The Tempest: Appealing to your audience.

There is an article on postcolonialism that introduces the idea of hegemony, or, “the dominant values, sense of right and wrong, and sense of personal self worth” that minorities are consciously and unconsciously asked to mold themselves to. This idea most heavily applies to the colonization of numerous indigenous lands and their inhabitants by the domineering white man, and the portrayal of Native American Indians in early Hollywood westerns. There is no doubt that when writing The Tempest, Shakespeare wrote the character of Caliban as a representation of these native peoples. We are shown this through the initial encounter between Caliban and Stephano. When Stephano first sees Caliban, he believes that he has become the victim of a practical joke asking, “Have we devils here? Do you put tricks upon’s with savages and men of Ind, ha?” He then goes on to say that he will “keep [Caliban] tame” and sell him as a present to a wealthy emperor. Because Caliban is not of the same race or upbringing as him, Stephano immediately names him a savage, believing him to be of a lower and inferior species that can be sold and traded. Stephano’s attitude directly reflects the Colonist’s attitude towards those they met in Africa and the Indie’s. They believed themselves to be of a superior race and felt that it was their duty to save these “others” from their plight by teaching them their ways and molding them into their own hegemony. Because Shakespeare was financially dependent on the wealthy colonists and government officials, he had to write The Tempest in a way that would compliment colonization by writing the character of Caliban into a negative light that ultimately gave natives an unjust stereotype in the same way that movie producers needed to make films that would most appeal to the dominating white population.. Shakespeare did this by composing Caliban as a deformed, crude, and gullible man who will believe and do anything about and for the man who has the liquor; in the same way, movie producers made Indians come across as bloodthirsty savage killers. By making Caliban and Indians truly come off as a “savages”, Shakespeare and Hollywood are both justifying and glorifying the obtainment and enslavement of natives, and by doing this, are naming white colonists the hero and natives the enemy.