Acts Two and Three

As the play continues, Shakespeare implements even more twists and turns to the plot, making it twice as confusing for novice Shakespeare readers like me.  In the second and third acts of The Tempest, Shakespeare reveals some of the true and wicked natures of the characters I thought I had understood before.  Additionally, he further depicts Caliban as a savage of the native people, or a “monster of the isle”.  Shakespeare uses the characters Stephano and Trinculo as comic relief for the dramatic play, but he uses Caliban as the punch line for the comedy.  Though both Stephano and Trinculo each joke about the evil four legged monster they see, their jokes ultimately reflect Shakespeare’s attitude towards the native peoples.  Shakespeare highlights the stupidity in Caliban as he grows drunken from the alcohol he consumes and begins to worship Stephano, calling him “thou wondrous man”.  His mocking depiction of the native slave here further reflects the attitudes of not only the author of the play, but also the audience that he addresses with this theater work. 

In the article on cultural studies and postcolonialism, Bressler comments on the nature of colonization, mentioning the inferiority of the “subhumans, or savages”, similar to the way Shakespeare describes the nature of Caliban.  What I also found interesting about the article was the “Methodology” segment of the chapter.  One aim of postcolonialism is the realization that “works of literature are not merely texts”.  To me, this suggests that a postcolonialist understands literary works not only includes a particular plotline and theme but also the opinions and bias of the author at hand.  If we can recognize this fact as well, would we be so quick to believe the first representations presented to us?

The video regarding the Hollywood portrayals of Native Americans provides an excellent example for the wrongly portrayed “savages” that make up more than 4,000 films today.  The short documentary investigates the awful image the white audience gives to the Native Americans.  It included several interviews of Native American actors and actresses where they each described their experiences growing up with such attitudes floating about their communities.  The actress Casey Camp Horinek mentions how she “never saw her own image in its reality” because it was considered a joke to be true to her culture.  In the same way Shakespeare depicts Caliban as a part of the comic relief to his play, Horinek finds herself viewing her own culture as humor in comparison to the “traditional” white audience culture.  Because of the skewed representation of Native Americans, Horinek along with many others of her culture feel the unfair stereotype that exists.  The Hollywood film industry demonstrates significant evidence of this, ultimately “turning history around” according to the superior party.