Feminist literary criticism arose from the work of first-wave feminism but mostly came about from second-wave feminism in the early 1960s. Inspired by the civil rights movement in the US, women of all ages began fighting to secure a more prominent role in society. They strove for equality between men and women in the workforce. Post-colonial readings represent the aftermath of Western colonialism and force audiences to reflect on the past and think toward a more equal and inclusive future. The reading practice from a 21st-century Australian audience draws on Australia’s past and the mistreatment and dispossession of Aboriginal Australians after the British colonized Australia. Early post-colonial readings and texts appeared after World War II, however, most began in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Applying a post-colonial and feminist reading to the play The Tempest by playwright William Shakespeare, first performed in 1611, encourages the audience to consider whether they resist or endorse the play’s depiction of femininity and to humanize the oppressed.
Applying a post-colonial reading practice to The Tempest allows the audience to understand the mistreatment of Indigenous peoples, which is heavily portrayed through the character of Caliban as the ‘savage’. Prospero, whose control over the island is so certain as to invite comparison with the playwright Shakespeare himself, represents the tyrannical ruler and oppressor of the marginalized native. His magic books declared as the “source of all his power”, rather uncomfortably resemble the Bible of classical Catholicism, one of the primary tools of colonialism used to evangelize and inspire complicity in the native people. Though we are encouraged to view Caliban as nothing more than a “thing most brutish,” the notion of his ‘natural savageness’ is strongly called into question by the occasional eloquence and aesthetic beauty of his language, as in “Be not afeard, the isle is full of noises/ sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.” While in modern productions the director may choose to cast an African American as Caliban to evoke powerful memories of slavery in America, the application of intertextuality as a reading practice reminds us that the notion of the ‘savage’ is one that has been deeply ingrained in the consciousness of western society for many centuries. As members of the audience, we are appalled by the dehumanization of the native people, who are described as “not honored with a human shape” as if literally bereft of their humanity. As a modern audience with a tendency to venerate post-colonial readings, we are confronted by the clichéd and detestable dualism of the ‘civilized’ European and the ‘Noble Savage’ native, a destructive and ultimately hollow dichotomy used to justify the colonial mission. The character of Caliban is pushed unwillingly into the role of the ‘savage’, his description as “A devil, a born devil, on whose nature nurture can never stick” and as “a natural slave” by the play’s European characters simultaneously commending and excusing his subjugation as the colonized subject. The modern reader is disturbed by the familiar mechanisms of binomial opposition where the notion of the ‘savage’ is used to raise the superiority of the ‘civilized’ European, and hence justify their mistreatment and ultimately dispossession of the ‘savage’. The language of possession is continued throughout the play in Prospero’s closing declaration of “This thing of darkness, I acknowledge mine”, where Caliban is reduced to little more than a possession, and some responsibility obligatory upon Prospero for the behavior of the native is alluded to. The reader is drawn to the timeless relevance of Shakespeare’s depiction of colonial practice and its capacity to pre-empt modern discussion of racial oppression. The theme of race constitutes one of several universal themes which are explored by many texts due to the way it divides opinion and evokes reflective cultural dialogue. The audience is touched by Caliban’s claim that “This island’s mine … which thou takest from me”, and as Australian readers we are reminded of our own country’s history of European colonization and the dispossession of the Aboriginal people.
The application of a feminist reading practice encourages the audience to interrogate the play’s silences and absences and to consider the ways in which we resist or endorse the play’s depiction of femininity in accordance with our own values. There are instances within the play where we see a very different Miranda from the traditional naïve innocent, such as when she indignantly criticizes Caliban, calling him an “abhorred slave.” These passages of speech which hint at complexities and unreconciled contradictions in her character, have often been reassigned to the character Prospero throughout the play’s performance history. Even in modern-age productions, where complexity and ambiguity are common measures of artistic value, is the speech often not Miranda’s but Prospero’s. Thus, the reader may acknowledge how the stage history of the play is guilty of flattening complex female characters and therefore guilty of perpetuating restrictive and destructive depictions of female identity. Readers can observe how archaic conceptions of female identity linger in our modern society as historical remnants of prior ideologies. The play resonates with Prospero’s authoritarian voice, leaving Miranda sidelined and excluded. Miranda is representative of the archetypal Madonna, submissive and servile, which is evident when she says, “To be your fellow/you may deny me, but I’ll be your servant/ whether you will or not.” Prospero’s dominion of his daughter echoes the dominion of the colonized by the colonizer. His tone fluctuates from the gentle dignity of “I have done nothing but in care of thee” to the abrupt and authoritative “Dost thou attend me?” This represents archaic conceptions of feminist identity expected of a society uninformed by Western feminist thinking which carries greater meaning with the development of Western feminism and reconceptualization of female subjectivity. The reader is both appalled and amused by the character of Miranda, literally falling in love with the first man besides her father that she encounters. In being rendered archetype, Miranda is denied her subjectivity. The reader is presented with two vastly dissimilar and conflicting conceptions of female identity in the play’s two female characters. The “damned witch Sycorax”, embodies the historical demonization of the revolutionary female voice, and harshly juxtaposes with the willfully obedient Miranda, daughter of Prospero, who faithfully fulfills the role of archetypal Madonna. When examined together, these two characters demonstrate the Madonna/whore dichotomy which for centuries has shaped Western Civilization’s perception of female sexual identity. Neither the image of a woman as Madonna or angel nor the image of a woman as whore or witch can be said to be more authentic, since in making women an archetype they are denied subjectivity. However, the image of a woman as Madonna is validated and filled with an aura of being received truth by its Biblical precedent, leading to the long life of this restrictive, limiting, and ultimately destructive female identity in literature, which itself serves as a medium for the ideologies and deeply ingrained attitudes of the work’s contextual production.
There are several similarities between each reading, both the post-colonial and feminist reading practices present a dichotomy that exists within the play. In the post-colonial reading, it is the ‘savage’ and the ‘civilized’ dichotomy and in the feminist reading practice, it is the Madonna/whore dichotomy. The problem with the comparisons in each reading is that they force us to oversimplify, making audiences jump to extremes while being blinded to any middle ground or happy medium, limiting them to a pair of equally inadequate options or setting up a false choice between two things that shouldn’t or are not needed to be opposed. Caliban is described as a savage having freely admitted to attempting to rape Miranda, however, he speaks in blank verse, “As wicked dew as e’er my mother brushed/With raven’s feature from unwholesome fen” which is thought to be the language of the ‘civilized’ so Caliban is neither a true ‘savage’ nor is he completely ‘civilized’ Both readings originate from oppression, oppression of the indigenous people in post-colonialism and oppression of women and their role in society in the feminist reading practice. Both readings aim to better understand the oppressed that the readings originate from. The patriarchy and the colonizers are similar in the fact that they both have held most of the power in history, with part of the aim of these readings being to highlight the gender inequalities and inequality between the ‘savage’ and the ‘civilized’.
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In conclusion, The Tempest is a play that demonstrates how readings that originated from different contexts can present other ideas, relevant to the context the reading came from, but also due to its universal themes of gender, race, and governance, these readings can share similar ideas and values.
The big brown fox jumped over the hairy dog to save the hound and catch the fox
There are several similarities between each reading, both the post-colonial and feminist reading practices present a dichotomy that exists within the play. In the post-colonial
In conclusion, The Tempest is a play that demonstrates how readings that originated from different contexts can present other ideas but also due to its universal themes of gender, race, and governance, these readings also share similar ideas and values.
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