The Tempest Research Paper

Starting as early as the fifteenth century, European powers had been extending their reach all over the world and “discovering” new lands. However, to their dismay, these lands were already inhabited by countless groups of indigenous peoples. It did not take long for the colonizers to utilize these groups by enslavement and taking their resources and land. This practice of colonialism carried on throughout the centuries until breaking up in the mid twentieth century. As a result of such controversy, many arguments have arisen over recent years about literature in the time of colonialism. Was Shakespeare encouraging colonialism and racism or did he condemn it? William Shakespeare called the practice of colonialism into question and disreputed it by challenging the idea of “civilized” versus “monsters”, and the “others” in his last play, The Tempest. Like the saying that “beauty lies in the eye of the beholder”, so does civility. Different cultures see civilization in different lights. In the case of Europeans, like Shakespeare, “European perceptions of American Indians in the colonial era were filtered through the preexisting image of the medieval 'wild man'”(Hantman 69). Though according to Hantman in his article on American Indian voices about colonialism, the “English colonists were struck by the …show more content…
He also askes for forgiveness for his sins (Epilogue. 9-20). Presumably he is held captive by the role he had to play as a colonizer and acknowledges his wrongs before leaving. Shakespeare set out to inform his fellow Europeans of the truth that is the unspeakable crime of colonialism. He did just that. The dramatic use of the “other” helped his audiences to recognize the different meanings of civilized and monstrous, as well as showing that indigenous peoples were not neccesarily uncivilized, just