English colonialism was still in its infancy when William Shakespeare wrote The Tempest in about 1610, while Spain had been engaged in the conquest and exploitation of the New World for over 100 years by that time. Although Shakespeare was familiar with the Virginia Company and its new colony in Jamestown, which were established in 1607, he did not use any of these events as source material for the play. Rather he read accounts of a group of adventurers who had been shipwrecked in Bermuda, which was thought to be a magical or enchanted island. Unlike the Americas, however, it was completely uninhabited at the time and therefore no encounter with any natives was possible. Very little was written in English about the Native Americans at this time, so Shakespeare had to draw inspiration and images for his ‘savages’ like Sycorax and her son Caliban from Old World sources, such as the Moors of North Africa or the Irish natives. After all, Ireland was Britain’s first colony and it had been engaged in conquest and ‘pacification’ there since the 1530s. Even so, the attempt to make Prospero’s island resemble Ireland or Virginia is problematic since Sycorax and Caliban were not natives either, but had also come as conquerors and colonizers long before Prospero’s arrival. All of these factors combined make a colonialist or imperialist reading of The Tempest problematic, along with the fact that Prospero gives up his power in the end and returns home.
Caliban’s mother Sycorax in already dead before the play begins, but she is described as purely evil, and quite literally the ‘black’ bride of Satan with demonic offspring. Since she was from Algiers in North Africa the English audience would have imagined her as black or at least tawny in color, as well as thoroughly foreign and exotic. Therefore she was not a native of the island, either, but from the Old World like Prospero and his group and in that sense should be considered the “first colonialist” (Skura 297). Indeed, Ariel and his fellow spirits were the only true native of this otherwise uninhabited island, and was first made a slave when she took over. Perhaps the danger of a ‘foreign’ and ‘alien’ woman like Sycorax was increased by the fact that she had real political power as ruler of a kingdom. Her magic was of the black and female type and “ostensibly contrasts with that of Prospero in that it is remembered as viciously coercive” (Brown 61). According to Prospero, she was an evil witch who oppressed Ariel and the other spirits and mated with the Devil to produce Caliban.
He also had an image of her as sexually promiscuous and worshipping a pagan god called Setebos, but he vanquishes her ‘black’ magic with his own ‘white’ magic, enslaves Caliban and takes control of Ariel and the other sprites. Even though she is never seen onstage in the play, and the audience only learns about her from the man who has conquered and colonized the island, she is portrayed as the exact opposite of the ‘white’ and ‘pure’ Miranda, whose virginity Prospero is determined to protect. Sycorax on the other hand is made to seem threatening and menacing on every level: racial, religious, sexual and ethnic, like an early version of Count Dracula. All the witches and spirits in Shakespeare’s play are able to manufacture dreams and illusions, and in Prospero’s case his powers are used first for vengeance against his enemies, but never to the point of murder. In contrast, Sycorax, did not really possess any redeeming features and certainly come across are far more sinister and deadly than Ariel or Prospero.
Prosepero uses Ariel to punish and confuse his enemies but not to murder them, and in the end all is forgiven.
For these reasons, then, Shakespeare probably did not intend to represent Caliban as a native of the Americas, insofar as he was even aware of the existence of these people at all in 1610. At the time the play was first performed, he was simply described as a “savage”, “slave” and “servant-monster” whose mother was from North Africa (Skura 294). He also lacked the paint, feathers, beads and clothing that was stereotypically associated with Native Americans. Possibly he was more like one of the devils or spirits the English had “expected to find on the Bermuda islands (but didn’t)” since these were completely uninhabited at the time (Skura 295). Virginia was founded in 1607 as the first English colony in the Americas, and was very nearly destroyed later by the Powhatan Indians, but the limited writings available to Shakespeare at the time reflected “very little interest in its inhabitants” and did not generally call for their conquest or destruction (Skura 303). Sometimes Prospero is depicted as one of the tyrant governors of the New World islands, hunting the natives with dogs in the Spanish manner, but he is also a refugee and an exile as much as a conqueror. Caliban’s rebellion was also hopeless, even comical, but Prospero’s punishment was temporary and involved the illusion of the rebels being chased by wild dogs. In real slave revolts in the New World, the dogs would have been real and the punishments extreme, but Prospero is content to leave the demonic man-beast alone on the island. Shakespeare even manages to extend a certain amount of sympathy to Caliban, and was “the first to show one of us mistreating a native, the first to represent a native from the inside, the first to allow the native to complain onstage” (Skura 307).
Although Shakespeare was acquainted with some of the directors of the Virginia Company, a more plausible colonialist influence on his play could have been the British conquest of Ireland. Its inhabitants were also routinely denounced as savages and beasts, and like all people without masters subject to “constant vilification and punishment” as a threat to the social order (Brown 54). Ireland was Britain’s first colony, in fact, and it had established forts and outposts there in the 16th Century before and was attempting to eliminate the native Irish language and culture. There were repeated revolts and ‘pacification’ efforts over the subsequent centuries until it was finally granted independence in 1922. From a purely symbolic viewpoint, Prospero’s island could just as easily have been Ireland as any New World location with Caliban as a native who lacked any language or concept of private property and a civilized existence until Prospero and Miranda educated him.
At the end of The Tempest, Prospero voluntarily gives up his power over the island and frees Ariel and the rest of the sprites. He also agrees to the wedding of Miranda and Ferdinand, as a sign that he has forgiven his enemies at home, thus renouncing his desire for power and revenge” (Skura 310). He has been in control of all the other characters from the start and can literally create their reality for them, but he also finds the son of his enemy worthy of Miranda, and predicts that they will eventually rule the kingdom of Naples. In addition to recognizing the free will of Miranda and Ferdinand, he also frees Ariel and the other sprites, as they had always wished, while Ariel ensures good weather for the voyage back to Italy. After all, Ariel has been a good and faithful servant, even warning Prospero’s of Caliban’s plans for rebellion and assassination, while Prospero has been a benevolent and paternalistic master. In any event, Proespero had never intended for the island to be a permanent colony or settlement at all.
Prospero is still in character but begs the audience to set him free so he can return to Naples. H has also used magic and illusion to deceive and confuse his enemies and in fact the entire island is magical and mythical rather than a real colonial outpost. While in control of sprites like Ariel, he is in fact all-knowing and all-powerful on the island and can make other mortals see or imagine anything he desires, but once he has voluntarily given up his powers he is now simply an ordinary man, at the mercy of the audience. He has set Ariel and the other spirits free, and now prays that the viewers will have the same mercy for him. Prospero is not a malevolent being or practitioner of the ‘dark arts’ and black magic, which were still greatly feared when Shakespeare was writing his plays. He does not exterminate the inhabitants of the island, not even the non-native Caliban who attempted to rebel against him. In all these respects, he simply does not appear to be a typical European adventurer and colonialist who came to the New World to enslave and exterminate the natives.
WORKS CITED
Brown, Paul. “’This Thing of Darkness I Acknowledge’” The Tempest and the Discourse of Colonialism”. Jonathan Dollimore and Alan Sinfield (Eds). Political Shakespeare: Essays in Cultural Materialism. Manchester University Press, 1994: 48-70.
Greenblatt, Stephen et al. The Norton Shakespeare, 2nd Edition. Norton, 2008.
Skura, Meredith Anne. “Discourse and the Individual: The Case of Colonialism in The Tempest”. Gerald Graff and James Phelan (Eds). The Tempest: A Case Study in Critical Controversy. NY: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008: 286-322.
