Caliban

Play

The Tempest

Summary

The "savage and deformed slave" — son of the witch Sycorax and born of the island — who was taught language by Prospero and Miranda and then enslaved after his attempted assault on Miranda. His bitter resentment of Prospero's colonizing possession of the island and his own enslavement has made him one of Shakespeare's most politically reinterpreted characters. Yet he is also the play's most lyrical speaker outside Prospero, and his description of the island's dreamlike sounds reveals a sensitivity that complicates any simple reading of him as mere villain.

Notable Quotations

"The isle is full of noises, / Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not." *(III.ii)*

"You taught me language, and my profit on't / Is I know how to curse." *(I.ii)*

"This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother, / Which thou tak'st from me." *(I.ii)*

Cross-references

• The Tempest — the play
• Romances (Late Plays)
• character_prospero — his master whom he hates and fears
• character_ariel — his fellow bondsman, utterly unlike him
• character_stephano_tempest — the drunk butler he makes his new "god"
• character_miranda — whom he attempted to violate