A Tempest
Aime Cesaire.
The Tempest is one of William Shakespeare’s
final plays, written around the year 1610. And then on the base of that play
Aime Cesaire write A Tempest. It is a politicized take on Shakespeare’s play.
It is really a “post-colonial response to The Tempest”. It story from the point
of view of Caliban and Ariel. In this version Caliban is black slave an the
spirit Ariel is represented as a mulatto slave. The dialogue on Caliban’s part
is much harsher and more frequent. Caliban’s aggression and hate towards Prospero
is a bit more evident. Prospero is also a good example of the role power plays
in the story. When Caliban swears his loyalty to him he readily agree and takes
advantage of this. Caliban’s character and the way Prospero treats him is a
good representation of colonial attitudes towards indigenous people.
Caliban is a
rebellious black slave, who has been taught Prospero’s language only so that he
can understand his orders and who asks to be called X, since Prospero has
stolen his identity. In some of the scene, Ariel and Caliban argue about modes
of resistance. Caliban calls him an Uncle Tom and demands ‘Freedom now’. He
criticizes Prospero for using the courtiers’ hunger as a means of punishing
them. Prospero orders the arrest of Caliban and his fellow conspirators.
Gonzalo attempts to convert Caliban to Christianity but fails. In his speech
Caliban rejecting Prospero’s colonialist domination and threatening. Then
Prospero decides that his duty is to remain on the island not to be master but
the leader of the orchestra’ and to counter Caliban’s violence with violence.
In a final image, Prospero is a futile old man, ruler over a population of one,
and fragments of Caliban’s songs are heard in the distance.
It refers to the populations that are socially,
politically and geographically outside of the hegemonic power structure of the
colony and of the colonial homeland. As intellectual discourse, the concept of
the subaltern is problematic because it originated as a Eurocentric method of
historical enquiry for Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. The term “subaltern”
is used in the fields of history, anthropology, sociology, human geography and
literary criticism. (Wikipedia)
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