English Imperialism and Representations Essay

In William Shakespeares The violent storm Prospero, an exiled Naples duke, and his daughter, Miranda, are marooned on a inappropriate island psycheh the lone indigenous1 inhabitant, a beast man named Caliban. Through his sorcery Prospero is able to enslave Caliban, the indigene, who toils for the benefit of Prospero and Miranda, the usurping colonial powers. firearm it is unclear if Shakespeare intended The Tempest to reflect military capability imperialism during the late 16th and seventeenth coulomb, there are many congruencies amidst events in the play and events around the time of the plays runner performance in 1611.To begin with, in order to analyze these congruencies a brief overview of Englands reinvigorated serviceman2 exploration and colonization is necessary. Next, Gonzalos interest in the island and his plantation scheme illustrate the face imperial yearning for the New earth. In addition, the graduation exercise exchange between Caliban and Prospero encaps ulate the conflicts of indigenous pile and the colonizers in an imperial relationship. Finally, the question remains if Caliban acts specifically inseparable Ameri dissolves or broadly re throws subjugated indigenous people by position colonization.Shakespeares The Tempest metaphorically represents English imperialism and encapsulates English senti handsts towards the New earth during the time of its cultural production. During the life of Shakespeare, especially around the time of the first performance of The Tempest, Europe engaged in imperialistic activities throughout the New World. In addition, during Shakespeares lifetime, Englands imperialistic activities would play a larger role in the countrys interests and developments. In Alden T.Vaughan article pot of Wonder England Encounters the New Worlds inbred, Vaughan gets how English perceptions of the Native Americans developed over the course of the 16th century. The English, while interested in the New World, did not pl ay an active role in its initial exploration English people in the Tudor era lagged noticeably bunghole other Europeans in tuition about the Americas. For nearly a century, English interest in the New World was surprisingly tangential, more a affair of curiosity than of conquest and based primarily on foreign rather than on English observation (Vaughan, People, 13).For a majority of the 16th century the English received second hand accounts (writings and illustrations) of the New World. However, the English did make limited forays into developing first hand knowledge of the New World. Vaughan states, The first document suffer between the English and the Indians occurred in about 1502, when Sebastian Cabotbrought back three men taken from Newfoundland (People, 14), but he continues, Not until 1530, apparently, were other Indians brought to England, and not until 1553 did an English publisher phone number a book with appreciable attention to Americas inhabitants (People, 14). er a slow to capitalize on exploring and colonizing the New World, the English became actively involved in the exploration and conquest of the Americas and its peoples. Thereafter, Englands image of American natives reflected uniquely English experiences and expectations (Vaughan, People, 13). One of the significant imperialist ventures around the time Shakespeare wrote The Tempest was the Jamestown colony. The English founded Jamestown in 1607, four years prior to the first performance of The Tempest.While a contemporary critic can only speculate the extent which the New World tantalized and influenced the English during this time, it must have had some sway on the popular imagination of English society, including Shakespeares. In The Tempest, the character Gonzalo demonstrates an interest with the pristine island setting that represents English imperial yearnings. After being shipwrecked on the island, Gonzalo first notices the earthy beauty of the island. He exclaims, How lush and lusty the grass looks How green (2. 1. 53).From his initial observation of the health of the island, Gonzalos interest in the island soon becomes opportunistic Had I plantation of this isle, my lord (2. 1. 140).When Gonzalo says plantation, he means colonization. Gonzalo initial admiration for the island transforms into a scheme to bug out a colony he envisions his colony as the antithesis of industry, a utopic society of idleness. Gonzalo describes his plantation in the following manner I the common wealth I would by contraries Execute all things for no kind of traffic, Would I admit no name of magistrate, Letter should not be known riches, poverty, And intent of service, none contract, succession, Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oilNo occupations all men idle, all, And women too, but innocent and pure No reign (2. 1. 