The Tempest | Caliban
Caliban has remained one of the most compelling characters in The Tempest, and has elicited a large portion of the critical interest in the play. In the first excerpt, John Hankins searches for the origins of Caliban in accounts of primitive peoples that were available to Shakespeare. In the second excerpt, D.G. James focuses on Caliban's character and his thematic significance to the play as a whole.
Caliban has remained one of the most compelling characters in The Tempest, and has elicited a large portion of the critical interest in the play. Early commentators were often drawn to Caliban. In 1679 John Dryden cited this figure as an example of Shakespeare's genius for creating distinctive and consistent characters, and he remarked on the creature's malice, ignorance, and sinful nature. Dryden's emphasis on Caliban's negative qualities was not the rule, however, and later criticism has demonstrated the complexity of his character.
John E. Hankins
[In the...
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