Significance Of Caliban
Caliban is a unique creation of Shakespeare's fecund poetical imagination. He belongs to the world of the of poet's flight of fancy. All the characters in The Tempest belong to the world of reality save and except Ariel and Caliban. Of course the character of Caliban is a perfect foil to that of Ariel. If Ariel is of the air airy, Caliban is of the earth earthy.
Caliban is presented to us as the son of Sycorax, a witch- a deformed slave a demi- devil. He has been wonderfully conceived as the embodiment of all that is gross and earthy- "a sort of creature of the earth". The complexity of the character befuddles our mind. According to Prof. Wilson "Caliban is Shakespeare's portrait of the missing link between brute and man". Though Caliban has no direct connection with the action of the play he is integral to the purpose of the play.
Caliban is Shakespeare's "noble savage". A complex character Caliban combines in him all the features of a monster, a slave and savage. The portrait of Caliban with his loyality to the drunkard , his adoration of valour, his love of natural beauty, and a feeling for music and poetry and the simple cunning and savagery of his attempts at revenge and escape - all this shows a sympathetic understanding of uncivilized man.
In the depiction of Caliban, Shakespeare has given his humorous criticism of the theory of noble savage. In the point of fact, Caliban is the representative of the disinherited natives. His hatred of Prospero, his adoration of Stephano as a god, are the things to which every colonizer of the day testified. All these are contrary to the theory of the virtues of the 'noble savage'. Caliban's words are remarkably relevant. "You taught me language; and my profit on it is, I know how to curse". If Prospero represents the light of civilization, Caliban represents its darkness. After Caliban is taught to use language he is moulded in the image of the colonizer. On a symbolic plane Caliban is Nature. He is opposed to Nurture.
In the play "The Tempest Caliban has played the three parts - the monster, the slave, the colonized to perfection.
In the depiction of Caliban, Shakespeare has given his humorous criticism of the theory of noble savage. In the point of fact, Caliban is the representative of the disinherited natives. His hatred of Prospero, his adoration of Stephano as a god, are the things to which every colonizer of the day testified. All these are contrary to the theory of the virtues of the 'noble savage'. Caliban's words are remarkably relevant. "You taught me language; and my profit on it is, I know how to curse". If Prospero represents the light of civilization, Caliban represents its darkness. After Caliban is taught to use language he is moulded in the image of the colonizer. On a symbolic plane Caliban is Nature. He is opposed to Nurture.
In the play "The Tempest Caliban has played the three parts - the monster, the slave, the colonized to perfection.
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