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Shakespeare & Beyond

This thing of darkness: Caliban and the Creature from Frankenstein

The Tempest at His Majesty's Theatre, Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Caliban. Charles A. Buchel. Tatler, 1904. Folger Shakespeare Library.
The Tempest at His Majesty's Theatre, Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Caliban. Charles A. Buchel. Tatler, 1904. Folger Shakespeare Library.

As the days get shorter and witching hour approaches, one’s thoughts turn away from present-day horrors and towards famous fictional ones. At least mine do.

One of the enduring confusions of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is that “Frankenstein” is not the name of the Creature, brought to life on a laboratory table, but the name of his creator, the “natural philosopher” who became “capable of bestowing animation upon lifeless matter.” It’s an understandable mistake, as there’s definitely a chicken-and-egg question about the two characters: Which came first, the Creature, who’s considered a monster, or his creator, Victor Frankenstein, who treated him monstrously?

Or, to ask it another way, are monsters born—or made?

The Tempest at His Majesty's Theatre, Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Caliban. Chas. A. Buchel. Tatler, 1904. Folger Shakespeare Library.

The Tempest at His Majesty’s Theatre, Herbert Beerbohm Tree as Caliban. Chas. A. Buchel. Tatler, 1904. Folger Shakespeare Library.

Similar questions can be asked about Shakespeare’s Caliban, the “hagseed” son of Sycorax the witch, whom Prospero enslaves and treats abominably in The Tempest. Prospero’s disdain and violence towards Caliban isn’t even subtle. In his very first scene (after the titular storm that brings his enemies to his island), Prospero calls Caliban inhuman and his slave and wishes he weren’t underfoot all the the time, while confessing that the creature “does make our fire, fetch in our wood, and serves in offices that profit us.” We soon discover, in fact, that Prospero betrayed Caliban by stroking him at first and making much of him, giving him water with berries in it and teaching him the names of the stars in the sky, before locking him up and beating him, declaring that “stripes [from the lash] may move [him], not kindness.” Is it any wonder that Caliban spends the play attempting to kill Prospero?

Comments

My “half-hearted” defense of Shakespeare’s Prospero is the fact that both he and Miranda treat Caliban with “humanistic” kindness until he attempts to “violate” Miranda. He is in fact beyond the reach of humanistic values as are some folks in our contemporary world.

Joan F. McMurray — October 23, 2018

I am so glad you included the photograph of Rory Kinnear as The Creature in “Penny Dreadful” I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the writing in this short series and the literary references are many. Also the depiction of “The Creature” was one of the closest characterizations, in my humble opinion, to Mary Shelley’s possible intent in her novel. Of course Rory as a Shakespearean actor always helps!

Larry Bowe — October 25, 2018

Agreed. Prospero’s anger toward Caliban is largely due to his absolute need to protect Miranda–she was the key to his survival and central to his plan upon returning to civilization. Caliban tried to rape her and when Prospero reminds him of this Caliban gloats over the idea that he would have “peopled” the isle with Calibans. Caliban is presented as an almost unredeemable monster in the play, despite Shakespeare giving him a few sympathetic qualities. What’s in this idea that we need to make Prospero into a villain? He’s far from perfect, of course, and his conflicted nature and bristling anger are crucial to the play’s themes. But there’s no need to alter the facts of the play to make Caliban a victim.

JBF — October 25, 2018

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