Prospero and Miranda hate and despise Caliban. Stephano and Trinculo find him strange and amusing.

Write a balanced character study of him so far, based on the text. Caliban embodies the following characteristics: deformed, lustful, treacherous and rebellious, drunken, and easily swayed to worship new gods or masters. Caliban was a figure of mockery and in recent times, performances have emphasised Calibans human and tragic qualities, not just his wickedness. He has increasingly been seen as a native dispossessed of his language and land by a colonial exploiter (Prospero). Through Prosperos and Mirandas eyes, we learn of his parentage where Prospero claims he is the son of the damned witch Sycorax witch and many of Shakespeares contemporaries wrongly believed that physical deformity was a sign of the wickedness of the parents. We can see him as a victim of circumstances as we learn that Prospero who can be seen as a ruthless exploiter takes over Calibans island, forcing him into slavery. He is also viewed by callous Europeans (Stephano and Trinculo) as they think of him as an opportunity to make money. This reflects a troubling aspect of Jacobean England. The Elizabethan and Jacobean exploration and exploitation of the Americas is strongly echoed in The Tempest. Explorers sometimes brought inhabitants of the newly discovered countries back to England. These Indians were often cruelly displayed for profit in fairgrounds and other public places. A painted board entice every holiday fool to gawp at the so-called savages, many whom died as a result of Englands unfamiliar food and cold climate. The exhibitors made large profits from inhuman practice. When Stephano arrives after Trinculo foes under the cloak, Caliban still fears Prosperos spirits and his cry prompts Stephano to further investigation. He thinks he has found some monster of the isle and like Trinculo, he thinks to use him to generate profit. He can ply him with drink, tame him and take him back to Naples, where he can sell him. Although Shakespeare puts these thoughts into minds of the two comic characters, he may be criticising what actually took place when the English colonised America, often treating the native inhabitants with brutal indifference. There are constant references that Caliban is treated as a thing and not as a sentiment being for example, Prospero or Miranda never once call him by his name but terms such as, abhorred slave, dull thing and Tis a villain. Caliban is described as a savage and deformed slave and all kinds of other derogatory terms in the play such as filth, hag-seed, and Stephano and Trinculo continuously call him monster (shallow monster and howling monster). In this way, we can almost sympathise with Caliban due to the harsh treatment he is given, and understand why he hates Prospero so much. We may feel even more pity the way he begs or plead rather when he believes Stephano is a spirit, the repetition of Do not torment me, would have sounded heart-wrenching when on stage, this causes the audience to empathise. It is almost sad to see how happy he becomes that he begins to sing, simply because he believes he is being set free, when he takes on a new master (Stephano) the irony and sadness of it is that he is not really free, but in the service of another. It illustrated his desperation of wanting to be away from Prospero, possibly because his magic powers is what makes him punishments more torturous than any person who would torment him without such art. On the other hand, Caliban can still be described as a savage beast, as we learn of his plot against Prospero which reflects his violent and vindictive nature, and then of course the attempted rape of Miranda once again shows his cruel nature. Another function of Calibans character in the play is to act as a contrast to other characters, for example as lust versus pure love (Ferdinand), and natural malevolence versus civilised evil (Antonio). Calibans earthiness contrasts with Ariel as a spirit of air. Until Prospero arrived, Caliban lived in natural freedom. He loves the island, and his language eloquently expressed its wonder. The way his language is expressed shows signs of intelligence equal to a human for example, To snare the nimble clustering gilberts Ill get thee young scamels from the rock. This piece of evidence protects Calibans entire character being characterised as a complete demon or monster.