Prospero's Behavior In The Tempest

William Shakespeare’s The Tempest is a story that brings up the issue of “man versus monster.” The “monster” of the story, Caliban, is the only native to the island on which the story takes place. Since he is lone native, he is not accustomed to interacting with humans, and therefore, his behavior appears to be animal-like; this is why the manner in which a person conducts him/herself is based off of learned behavior, rather than a natural sense of what is considered morally right and what is considered morally wrong. When Caliban and Prospero meet for the first time, Caliban does not know how to speak, and Prospero could use some guidelines for surviving on this foreign island; accordingly, Prospero teaches Caliban to speak, and in return, …show more content…
According to psychological studies about learning, anyone and even animals can learn a new behavior as long as punishment is provided when an undesirable act is presented. For example, if a dog bits his owner, the owner might punish the dog with a beating, so that the dog knows his action was wrong and in order to avoid another beating, he will not bite the owner again. In this scenario, Caliban irritated Prospero because he violated the honor of Miranda; as a result, Prospero made Caliban his slave. The enslavement served as a punishment for raping his daughter and it also gave Prospero power over Caliban.
Although most civilized, educated humans would personally disagree with Caliban’s actions, it does not mean that he is actually a bad person; he is simply living life the best way he knows how with a lack of any knowledge for how to live in a civilized society. In his own way, Caliban is an innocent character who responds to physical and emotional desires without the ability to completely think through and understand the events and people around him. He is an uninformed, untouched human who reacts to his surroundings in almost the same way that an animal