Analysis:

            This chosen passage, spoken by Caliban (a native of his island given to him by his mother Sycorax), highlights a major theme in the play: imprisonment and powerlessness. This passage shows the significance of imprisonment in The Tempest as it is spoken by the person who was imprisoned and expresses his strong feelings towards his detainer, Prospero. Leading up to Caliban’s monologue, Prospero arrived on Caliban’s Island and became friends with him quickly. In the beginning, he treated Caliban with kindness, but later betrayed him and imprisoned him on his own island. One day, when Prospero ascended the tall mountain to Caliban’s cave to torture and give him more orders, Caliban delivered this speech telling Prospero exactly how he feels about his enslavement. One thing that makes this specific passage especially meaningful is that Caliban is telling his imprisoner, Prospero, exactly how he feels even though he is afraid of the retributions he may face. Many on the island are afraid to cross Prospero because he possesses powerful magic and isn’t afraid to use it on anyone, but Caliban feels so strongly that he overcomes his fear and directly tells him how he feels.

            Reading carefully, the passage makes use of three literary devices, repetition, descriptive language, and imagery, which are used to enhance the meaning of what Caliban is saying. An example of repetition is when Caliban repeats the “you” pronoun frequently, otherwise said as “thou” and “thee”. The repetition of these words enhances the importance of how Caliban is directly pouring out all his anger to the person who enslaved and took away his power from him. The specific sentences that contain repetition are, “Which thou takest from me. When thou camest first, thou strokedst me and madest much of me”, and “and then I loved thee and show’d thee all the qualities o’ the isle.” One thing that all these sentences have in common is that they are describing cruel things that Prospero did to Caliban when he first came to the island while using “thee” to enhance the effect he wanted Prospero to feel. Additionally, Caliban’s repeated use of these words shows how he is blaming Prospero for his current unhappiness as well as trying to show him just how evil he is by describing how he was first treated when Prospero arrived on the island. Caliban is constantly angry because he is thinking about how Prospero came to his island, took advantage of his kindness, and then enslaved him and now tortures and treats him cruelly every day. Along with using repetition, Shakespeare also uses descriptive and meaningful words to describe how Caliban was feeling. For example, a specific quote that captures the amount of anger Caliban has for Prospero is “For I am all the subjects that you have, which first was mine own king.” This quote is significant because Caliban is explaining how his power and freedom were ripped away from him and was confined into a small corner of his island. By him saying, “which first was mine own king”, it blatantly tells Prospero how Caliban was living so much better before he showed up and ripped his freedom away from his grasp. The last literary device that Shakespeare uses in Caliban’s monologue is descriptive language. The use of descriptive language enhances a reader’s ability to sympathize with a character and develop more of an emotional understanding of what the character is describing by making them feel as if they were a part of the scene. Caliban uses this literary device when he describes how kindly Caliban treated and was treated by Prospero. In the sentence, “And show’d thee all the qualities o’ the isle, the fresh springs, brine-pits, barren place and fertile”, it helps the reader feel the grief that Caliban feels after he shared the best parts of the island with Prospero. The descriptive words like fresh, barren, and fertile help the reader imagine what beautiful things Caliban showed Prospero in his vulnerability.