144-52) In Gonzalos colony people just lie around with no one telling them what to do in addition, the women all s tay virgins. Gonzalos companions quickly point out the impossibility of his Eden-like scenario. Sebastian indicates, Yet Gonzalo would be king on the island (2. 1. 153) to which Antonio adds, The latter end of his commonwealth forgets the beginning (2. 1. 154).From the comments by Sebastian and Antonio, it is clear Gonzalos scheme is not practical, but for certain Gonzalos sentiment must have appealed idealistically to English and Europeans tired of the social turmoil in the emeritus World. genus Benzoin Bertram notes in The Time is out of Joint Skepticism in Shakespeares England contemporaneous to Shakespeares life, Londons mercantile interests, unemployment, overpopulation, and immigrants from the province all do colonial ventures appealing (58). Gonzalos fantasizing might tap into the socioeconomic conditions contemporary to the time of cultural production of The Tempest.For some Europeans the social turmoil of the senior World was a sore spot, yearning like Gonzalo for a sw eet start and for a better society in the New World. French courtier Michel De Montaigne in his turn up Of the Cannibals (1580) argues the New World inhabitants are no more barbarous or savage than the Old World denizens, suggesting things might be better in the showcase of the former. De Montaigne establishes, I find (as far as I have been informed) there is nothing in that nation the American Indians, that is either barbarous or savage, unless men call that barbarism which is not common to them (119).De Montaigne alludes to the social line of works of 16th century Europe in pointing out the hypocrisy of the Old World labeling the New World as barbarous or savage. Moreover, De Montaigne sees the New World inhabitants as closer to a natural state and less tainted by military man wit when he observes, It is a nationthat hath no kind of traffic, no knowledge of letters, no intelligence of numbers, no name of magistrates, nor of politic superiority no use of service, of riches, or of poverty no contracts, no successions, but common, no apparel but natural, no manuring of lands, no use of wine, corn, or metal (120).Curiously, both Gonzalo and De Montaigne shake up the idea of unfettered idleness and non-use of wine, corn, and metal as a more natural society. Also, in painting an idyllic picture of the social items supposedly rattlebrained from the New World, De Montaigne overlooks that corn is a New World vegetable and that American Indians were familiar with the practice of fertilization, although maybe not mannuring. While a lot of De Montaignes generalizations of the New World inhabitants are arguable, he calls the readers attention to a litany of social items as evidence of the Old World tainted by human wit. However, De Montaigne sarcastically concludes that what the American Indians, supposedly, do with their dead is no more barbaric than what the Europeans do with the living by torturing people, stating there is more barbarism in consume men alive than to feed upon them being dead to mangle by tortures and torments a body full of lively sense, to roast him in pieces, to make dogs and swine to masticate and tear him in mammocksthan to roast and eat him after he is dead (120).De Montaignes relativistic view of transatlantic cultural practices demonstrates culture in the Old World was not necessarily better than culture in the New World. Some Europeans might have yearned for a reprieve from the rigid trapping of the Old World the New World to them might have represented an opportunity for a fresh start, a chance to create a utopic society. The only problem was what to do about the indigenous people already there. The English public had a growing interest in the New World during Shakespeares lifetime, and The Tempest al approximately predicts the course of English imperialism would take.The exchange between Caliban and Prospero in Act 1 Scene 2 metaphorically represents the underlying conflicts plaguing indigenous people and Eng lish colonizers. Caliban represents prototypical native Other3 as he argues against Prospero, the colonial master. Calibans articulation that he is the rightful owner of the island sounds like the universal grievance of many settled people This islands mine, by Sycorax my mother, / Which thou takst from me (1. 2. 335-6).Calibans ownership stems from his mother, a witch, who bore him on the island, and this claim is reminiscent of many indigenous people who eviscerate their social beginnings through a creation myth fixing them to the land. As Caliban goes on, his description of the initial friendly relationship he had with Prospero, parallels the prototypical dealings between indigenous people and colonizers. Often this friendly period includes an exchange of items and information between the two parties. Caliban describes the followingWhen thou camst first, Thou strokst me and made much of me, wouldst come about me Water and berries int, and teach me how To name the bigger light, and how the less, That burn by day and night. And consequently I loved thee And showed thee all the qualities o th isle, The fresh springs, brine pits, barren place and fertile. (1. 