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I am a 12 year old studying the Tempest in English class. I am halfway through writing an essay called 'who do you think is the most intersting character in the tempest?'. I am finding it very hard and I really need help as I do not know what most of the words mean. The character I am working on is Caliban, so could anyone please give me some helpful points about Caliban and why he is interesting? Thank you!
A possible answer to u vicky.
Caliban represents the supressed and the colonised in the play and shakespeare also uses him to present racial relationships and representations of race within the play. Colonisation or racial supression is a theme/s in the tempest, and as caliban is the only native or "savage" as he is described within the text, Shakespeare uses him to present issues in relation to these theme/s.... At some stage within the text we can also be positioned to sympathize with Caliban (he is abused ect support the 'underdog') but then again we are also postioned to empathise with Prospero and his treatment of Caliban as such treatment/punishment was deserving and suited Calibans crime (trying to rape Miranda). A some what ironic situation in the play is when Caliban acts to rid himself of the ruler Prospero by murder but in doin so he sets up another leader/ruler in Stephano. Caliban reserves some dignity by not totaly giving in to prospero how ever this 'dignity' is diminished after Calibans foolish and drunken dimise. hopefully this helps a bit although it is probably rubbish, but i tried.