized the home of many Native Americans. The Europeans brought killed many with their hands and with the diseases they brought as well. On another note “The Tempest” which is based on an island was approximately written from 1610-1611. It includes a multitude of characters such as Prospero, Caliban, Miranda, Antonio, and Sebastian just to name a few of the characters. The previous statement shows that we will discussing the characters Prospero and Caliban. There are many examples that I …show more content…

As previously stated the island that Prospero and Miranda ended up on after the storm belonged to Caliban and Prospero knew it. This fact further goes to support the statement that Prospero was the unruly colonizer. After the death of his mother Caliban was left alone on his island. He wasn’t granted the liberal renaissance education that Prospero was and he used that to his advantage against him. It’s in the first moments of their arrival time that Prospero mentions Caliban as his slave “Dull thing, I say so; he, that Caliban, whom now I keep in service.” (1.2, 398). Caliban was uneducated but he wasn’t stupid. He was smart enough to understand what happened currently and in the present and to understand his feelings towards the way that Prospero was treating him. Thereafter understanding all these things, he plotted along with others to kill Prospero. This fact alone doesn’t make Caliban a bad person it makes him the deprived colonial subject. He was deprived of a normal life, education, and now of his own

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