American Imperialism In The Tempest Essay

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The tempest is a play, written by William Shakespeare during the historic period of exploration. The play is set on a never before discovered island. In that mysterious island there is one native islander named Caliban. When Prospero, being the first outsider to come to this 'new world', saw Caliban, he was intrigued by him, as the Europeans were intrigued by the aborigines of America. But as the play progresses Caliban becomes Prospero's slave. The fact that Caliban is of African descent and enslaved by Prospero, causes the tempest to be thought to be influenced by colonialism in the Americas. During the Colonial-Era when the Europeans first started to come to the Americas we see that in that there are many records of shipwrecks in the Americas and in the Caribbean islands. As the book Archival Investigations for Potential Colonial-Era Shipwrecks in Ultra-Deepwater within the Gulf of Mexico states there were many…show more content…
"This is some monster of the isle with four
legs, who hath got, as I take it, an ague. Where the
devil should he learn our language?"(act 2, scene 2, lines 66-68) This dehumanizing was used by Europeans during the colonial period to make the natives that they had enslaved feel like they were not human and think that they did not deserve freedom. In The Tempest Ariel is seen as an all powerful spirit. However, he is easily controlled by people; therefore, he is made prosper's 'slave'. Even do Ariel is seen as a spirit with great physical power we also see that he has the power to emotionally impact people. " The ditty does remember my drowned father. This is no mortal business, nor no sound That the earth owes. I hear it now above me."(act 1, scene 2, lines 483-485) The power that Ariel's songs have to impact people's hearts' could be seen the same way that the Europeans described the beauty of the Caribbean islands when they first got there. I believe that the roles of Caliban and those of Ariel are of a more accurate
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