The Tempest - Duality Between Nature And Society Essays - Caliban

The Tempest - Duality between Nature and Society One of the essential themes of the Tempest is the duality between nature and society. This is made evident through the character of Caliban: the disfigured fish-like creature that inhabits the island at which the play takes place. Caliban lacks civilized influence due to the fact that he was born on the island deprived of any social or spiritual morality other than nature and instinct. He is literally man untamed. Caliban is not monstrous simply for the sake of being frightening, his ghastly visage is intended to literally depict the duality between civilization and natural instinct. Caliban is literally man untamed. Part fish, part man, but not really either because he is more mentally sophisticated than a fish, but devoid of any characteristics generally associated with civilized beings. He displays promise in becoming civilized, but eventually it becomes evident that it is impossible to fully tame a wild animal, which is what Caliban essentially is. Caliban is more of an animal rather than a monster. While he is labeled a monster throughout the play due to his appearance, he is in fact an animal. He is not inherently evil or malicious, but relies on his own instincts and skills that he has learned to adapt to his surrounding and survive. What is vital to survival in society is not necessarily important in nature; and vice versa. In nature only the most basic aspects of survival are required. Nature is all about survival, at any cost. Society is not. Civilization was developed out of convenience with the mental and physical skills of man. It has been from the very beginning, about making life easier. Basic ideals that are present in almost every society in the world are no murder and no theft. These are present because life is easier with rules like this. Human beings no longer had to worry about being killed or being looted as much as long as they were within the confines of a civilization. People started to be able to take up specialized professions and be able to count on other people to perform tasks such as carpentry, cooking, etc. Governments were formed to organize the people and efficiently run a civilization. Now the individual was not responsible for every aspect of survival but contributed to the overall survival of a civilization. From this economies were born either through trade or currency. How ever, the cornerstones of human civilizations (money and power) have lead to a whole new form of evil and brutality that was never present in nature. Its almost of a blind perversion of human nature. Through bettering our situation, we have corrupted ourselves to an extent (greed). Civilization can produce more savage and evil beings than nature. While Caliban is perceived as being evil and monstrous, he really is not. He just does not know any better. However, Antonio is much more malicious than Caliban because he knows what he has done is evil This goes back to the concept of nature vs. society.