Caliban
| Caliban | |
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 Caliban (Todd Scofield) has a conversation with his imaginary friends in Folger Theatre's production of Shakespeare's The Tempest in 2007 |
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| Creator | William Shakespeare |
| Play | The Tempest |
Caliban (
/ˈkælɨbæn/ KAL-ə-ban) is one of the primary antagonists in William Shakespeare's play The Tempest.
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[edit] Character
Caliban is forced into servitude on an island ruled by Prospero. While he is referred to as a calvaluna or mooncalf, a freckled monster, he is the only human inhabitant of the island that is otherwise "not honour'd with a human shape“ (Prospero, I.2.283). In some traditions he is depicted as a wild man, or a deformed man, or a beast man, or sometimes a mix of fish and man, stemming from the confusion of two of the characters about what he is, found lying on a deserted island. Caliban is the son of the luciferous woman Sycorax by (according to Prospero) a devil. Banished from Algiero (Algiers), Sycorax was left on the isle, pregnant with Caliban, and died before Prospero's arrival. Caliban refers to Setebos as his mother's god. Prospero explains his harsh treatment of Caliban by claiming that after initially befriending him, Caliban attempted to rape Miranda. Caliban confirms this gleefully, saying that if he hadn't been stopped he would have peopled the island with a race of Calibans - "Though dist prevent me, I had peopled else this isle with Calibans". Prospero then entraps Caliban and torments him. Resentful of Prospero, Caliban takes Stephano, one of the shipwrecked servants, as a god and as his new master. Caliban learns that Stephano is neither a god nor Prospero's equal in the conclusion of the play, however, and Caliban agrees to obey Prospero again.
Despite his portrayal, he also has moments in which he delivers beautiful speeches, such as in Act 3, Scene 2:
Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises,
Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears; and sometime voices
That, if I then had waked after long sleep,
Will make me sleep again; and then in dreaming,
The clouds methought would open, and show riches
Ready to drop upon me, that when I waked
I cried to dream again.
[edit] Other works
In John Fowles' 1963 novel The Collector, Miranda (the kidnapped girl held hostage in the cellar) calls her abductor "Caliban".
Caliban is the protagonist of Aimé Césaire's 1969 play Une Tempête, in which he is a black slave in rebellion against his white master Prospero.
In the Swedish 1989 film The Journey to Melonia, an animated film loosely inspired by The Tempest, there is a character named Caliban, a creature whose face consists of mainly vegetables. Unlike Caliban in The Tempest, this Caliban is kind at heart, and even becomes a hero later in the film.
In The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Caliban appears as part of Prospero's Men, the first incarnation of the League, alongside his master, and Ariel.
A character called Caliban appears in various stories in Marvel Comics X-Men franchise. This version is a sewer-dwelling, simple-minded mutant who first appears along other abnormal-looking mutants called "The Morlocks". Caliban straddles the line between good and evil until he heroically sacrifices himself during the "Messiah Complex" storyline.
Tad Williams' 1997 novel Caliban's Hour (US: HarperCollins, ISBN 978-0061054136 and UK: Legend Books, ISBN 0-09-926361-0) takes place twenty years after the events of The Tempest. Abandoned on the island by Prospero and Miranda, Caliban manages to escape and make his way to Milan with the intention of avenging himself on Prospero, only to learn that Prospero has died. He then travels to Naples and one night gains entry to Miranda's chamber, where he forces her to listen to his story and make her understand what she and her father have done to him.
Adrian Herrero danced Caliban in the choreographic adaptation of The Tempest (La Tempestad) by the Ballet Contemporáneo of the Teatro General San Martin in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2008.
In the 2010 film adaptation, Caliban is portrayed by Djimon Hounsou.
In the 2010 film The King's Speech, the king's speech therapist recites Caliban's famous speech from Act 3, Scene 2, to amuse and educate his children.
Oscar Wilde refers to Caliban in the preface of his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Caliban appears as the wild and lustful Greek Kalibanos (played by Raúl Juliá) in Paul Mazursky's film adaptation Tempest (1982).
A monster from the 2007 video game Silent Hill: Origins is named after and inspired by Caliban. Also, at a certain point of the game, protagonist Travis Grady can hear Caliban's famous monologue after obtaining a certain key while exploring the theater level.
[edit] Etymology
The name is an anagram of the Spanish word canibal, the source of cannibal in English.[citation needed]
The character's name may also be inspired by kaliban or cauliban in the Romani language, which mean black or with blackness.[1][2][3] As the first Romani immigrants arrived in England a century before Shakespeare wrote The Tempest, the Bard may have been influenced by their exotic looks and manners. In Shakespeare's time, the English discriminated against the Romanies.[4][5] Alternatively the name may originate from the Arabic word for "wild dog".[1][2][3]
[edit] References
- ^ a b Albert Kluyber, "Kalis and Calibon", in A. E. H. Swain (transl.), Englich studien XXI (1895): 326–28.
- ^ a b John Holland, A Hystorical Survey of the Gypsies, London (printed for the author) 1816, p. 148.
- ^ a b B.C. Smart and H. T. Crofton (eds.), The Dialect of the English Gypsies, 2nd ed., London 1875, p. 92.
- ^ "Caliban appears to be derived from the Gipsy cauliban, 'blackness'", in: K. E. Chambers, William Shakespeare: A Study of Facts and Problems, vol. 1. Oxford Clarendon Press, 1930, p.494
- ^ Alden T. Vaughan and Virginia Mason Vaughan (1993), Shakespeare's Caliban: A Cultural History, Cambridge University Press, pp.33-34
[edit] External links
- Caliban at Sunset, a poem by P. G. Wodehouse.
- "Something Rich and Strange": Caliban's Theatrical Metamorphoses
- "Caliban Upon Setebos, a poem by Robert Browning.
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