notes for 'tempest' paper: i'm trying to figure out what the play is saying about caliban worshipping prospero as a master/god--how it relates to the religious debates of the time between catholics, puritans, and midway position of anglican church. caliban has been interpreted as a native-american type figure relating to english colonialism in america and his treatment in the play expressing anxieties about colonialism. i think here, though, i'm trying to see how the prospero-caliban plot line is deeply connected to the elizabethan audience's worries about the conflicting religious views present in their society, uncertainty as to the correct view--the play seems to conclude with an endorsement, in the figure of prospero, of the protestant interpretation of the eucharist and all physical reality as purely material, signifying the divine but with worlds wholly separate. prospero disavows his magic books, staff, and robe and returns to civilization to wait for death. worry that prospero has been playing god? prospero wanting penitence from those who have banished him before he will show mercy. i could look at caliban from the perspective of a failed servant in prospero's eyes juxtaposed to gonzalo as the ideal servant/attendant.
time to close up the library.
posted by Liza 15.11.01