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Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,5, University of Tubingen (Englisches Seminar), course: Proseminar II Literatur: The World and Shakespeare, language: English, abstract: 'A salvage and deformed slave.' With these words William Shakespeare describesthe figure of Caliban in the dramatis personæ of his play The Tempest. For almost fourcenturies, literary critics have dealt with trying to answer the question how Shakespeare’scharacter has to be regarded. Is Caliban to be considered as a monster representinghumanity’s bestial side including all its vices, and thereby arousing the audience’s disgust?Or has he rather to be looked at the victim of an imperia l tyrant - personified in Prospero -who arouses the spectator’s pity? In which way Shakespeare really intended Caliban to bewas, is and will ever be a secret he took to his grave. However, the reception history of theplay has proven that Shakespeare’s presentation of the characters - especially Caliban -opened up a large scope for various, often contradicting interpretations of the 'slave.' Thus,the following paper analyses the play with regard to the basic question whether or notCaliban is a monster.It is divided into two parts. The first one concentrates only on how Shakespeare’sdrama The Tempest in general and the character of Caliban in particular have been stagedand interpreted throughout the last barely four centuries of reception. For this purpose, asmall selection of representations of the play on stage and in editions are introduced anddiscussed, which show the major strands and general tendencies of Caliban’s changinginterpretations in the course of time. One of the main changes in Caliban’s interpretation isthe difference of reading the character in colonial and in post-colonial eras. After the end ofthe Second World War and after most of the world’s colonies had been released and gainedtheir independence, Caliba
