His evil nature can never be overcome by nurture, according to Prospero. On the other hand, they seem to see him as intrinsically inhuman. On the one hand, they think that their education of him has lifted him from his formerly animalistic status. Miranda and Prospero both have contradictory views of Caliban's humanity.

Miranda reminds Caliban that before she taught him language, he prattled 'like / A thing most brutish' and Prospero says that he gave Caliban 'humane care', implying that this was something Caliban ultimately did not deserve.

However, Miranda and Prospero counter by saying very little that shows that he is human. His speeches might be more sophisticated because he was taught language by nobles, or maybe because he is 'king' of the island passed down to him by his mother. Shakespeare is known for writing the nobles' lines in a more cultured manner by using iambic pentameter, while writing the commoners and servants' lines in prose. Caliban's 'nobility' can be shown through Shakespeare's use of iambic pentameter for his speeches. At first, it seems as if Caliban was wrongfully confined and that he had ownership over the island because he was born there: 'This island's mine by Sycorax my mother,'. Which perspective the audience decides to believe depends on whether it views Caliban as inherently inhuman, or as made brutish by oppression.Ĭaliban's speech is presented so the audience first sympathizes with him until Miranda and Prospero give their viewpoint on his imprisonment. Caliban confirms this gleefully: 'Thou didst prevent me I had peopled else / The isle with Calibans'. Prospero explains his harsh treatment of Caliban by arguing that after initially befriending him, Caliban attempted to rape Miranda.

Caliban claims that he was kind to Prospero, and that Prospero repaid that benevolence by imprisoning him. After his island is occupied by Prospero and his daughter Miranda, Caliban becomes their slave, trapped in a cave on the island and tormented with harmful magic if he does not obey commands. In his speech with Miranda and Prospero in Act I Scene I, Caliban manages to capture the sympathies and the disgusted reactions from the audience. In The Tempest, Shakespeare poses the mystery of 'man' versus 'monster' through Caliban, the half-human son of the malevolent witch Sycorax.

Caliban and the witch book