Question

Agree or Disagree with the following statement: “In the Tempest, Caliban represents the deprived colonial subject, and Prospero, the usurping European colonizer.”

Answer 1

Prospero enslaves Caliban from his natural environment which the white did to relocate the colonizers from their habitats to distant lands. Prospero brands Caliban as evil, uncivilized and not to be considered as equal. Colonizers did the same to the colonized. Prospero used his magical powers to enslave him and the colonizers used sophisticated weapons such as guns, canons etc. to fight against the colonized which gave them advantage. He didn’t want to free Caliban, instead send him to be punished along with two other co-conspirers to be punished by the king. This shows the reluctant mind-set of the colonizers in not coming into terms with the colonized.