We are introduced to Caliban in the latter half of the first act of the Tempest. Caliban is the son of the malevolent witch Sycorax, and is one of the most intricate characters of this play. Caliban’s multifaceted nature is slowly revealed throughout the play. Caliban is described as a “blue-eyed hag” and a “freckled whelp, hag-born”with an inhumane face. He was enslaved by Prospero after he was found alone on the island and was later tied to a rock after he tried to violate Miranda’s honor.
Caliban plays a very important role in the second and third acts. One of the central plots of the play is Caliban’s plan to kill his master Prospero. He hopes that “all the infections that the sun sucks up from bogs, fens and flats” fall on Prospero and make him by “inchmeal a disease”. He cannot help but curse Prospero. This shows his arrogance and hate towards Prospero.
Caliban’s villainous nature is evident in his plot to kill Prospero. He calls Prospero a tyrant and a sorcerer, who had cheated him of the island. He asks Stephano to “knock a nail into his head”. He tells Stephano to “cut his weasand”, “paunch him with a stake” and “batter his skull”. He feels that Prospero is nothing but a fool without his books. Caliban has extensively studied Prospero’s daily routine precisely. He is perfectly aware of Prospero’s afternoon nap and has even schemed to kill him by ‘[paunching] him with a stake’ or cutting his ‘weasand with [Stephano’s] knife’. He is also aware that Prospero’s power lies solely within his books and that burning them would drain him of his magic. Clearly, Caliban is not only malicious but intelligent and observant as well.
Caliban helps show us how strong Prospero actually is. He says that Prospero would punish him for every small trifle by pinching him, frightening him with urchin shows, entwining him with snakes and by leading him like a firebrand into the dark. Although Prospero punishes him, Caliban cannot help but curse his master.
Caliban is mesmerized when he tastes wine. He thinks that a drunkard like Stephano is “a brave God”. He is ready to kneel down to Stephano over the “celestial liquor” he had just drunk. He is convinced that Stephano has dropped down from heaven. The very fact that he does all this shows us that he is not only a drunkard but also a foolish slave and a poor judge of character. He acknowledges himself to be the “true subject” of Stephano, his God. He is quick to accept the fact that Stephano was the “man in the moon”. He is ready to show his newfound masters the “qualities of the isle””, including fertile lands, a jay’s nest and the place where crabs grow. This further adds to the foolish character of Caliban. This shows us how desperate he was to get rid of Prospero. The words “poisonous slave” used for him are apt.
Caliban’s interactions with Trinculo, a jester to Alonso, provide the much needed comedy the audience needs after the first and the second scenes, where some of the main themes are highlighted and central plots are revealed. This is similar to The Merchant of Venice, where Launcelot Gobbo provides the audience with some comedy by fooling around with his father, Old Gobbo.
Despite his savage appearance, however, Caliban has a nobler, more sensitive side that Prospero and Miranda do not acknowledge at all and we the audience get a glimpse of only briefly. His beautiful speeches about his island home provide some of the most affecting imagery in the play, reminding the audience that Caliban really did occupy the island before Prospero came, and that he may be right in thinking his enslavement to be monstrously unjust. Caliban remains one of the most intriguing and ambiguous minor characters in all of Shakespeare, a sensitive monster who allows himself to be transformed into a fool.
Caliban’s character was developed to immense depths, to a point where his simple, ignorant character deceived the audience about his true nature. The extent of his deep character set was hinted at when the audience realises that the earlier Caliban was simply a facade to cover up the genuine intellect that concealed beneath.
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