Shakespeare: The Later Plays Final Paper
Social Class in Cymbeline and The Tempest
Shakespeare’s romance, Cymbeline, is similar to his comedy, The Tempest, in its exploration of social class. Social class is a mark of identity that impacts the way characters are perceived and treated by others and the way they perceive themselves. In Cymbeline, with the love triangle between Imogen, Cloten and Posthumus, Shakespeare explores social class in relation to the restrictions it puts on marriage, as well as in relation to one’s perceived nobility. The Tempest explores social class with regard to racial identity and how the British react to people “other” than a white Christian. Being of a different race makes Caliban an outsider and …show more content…
Caliban, the only non-British person in the play, allegedly attempted to rape his master’s daughter, Miranda, which makes him an immediately unlikable character. A parallel can be drawn between Caliban’s treatment of Miranda and Cloten’s treatment of Imogen. The difference between the two characters is that Caliban’s race is a quality that dooms him to being unlikable in other characters’ eyes anyway, regardless of what he’s done. Trinculo and Stephano, when they first encounter him, regard him as a devil, a monster, and a fish because he is not white and they’re unable to make sense of what he is. Stephano says, “This is some monster of the isle with four legs, who hath got, as I take it, an ague. Where the devil should he learn our language?” (2.1.61-63) He’s called a “very weak monster” and a “scurvy monster”. This sort of treatment is the same treatment Caliban got from Prospero, which is what makes him enlist Stephano’s help to kill his current master in the first …show more content…
The difference between the Irish and the Indians, as stated by Takaki, is that the Irish could be civilized and improved through nurture while the Indians exhibited a kind of savagery that was innate. Takaki says Caliban “represented what Europeans had been when they were lower on the scale of development” and also points out that Indians seemed to lack everything the English identified as civilized—“Christianity, cities, letters, clothing, and swords.”
The division between Caliban and the English is a much bigger separation than the social stratification in Cymbeline. In Cymbeline, though the characters are of differing social classes, all the characters are of the same race. The discrimination that takes place in the two plays is similar, however, in that characters are not respected or treated fairly when they’re perceived to be of lesser worth in English
Social Class in Cymbeline and The Tempest
Shakespeare’s romance, Cymbeline, is similar to his comedy, The Tempest, in its exploration of social class. Social class is a mark of identity that impacts the way characters are perceived and treated by others and the way they perceive themselves. In Cymbeline, with the love triangle between Imogen, Cloten and Posthumus, Shakespeare explores social class in relation to the restrictions it puts on marriage, as well as in relation to one’s perceived nobility. The Tempest explores social class with regard to racial identity and how the British react to people “other” than a white Christian. Being of a different race makes Caliban an outsider and …show more content…
Caliban, the only non-British person in the play, allegedly attempted to rape his master’s daughter, Miranda, which makes him an immediately unlikable character. A parallel can be drawn between Caliban’s treatment of Miranda and Cloten’s treatment of Imogen. The difference between the two characters is that Caliban’s race is a quality that dooms him to being unlikable in other characters’ eyes anyway, regardless of what he’s done. Trinculo and Stephano, when they first encounter him, regard him as a devil, a monster, and a fish because he is not white and they’re unable to make sense of what he is. Stephano says, “This is some monster of the isle with four legs, who hath got, as I take it, an ague. Where the devil should he learn our language?” (2.1.61-63) He’s called a “very weak monster” and a “scurvy monster”. This sort of treatment is the same treatment Caliban got from Prospero, which is what makes him enlist Stephano’s help to kill his current master in the first …show more content…
The difference between the Irish and the Indians, as stated by Takaki, is that the Irish could be civilized and improved through nurture while the Indians exhibited a kind of savagery that was innate. Takaki says Caliban “represented what Europeans had been when they were lower on the scale of development” and also points out that Indians seemed to lack everything the English identified as civilized—“Christianity, cities, letters, clothing, and swords.”
The division between Caliban and the English is a much bigger separation than the social stratification in Cymbeline. In Cymbeline, though the characters are of differing social classes, all the characters are of the same race. The discrimination that takes place in the two plays is similar, however, in that characters are not respected or treated fairly when they’re perceived to be of lesser worth in English