2. 337-43) Caliban attests he showed Prospero the qualities of the island, and in essence, Caliban taught Prospero how to survive on the island. This detail interestingly parallels the situation in Jamestown. B. J. Sokol in A brook New World of Knowledge points out that sojourning Europeans almost entirely depended upon the services of native inhabitants for material survival, and especially for food (83).This grace period between indigenous people and colonizers, however, does not last forever. Sokol continues, In both The Tempest and Virginia these services had at first been voluntarily offered by Native Americans, then they were purchased or extorted, and finally there was refusal, resistance, and rebellion (83). soon the colonizer presses for more resources, more control over the land, and more c ontrol over the indigenous people soon the indigenous people become the colonized.Caliban describes himself from the position of the colonized, For I am all the subjects that you have, / Which first was mine own kin and here you sty me / In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me /The rest o th island (1. 2. 345-7). Calibans central grievance is how Prospero has stripped Caliban of his autonomy and his control over the island. The central grievance for many colonized people is how the colonizer strips autonomy and control over ancestral lands from the colonized. Richard Hakluyt in his essay Reasons for Colonization, written in 1584 about the Virginia colonial project (125), succinctly describes the intentions of the English imperialismThe end of this voyage to northwards America are these 1. ) To plant Christian religion. 2) To traffic. 3. ) To Conquer. Or, to do all three (129). As demonstrated earlier, Caliban is unhappy with his conquered status, a status Prospero confirms w hen he rebuts Calibans grievances, Thou most lying slave (my emphasis, 1. 2. 347). Prospero interestingly goes on to indicate his own inherent superiority and Calibans inherent inferiority, a privileging central to any colonial situation.Prospero states, I have used thee, / Filth as thou are, with humane care (1. 2. 348-9). Prospero ascribes the quality of filth to Caliban and humane-ness to his own actions. As the Hakluyt states, the first objective of the colonizer is to plant Christian religion or bring morality to the heathen indigenous people. Prosperos ultimate argument for supplanting Caliban evokes the moral order the colonizer supposedly brings, for Prospero states the reason he has enslaved Caliban is because Caliban sought to violate/ The honor of Prosperos child (1. 2. 350-1).From the perspective of the colonizer Caliban attempted to rape Miranda however, from the perspective of the lone indigenous someone Caliban attempted to propagate his culture O ho O ho Wouldt had been done / Thou didst prevent me I had peopled else / This isle with Calibans (1. 2. 352-4). While this relativism does not absolve Caliban of attempting to forcefully procreate with Miranda, it does not absolve Prospero of enslaving Caliban either. Unfortunately, Prospero uses one crime to justify another crime Calibans attempted rape leads to his immurement at the hands of Prospero.Furthermore, when Miranda tries to instill Caliban with a sense of guilt over his attempted rape, she states she endowed Calibans purposes / With words that made them known (1. 2. 360-1). However, by endowing Caliban with the speech communication of the colonizer, Miranda has except indoctrinated Caliban in the ideology of the colonizer in which Caliban, the colonized, occupies the margin. The colonizers language is a burden upon the colonized, for in order for the two groups to communicate the onus is on the colonized to learn the colonizers language.Caliban concurs with this onus when he says, You taught me language, and my profit ont / Is I know how to curse. The red plague rid you / For learning me your language (1. 2. 