The Tempest and A Tempest: Evolving Representations of Colonialism

Abstract

Shakespeare’s 17th century The Tempest, written during early British colonial times, tells the story of Prospero, the Duke of Milan, who arrives at an island with his infant daughter and enslaves its Indigenous natives, Caliban and Ariel. The play is an allegory of European colonization and imperialism that both promotes colonization and begins to question it. Cesaire’s A Tempest, written in 1969 and approaching a post-colonial era, takes the political and ethical questions surrounding colonialism even further. These questions in both plays are rooted within the relationship between Caliban, one of the island’s Indigenous natives, and the European settler, Prospero. Though Cesaire’s A Tempest is an adaptation of Shakespeare’s original play, it differs significantly from The Tempest in that Cesaire’s narrative is a post-colonial work and thus presented from the perspective of the native population, represented by the character Caliban, rather than Prospero’s settler perspective which was the focus of Shakespeare’s narrative. This post-colonial perspective alters our understanding of Prospero and Caliban from civilizing settler and savage to abusive colonizer and abused colonized, or master and slave. This power relationship is demonstrated through the two characters’ portrayals in the two plays, their power dynamics, and their use of language as a tool both of colonization and rebellion.