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Caliban in The Tempest — character analysis

The Tempest · William Shakespeare · Set text on AQA GCSE English Literature (8702), Paper 1 Section A — not on Pearson Edexcel International GCSE (4ET1) · Grade 9 Notes

In one sentence. The island's native — monster, slave, would-be murderer and poet

Caliban is the son of the witch Sycorax and claims the island by inheritance. Prospero taught him language and was at first kind to him; after Caliban tried to rape Miranda, Prospero enslaved him. He curses, plots murder with the drunken Stephano and Trinculo, and kneels to a new master within minutes of meeting him — and he is also given the most beautiful speech in the play. Shakespeare refuses to make him simply victim or villain, and an answer that resolves him into one discards half the evidence.

This study ends with William Shakespeare. Build your reading of Caliban in The Tempest, teach it, then defend it against William Shakespeare.

How Caliban develops

Act 1 — the claim

“This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother, / Which thou tak'st from me.” — Caliban, Act 1, Scene 2

A property claim stated in legal terms: inheritance ('by Sycorax my mother') and dispossession ('tak'st from me'). Prospero does not dispute the inheritance; he answers with Caliban's attack on Miranda — a serious charge, but not an answer to the claim.

Methods: legal register · direct address

“You taught me language, and my profit on't / Is I know how to curse.” — Caliban, Act 1, Scene 2

'Profit' is a commercial word: the gift of language is audited and found to have one return. The line cuts both ways — an argument about what his education was for, and an admission of what he has become. He makes it in fluent verse.

Methods: commercial metaphor · irony

Caliban recalls that when Prospero first came he stroked him and taught him to name the sun and moon, 'And then I loved thee / And showed thee all the qualities o' th' isle'. When Prospero accuses him of trying to violate Miranda, Caliban answers 'O ho, O ho! Would't had been done!' — the play does not soften this.

Acts 2–3 — a new master, and the noises of the isle

Hiding from what he thinks is one of Prospero's spirits, Caliban is found by Trinculo and then Stephano, who gives him wine. He takes Stephano for a god, offers to kiss his foot and show him the island, and sings of freedom — 'Ban, ban, Ca-Caliban / Has a new master: get a new man' — while choosing a new servitude.

“Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises, / Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.” — Caliban, Act 3, Scene 2

In the middle of persuading Stephano to murder Prospero, Caliban comforts the frightened drunks with a description of the island's music. He speaks verse while they speak prose. The speech ends 'when I waked, / I cried to dream again' — longing and loss from the character others call a monster.

Methods: verse against prose · sensory imagery · contrast with context

Acts 4–5 — the trash, and seeking grace

When Ariel hangs out glittering clothes, Stephano and Trinculo are distracted; Caliban alone calls them trash and urges the murder. Spirit-hounds chase all three away. In Act 5 Prospero acknowledges him — 'this thing of darkness I / Acknowledge mine' — and Caliban promises 'I'll be wise hereafter, / And seek for grace.' What becomes of him when the Europeans sail is not said.

How Shakespeare builds Caliban in language and structure

Caliban curses fluently in verse in Act 1 — 'The red plague rid you / For learning me your language!' — so his eloquence is part of his argument.

With Stephano and Trinculo the scenes run in prose, and Caliban's move into verse for the noises speech marks him off from them.

Others name him with insults — 'monster', 'slave', 'thing' — while his own language is full of the island's detail: springs, berries, nests, sounds.

Structurally his plot parallels Antonio's: a sleeping victim, an argument from opportunity, a promise of rule.

Caliban in context

The play's links with accounts of voyages and settlement in the Americas make Caliban's claim of inheritance and dispossession readable as a native's claim.

The period's debate about nature and nurture shapes Prospero's verdict that nurture will never stick on him.

His final 'seek for grace' uses a religious word that can also mean favour, leaving his future open.

Relationships

  • Prospero — Master and slave; Caliban's claim to the island is never answered, and Prospero's final word on him is ambiguous.
  • Miranda — She taught him language; he attempted to rape her; she calls him 'Abhorred slave'.
  • Stephano — The drunk butler he takes for a god and plots with — a new master worse than the old.
  • Ariel — The other servant, airy where Caliban is earthy; both were imprisoned or enslaved and both want freedom.

What Caliban stands for

  • The dispossessed native: a reading strengthened by the play's links to accounts of voyages to the Americas.
  • Nature against nurture: Prospero's 'born devil' against the poetry of the noises speech.

Why Shakespeare made Caliban

  • To make the island's ownership a real question the play leaves open.
  • To complicate every simple judgement by placing his best poetry inside his worst plot.

Caliban — the strongest quotations, analysed

“I'll be wise hereafter, / And seek for grace.” — Caliban, Act 5, Scene 1

His last promise. 'Grace' can be Christian grace or favour; either way it is a brief, uncertain ending to the play's most disputed character.

Methods: ambiguity · religious vocabulary

Caliban: all 12 quotations in the The Tempest quote bank, analysed →

Readings you could defend

More than one reading of Caliban can win the debate. These are the credible alternatives — argue one, and know the others.

  • A victim of colonisation whose claim to the island is never answered.
  • A brutal figure whose attempted assault and murder plot justify Prospero's control.
  • A figure the play deliberately refuses to resolve, with evidence for both readings placed in the same scenes.

Essay arguments

  • Shakespeare gives Caliban an unanswered legal claim and the play's best poetry, so an audience cannot rest in Prospero's verdict of 'born devil'.
  • Caliban's eager kneeling to Stephano shows that the play does not idealise him: he exchanges one master for a worse one.

Caliban in theme essays

  • Colonisation and ownership: 'This island's mine'.
  • Freedom and servitude: 'Has a new master: get a new man'.

Questions that get asked

  • Read the extract from Act 1 Scene 2 in which Caliban first appears. How does Shakespeare present Caliban here and across the play?
  • Read the extract from Act 3 Scene 2 in which Caliban speaks of the isle. How far does Shakespeare make the audience sympathise with Caliban?
  • How does Shakespeare use Caliban to explore ideas about ownership and freedom?

Think you understand it?

Reading is the start. On Incandio a topic counts as mastered only once you have taught it and defended it — the two things a revision guide cannot ask of you.

Incandio this topic → Prove it. Teach it. Defend it. What does “Incandio it” mean?

  1. Teach it — Explain your reading of Caliban in The Tempest to Ember, an AI pupil who has not made one, and answer the awkward question. Understanding is credited; wording is not required.
  2. Defend it — Hold your reading of Caliban in The Tempest against William Shakespeare in a short, structured debate marked against descriptors you can read first.
  3. Then the exam — exam-style practice, marked on Incandio.

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