366-8). Another privileging in the imperial situation is the language and culture of the colonizer over the language and culture of colonized. For instance, Thomas Harriot spent time in the Virginia colony and wrote about the Algonquian people in Brief and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia his English contemporaries criticized him for learning the language of the Algonquians (Bertram 59).Bertram notes, the English feared much more than foreign languages, as contact with foreign cultures inspired probing questions about cultural identity (59). Mirandas effacement of Calibans language demonstrates her fear of foreign language and culture. Just as Caliban threatens Mirandas physical sanctity, he also threatens her cultural sanctity by not communication in the controlled discourse. Clearly, the conflict between Caliban and Prospero in The Tempest m etaphorically represents the imperialistic conflicts between the colonized and the colonizer.Lastly, although Caliban can metaphorically represent the colonized Other, did Shakespeare intend Caliban to represent Native Americans specifically? Alden T. Vaughan in his article Shakespeares Indian The Americanization of Caliban examines the history of The Tempest analysis which attempted to see Caliban as representative of Native Americans. Vaughan concludes, If an intentionalist version is insisted upon, and if early interpretations of Caliban are taken into account, his principal prototype was probably the European wild man of Renaissance literature and iconography (Shakespeares, 153).In addition, Ronald Takaki offers in The Tempest in the Wilderness the context surrounding the first performance of the play also, he explains how Shakespeares audience might have grokd the character of Caliban. Takaki explains the following The time of The Tempest was crucial it was first performed a fter the English invasion of Ireland but before the colonization of New England, after John Smiths reaching in Virginia but before the beginning of the tobacco economy, and after the first contacts with Indians but before full-scale warfare against them.This was an era when the English were encountering other peoples and delineating the limitation between civilization and savagery. The social constructions of both these terms were dynamically developing in three sitesIreland, Virginia, and New England. (143) If Shakespeares audience saw Caliban as more man than heller, they likely conflated all known savage Others in their perception of Caliban.When Prospero says, This thing of darkness Caliban I / Acknowledge mine (5. 1. 275-6), Caliban could seem more monster than man, darkness meaning evil, or Caliban could seem more man than monster, darkness referring to skin color. It is unclear what Shakespeare intended however, how people interpret Shakespeare is entirely another matter. Although Vaughan dismisses the model Shakespeare intended Caliban to be Native American, he supports the notion that Caliban can metaphorically be seen as Native American, stating, metaphoric readings of The Tempest have had equal legitimacy with the older literal approach (Shakespeares, 153). There are scholars who have a stake in seeing Caliban as simply meant to be Native Americans.An ready thread of their inquiry is Calibans name, which might be an anagram from a variant spelling of the word canibal. John F. Moffitt and Santiago Sebastian in their text O Brave New People The European Invention of The American Indian describe how the lurid European popular perception quickly associated cannibalism with the inhabitants of the New World. Moffit and Sebastian describe the following Cannibalism was also the specific subcultural attribute of the aborigines of the Other World that, as might be expected, some European illustrators found most noteworthy.In a crude woodcut, a German p rint of 1505representing the earliest European depiction of American Indianscannibalism becomes the foremost collective characteristic of the newly described peoples. (264-5) While Europeans, according to Vaughan, were familiar with the concept of anthropophagi, or eaters of human flesh, such people were considered mythical (People, 15). Vaughan goes on to note, So prominent did some accounts make the eating of human flesh that the word cannibal, from the Carib Indians who presumably practiced the vile custom, gradually replaced the older, more awkward, term for eaters of human flesh (People, 15).Curiously, if Shakespeare meant to evoke the sensational trait of cannibalism ascribed to Native Americans by Europeans in his character Caliban, he does not develop the trait in the play. Conversely, if Caliban does not represent Native Americans, certainly the European characters within the play perceive his usefulness like Native Americans during the early 17th century. The play mentions dead or alive a Native American is profitable for displaying in England. Additionally, Trinculo notes, the English willing / lay out ten to see a dead Indian. (2. 2. 31-32).Later, Stephano schemes to capture Caliban, or as Vaughan euphemistically refers to Native Americans kidnapped by Europeans, coerced American envoys (People, 12). Stephano states, If I can recover him Caliban and keep him tame and get / to Naples with him, hes a present for any emperor that / ever trod on neats lash (2. 2. 