The Tempest (William Shakespeare): Post-colonial Reading

Exploration of new geographical spaces and control of those lands by the explorers is basically what we know by colonialism. The Tempest has often been interpreted as a play about colonialism primarily because Prospero comes to Sycorax's island, subdues her, rules the land and imposes his own culture on the people of the land. Caliban's protest against Prospero and his resistance to colonial power using the language taught by the colonizer helps us interpret the play as a postcolonial text.

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. 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. 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.

In this way, the play dramatizes the process of colonization and deals with the relationship between the settler and the native. Throughout the text, Shakespeare’s The Tempest reflects the concept of colonialism and sheds its light significantly through the relationship between the colonizer and the native. The re-contextualization of the play within postcolonial contexts has drawn attention to the character of Caliban inspite of his minor role in the play.