Editing Caliban (section)

== Character ==
Caliban is half human, half monster. After his island becomes occupied by [[Prospero]] and his daughter [[Miranda (The Tempest)|Miranda]], Caliban is forced into slavery.<ref>A Vaughan, ''Shakespeare's Caliban'' (Cambridge 1991) p. 9</ref> While he is referred to as a [[Mooncalf|calvaluna or mooncalf]], a freckled monster, he is the only human inhabitant of the island that is otherwise "not honour'd with a human shape" (Prospero, I.2.283).<ref>A Vaughan, ''Shakespeare's Caliban'' (Cambridge 1991) p. 10</ref> In some traditions, he is depicted as a wild man, or a deformed man, or a beast man, or sometimes a mix of fish and man, a dwarf or even a tortoise.<ref>A Vaughan, ''Shakespeare's Caliban'' (Cambridge 1991) p. 13-14</ref>

Banished from [[Algiers]], Sycorax was left on the isle, pregnant with Caliban, and died before Prospero's arrival. Caliban, despite his inhuman nature, clearly loved and worshipped his mother, referring to [[Setebos (Shakespeare)|Setebos]] as his mother's god, and appealing to her powers against Prospero.<ref>{{cite book |editor-first=P. |editor-last=Hulme |title=The Tempest and its Travels |location=London |year=2000 |page=100}}</ref> Prospero explains his harsh treatment of Caliban by claiming that after initially befriending him, Caliban attempted to rape Miranda. Caliban confirms this gleefully, saying that if he had not been stopped, he would have peopled the island with a race of Calibans<ref>{{cite book |editor-first=P. |editor-last=Hulme |title=The Tempest and its Travels |location=London |year=2000 |pages=231–232}}</ref> – "Thou didst prevent me, I had peopled else this isle with Calibans" (Act I:ii). Prospero then entraps Caliban and torments him with harmful magic if Caliban does not obey his orders. Resentful of Prospero, Caliban takes [[Stephano (The Tempest)|Stephano]], one of the shipwrecked servants, as a god and as his new master. Caliban learns that Stephano is neither a god nor Prospero's equal in the conclusion of the play, however, and Caliban agrees to obey Prospero again.

<blockquote>
<poem>
Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises
Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears; and sometime voices
That, if I then had waked after long sleep,
Will make me sleep again; and then in dreaming,
The clouds me thought would open, and show riches
Ready to drop upon me, that when I waked
I cried to dream again.
</poem>
</blockquote>