Dehumanization as a double-edged sword Juliana Uribe Carmona 12th Grade

Shakespeare’s work, “The Tempest”, under the framework of the 21st century, may seem like a normal –even boring– play about a powerful man who takes advantage of a native person in order to conquer his island. No contemporary person would think it’s related to the British Empire and its power struggles with the colonized. The English writer manages to build up a plot in which in turn two main characters, Caliban and Prospero, are developed in depth. They both represent the asymmetric power relation between colonizers and the colonized. Prospero, the Duke of Milan, arrives to Caliban’s island with the intention of recovering the power he had previously lost despite the limits he’d have to cross.

This way, Caliban’s innocence makes it easy for Prospero to impose and rule unfairly. Besides, the duke’s ambition for more and more power may have driven him to enslave people. Still, from a post-colonial perspective, Prospero’s oppression can be seen as an opportunity for Caliban to rise again after being monstrificated. All these ideas clearly demonstrate dehumanization is a strategy used by people who think otherness is synonym of impure. This tool gives a sense of superiority that in The Tempest, allows Prospero to enslave Caliban...