65-7). Although Caliban might have the same display value as a Native American in England, this fact does not necessarily make Caliban Native American. Within The Tempest, there is not abundant strong evidence to support the reading that Shakespeare meant Caliban to be Native American.If Shakespeare intended Caliban to represent Native American then Leslie Fieldler notes, Calibans attempt on Mirandas virtue makes him the first nonwhite rapist in white mans literature his freedom song is the first American poem and when he guzzles too much of Stephanos wine, Caliban is the first drunken Indian in Western literature (Vaughan, Shakespeares, 148). Native Americans struggle enough with poor representation in American society there is not a pressing need to demonstrate Shakespeare intended Caliban to be solely Native American if it results in additional derision.In contrast, Jeffrey L. Hantman in Calibans Own Voice American Indian Views of the Other in Colonial Virginia summarizes the 20th century importance of Caliban as a universal indigenous voice, He is African, and he is Caribbean. He has been a native of Madagascar, Quebec, Cuba, Nigeria, Kenya, and Zambia. Today, he is sometime enslaved, and psychologically dependent, but he is also a guerilla, a revolutionary, and a hero (71). Who Shakespeare intended Caliban to be is a non-issue for those who identify with Caliban.If people find an entryway into identifying with Caliban, then certainly Caliban becomes them as much as they become Caliban. Although it would be erroneous to claim Shakespeare meant The Tempest as an allegory for English Imperialism in the New World and Caliban solely represents Native Americans, the play does metaphorically represent English imperialism and encapsulates English sentiments towards the New World during the time of the plays cultural production.A brief overview of Englands New World exploration and colonization demonstrates how the English perception of the New World and Native Americans transformed during the development of English imperialism. Within the play, Gonzalos interests in the island and his plantation scheme illustrate the English imperial yearning for the New World and an opportunity to develop a society closer to a natural state. Furthermore, the first exchange between Caliban and Prospero encapsulate the conflicts that mar imperial relationship between indigenous people and the colonizer.Moreover, although Caliban does not represent specifically Nativ e Americans, he can broadly represent all subjugated indigenous people. There are many congruencies between events in The Tempest and events during the late 16th and 17th century English imperialism. The Tempest is an example where Shakespeare was not necessarily predicting a future outcome but more likely articulating the trajectory of a present English course. Works Cited Bertram, Benjamin. The Time is out of Joint Skepticism in Shakespeares England. Newark, NJ University of Delaware Press, 2004. De Montaigne, Michel.From Of the Cannibals. William Shakespeare The Tempest A Case Study in precise Controversy. Ed. Gerald Graff and James Phelan. Boston Bedford/St. Martins, 2000. 119-20. Hakluyt, Richard. Reasons for Colonization. William Shakespeare The Tempest A Case Study in Critical Controversy. Ed. Gerald Graff and James Phelan. Boston Bedford/St. Martins, 2000. 125-34. Hantman, Jeffrey L. Calibans Own Voice American Indian Views of the Other in Colonial Virginia. New Literary History 23. 1 (1992) 69-81. JSTOR. Winona State University, Darrell W. Krueger Lib., Winona, MN. 3 Mar. 2007 . Moffitt, John F. , and Santiago Sebastian. O Brave New People The European Invention of the American Indian. Albuquerque, NM University of New Mexico Press, 1996. Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. William Shakespeare The Tempest A Case Study in Critical Controversy. Ed. Gerald Graff and James Phelan. Boston Bedford/St. Martins, 2000. 10-88. Sokol, B. J. A Brave New World of Knowledge Shakespeares the Tempest and Early Modern Epistemology. Cranbury, NJ Associated University Presses, 2003. Takaki, Ronald. The Tempest in the Wilderness. William Shakespeare The Tempest A Case Study in Critical Controversy. Ed. Gerald Graff and James Phelan. Boston Bedford/St. Martins, 2000. 140-172. Vaughan, Alden T. People of Wonder England Encounters the New Worlds Natives. New World of Wonders European Images of the Americas, 1492-1700. Ed. Rachel Doggett, et al. Seattle University of Wash ington Press, 1992. -. Shakespeares Indian The Americanization of Caliban. Shakespeare every quarter 39. 2 (1988) 137-153. JSTOR. Winona State University, Darrell W. Krueger Lib. , Winona, MN. 3 Mar. 2007 . 1 Throughout the paper instead of simply using the term natives, I use indigenous people because the term natives carries ban imperialistic connotations. 2 I use the term New World provisionally in order to describe the dichotomy between Europe, the supposed Old World, and their actualization of the Americas, which they dubbed the New World. 3 While some scholars have argued that Shakespeare intended Caliban to be representative of Native American, this intentionality is problematic. I will examine this later in the paper.