Shakespeare and Colonialism

In my opinion, Shakespeare's writing in The Tempest present an image of native people that justifies and somewhat glorifies colonization. Shakespeare uses Caliban as an example of the natives and describes him as a “villain”, a “tortoise”, and a “poisonous slave, got by the devil himself”. Shakespeare has managed to show the white man’s generosity towards the natives by casting Caliban as the deformed monster that has been adopted and raised by Prospero after his mother, Sycorax, dies. Caliban has been burdened to teach Prospero how to survive on the island while Prospero has been teaching him religion and language in return. What people fail to realize is that Prospero is really trying to force his culture on Caliban by teaching him his own religion and language. In reality, Prospero’s intellect is in no way helpful to Caliban while Caliban’s knowledge is essential for survival. In The Tempest, Shakespeare also manages to show how unappreciative the natives are when Prospero states “ filth as thou art, with human care, and lodged thee in my own cell, till thou didst seek to violate the honor of my child”. I believe that Shakespeare’s writing in The Tempest is an example of men trying “to justify their territorial conquest by propagating a manufactured belief” using stereotypes that suggested the natives like the “so called Orientals were indolent, thoughtless, sexually immoral, unreliable, and demented.” as stated in Bressler’s Literacy Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice. Still, one cannot blame Shakespeare for the way he viewed things around him. In the video How Hollywood Stereotyped the Native Americans we can see that these negative images and stereotypes are embedded into our minds from early on. Therefore, Shakespeare must have believed that the way he described Caliban and the natives in his book was right.