Moral Ambiguity In The Tempest

Moral ambiguity, a phrase often used to describe the character of Caliban from William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, meaning that he is neither good nor bad when it comes to ethical decision making. This essay aims to show that Calibans’ moral ambiguity may be a result of Shakespeare using him as a representative of the injured party of colonialism, indicating that he is a victim of the era and does not fully comprehend the western clarification of moral decision making.

The Renaissance began with the Romans, who at the time were very influential in the development of western ideologies and cultures. The British followed suit and also coined the term, as Renaissance can be defined as rebirth or renewal, to represent the constant changes occurring …show more content…
Social commentary is tied to the Europeans religious understanding of the world, meaning that if one does not know Christianity and the moral facets that are involved in the religion then one is considered to be a heathen and is in need of saving, which formed the basis for the Age of Exploration. This understanding along with the descriptions given by the explorers, of the natives of other continents, gave Europeans the means to imagine them as strange, godless people, and it is this imagination that Shakespeare used when creating the character of Caliban.

When understanding Caliban as a victim of colonisation, one must look at who he was before his island and his freedom was taken from him by Prospero. He was birthed on the island by Sycorax, a witch who was banished from her home in Algiers. Prospero defines his birth as him being “littered” (Act 1, Scene 2, Line 283) which is what one would use to describe how animals are born, indicating that Prospero does not see Caliban as human, one sees this in (Act 1 Scene 2, Lines 284-285) when he calls