The Tempest

A cursory reading of The Tempest seems to give the impression that Caliban is, indeed, a monster. In fact, Shakespeare establishes him as a monster fairly early in the play: Miranda and Prospero repeatedly call him a monster in Act 1. Prospero tells us that Caliban’s mother, the witch Sycorax, was a “hag,” and that Caliban himself was “a freckled whelp hag-born, not honour'd with a human shape.” This implies that Sycorax was not human, and therefore neither is Caliban. Prospero also claims that when Caliban was younger, he gave him “human care,” which implies that Prospero does not think him worthy of receiving such treatment. Trinculo and Stefano describe Caliban as less than human: Trinculo asks if he is "a man or a fish," and Stephano calls him a "moon-calf." Thus at face value, Caliban can unequivocally be thought of as a monster.

However, all the evidence that casts Caliban as a monster comes from the other characters speech (as there isn’t much else in a play). On closer inspection of this speech, it seems that the way the characters talk about Caliban reflects the attitude European colonizers had towards the natives during the time this play was written. Most of the characters in the play are of European descent; Caliban, on the other hand, was born of Sycorax, who was a native of Algiers. This could be an explanation for why he seemed a creature apart from them.  His skin color would have been different – this possibility is supported by the fact that his name is so similar to the Romany word "Cauliban," which means "black" or something associated with blackness.  His speech would have been very different as well: Miranda states that before the play, Caliban gabbled "like / A thing most brutish," which suggests that he may have known a language – it simply was not English. He calls the language Prospero taught him “your” language, also indicating that he could have had his own language before English was forced on him (in the way that English was forced on natives when the Europeans settled in a new place). Thus the treatment of Caliban in the Tempest can be taken as a reflection of the way Europeans treated non-white races at the time.

On looking through the play again, there is actually evidence to be found that Caliban is, in fact, a human. Stephano and Trinculo describe him as having arms, legs, and eyes in his head, implying that he does at least have a humanoid form. He does not appear to have magic, reducing the possibility that he is descended from a real (non-human) “witch” or that he is a spirit of the island like Ariel. The fact that he is able to articulate human reasoning for even his animalistic behavior (such as trying to rape Miranda – he wanted to “people the island with Calibans”) shows that though he may be strange and disturbing at times, he may still be a human. In other words, if it looks like a human and talks like a human for the whole play, it probably is a human.

Ultimately, I believe that a successful argument can be made for either side. However, I personally lean towards the belief that Caliban is, in fact, human. I think that the portrayal of him by the characters as an animal with no sense of morality only further cements the audience’s understanding of him as a victim of colonization. Obviously, the play is not sympathetic to Caliban, because it was written from a European point of view; however, I think in this day and age Caliban very much deserves our understanding.