| Chapter 1: | Caliban, Shakespeare’s Transformative Other |
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purity, and her relations with Caliban of a nonsexual nature are best expressed by Lamming when he says, “Miranda is the innocent half of Caliban; Caliban is the possible deformity which Miranda, at the age of experiment, might become” (15). Again, the threat posed by this castrating native is reflected as part of the fear felt by the colonizer. While Caliban gloats about possibly raping Miranda, Aimé Césaire’s native will partake from a different perspective. He will inform Prospero that the barbaric qualities, such as a high sexual appetite and violent tendencies toward Miranda are European constructs and reflections of his own fears, inventions he imposes on others to justify his superiority complex.
Other characters in the play who come in contact with Caliban also provide vivid descriptions of what they perceived as the native:
TRINCULO: What have we here? A man or a fish? Dear or alive? A fish: he smells like a fish; a very ancient fish-like smell; a kind of, not of the newest Poor-John. A strange fish! Were I in England now, as once I was and had but this painted, not a holiday food there but would give a piece of silver: there would this monster make a man; any strange beast there makes a man; when they will not give a do it to relieve a lame beggar, they will lay out ten to see a dead Indian. Legged like a man! And his fins like arms! (2.2.24–33)
Trinculo also makes reference to the idea presented earlier regarding Caliban’s naiveté he was often taken advantage of easily because of his childlike qualities.
Prospero is often depicted as the “domineering colonial planter,” whereas Caliban represents the natives “who lost their land and often their liberty to European intruders”