A Marxist analysis of 'The Tempest'

Marxism states that capitalism ‘thrives on exploiting its labourers’. This means that the upper class are rich, and stay rich, because the labourers that work for them get less than their work is actually worth.

Caliban in The Tempest is one of the most interesting and sympathetic characters. He is described using very derogatory terms, such as a ‘tortoise’ a ‘fish’ and a ‘beast’. The only information we receive about Caliban’s parentage and background is that from Prospero. ‘Thou poisonous slave, got by the devil himself Upon thy wicked dam.’ Prospero, here, is very prejudiced. He shows no respect for Caliban, despite the fact Caliban shows great intelligence when he tells Prospero ‘You taught me language; and my profit on’t Is, I know how to curse.’

Caliban is made unwillingly Prospero’s slave, even though he claims the island is really his – ‘This island’s mine by Sycorax my mother, Which though tak’st from me.’ This shows that the way we think and the way we experience the world around us are either wholly or largely conditioned by the way the economy is organised. Here, social class is important – Prospero’s supremacy means that Caliban is powerless to stop or refuse him.

More recently Prospero is now portrayed as the cruel power hungry master who enslaved Caliban simply because he didn’t understand him. However, a Marxist analysis would say that capitalism turns people into things – Prospero rarely calls Caliban his name only ‘slave’. Caliban is given a lower, working class status even in the stage directions – ‘Enter Caliban, with a burthen of wood.’. Shakespeare shows that Caliban is made to work for Prospero in painful and difficult conditions, yet Prospero is the only one who gains from this - another example of the labour the working class go through in order to benefit the rich.