In The Tempest by William Shakespeare, Prospero is portrayed as a dominating character who manipulates others for his own good. On the other hand, Caliban is always being dominated by other characters, simply because of his different nature. As such, the play encourages readers to accept the hierarchy to a large extent, and thus highlights the issues of colonialism and patriarchy.
Prospero exerts domination on other characters through the abuse of his magic to maintain control. Firstly, Prospero takes delight in the suffering of his own enemies (Antonio, Sebastian, and Alonso), especially when he commanded Ariel to condemn those “three men of sin” to a “lingering perdition” during the anti-masque. This clearly illustrates how Prospero exerts domination over them to have them “in [his] power” simply out of revenge for the usurpation of his dukedom. In the same way, he also abuses his magic to enslave Caliban, threatening to “wound [him] with adders” which would “hiss [Caliban] into madness”. The torture of Caliban again demonstrates Prospero’s use of magic to dominate other characters so that he can control them. Indeed, he even threatens Ariel, who had done him “worthy service”, suggesting he would imprison Ariel in an oak “for twelve winters” simply because Ariel dared to challenge Prosepro and demand his liberty. It is therefore clear that Prospero’s powerful magic forces characters to accept his domination, and submitting to his hierarchy.
In stark contrast, Caliban is always the one being dominated by other characters. Caliban was initially “[his] own king” on the island, but Prospero “cheated [him] of the island” upon arrival. This simply because Prospero perceived himself to be more ‘civilised’ than Caliban, and thus claimed the sovereignty of the island. He believes Caliban to be “a born devil, on whose nature nurture can never stick” and therefore enslaved him. In a clear example of classic colonialism, Prospero’s ‘saviour complex’ even prompted him to ‘educate’ Caliban and teach him his language. This failed miserably as Caliban’s “only profit on’t is [he] knows how to curse”. All of Prosepro’s acts of subjugating Caliban is evidence that Caliban must accept domination simply because he is different. In the same way, Caliban is bullied by other characters, namely Trinculo and Stephano, who used alcohol to manipulate Caliban into swearing allegiance to them. His main reason for this self-imposed enslavement is to escape “the tyrant which [he] serves”, not knowing his new masters were worse than Prospero and not worthy of exerting dominance. Nevertheless, Caliban is shown to accept domination yet again. Moreover, Caliban is constantly mocked because of his appearance, with Antonio and Sebastian labelling him as “a plain fish” and “no doubt marketable”. It is clear that Caliban is repeatedly being dominated in a world of colonialism, simply because he is different to the other eurocentric characters.
Despite the clear model of domination and hierarchy of Prospero (and Caliban’s acceptance to domination), readers were offered some insight into how Prospero relinquishes his empowered position. When Ariel expresses his sympathy for Gonzalo, whose “tears run down his face like winter’s drops”, Prospero realises that “the rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance”, so he frees his enemies and “forgives [their] rankest faults''. This example illustrates how Prospero gives up his domination of enemies and his hierarchy, so that he could reconcile with them. Although this contradicts the play’s portrayal of Prospero’s constant exertion of domination, it can be also seen that he is simply acting out of his self interest to regain his dukedom. As such, this single act of humanism can still be considered as a way of Prospero maintaining his power and hierarchy in society.
Ultimately, Prospero is able to dominate other characters through his abuse of magic, while Caliban is able to be dominated and manipulated simply because he is perceived as different. These facts clearly entrenches a belief in accepting domination and hierarchy, even in the case of Prospero’s apparent relinquish of power.
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