1. Starter – How many words can
you make? What is the 9 letter
word?
n
l
a

i
c
b
s
n
a

2. Monday, 16th December
2013
L.O: To explore the character of Caliban
and how he relates to the theme of power
and control.

3. Success Criteria:
3. You MUST understand the character of Caliban and
show awareness of how he relates the theme of power.
(C grade description)

2. You SHOULD analyse the character of Caliban and
identify and comment on how he relates to the theme of
power.
(B grade description)
1. You COULD analyse and evaluate the character of
Caliban and how he relates to the theme of power and
wider context.
(A-A* grade description)

4. 

5. The significance of
Caliban

 What impressions do these pictures give the
audience of this character?
 Caliban might represent people’s views of the
natives of newly discovered lands during the
1600s.
 Think about how Prospero treats Caliban.
 Why do you think the character is called
Caliban?

6. Look at the images

 Discuss and annotate.
 How might these images from travel documents
have influenced Shakespeare and his audience?
 What might they be expecting from a native of a
faraway island?

7. Prospero’s Description of Caliban
– Act 1 Scene 2 Lines 281 – 284

 Then was this island-Save for the son that she did litter here,
A freckled whelp hag-born--not honour'd with
A human shape.

8. Prospero’s initial treatment of Caliban
- Act 1 Scene 2 Lines 333 – 364

CALIBAN:
This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother,
Which thou takest from me. When thou camest first,
Thou strokedst me and madest much of me, wouldst
give me
Water with berries in't, and teach me how
To name the bigger light, and how the less,
That burn by day and night: and then I loved thee
And show'd thee all the qualities o' the isle,
The fresh springs, brine-pits, barren place and
fertile:
Cursed be I that did so! All the charms
Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you!
For I am all the subjects that you have,
Which first was mine own king: and here you sty me
In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me
The rest o' the island.
PROSPERO:
Thou most lying slave,
Whom stripes may move, not kindness! I have used
thee,
Filth as thou art, with human care, and lodged thee
In mine own cell, till thou didst seek to violate
The honour of my child.
CALIBAN:
O ho, O ho! would't had been done!
Thou didst prevent me; I had peopled else
This isle with Calibans.
MIRANDA:
Abhorred slave,
Which any print of goodness wilt not take,
Being capable of all ill! I pitied thee,
Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each
hour
One thing or other: when thou didst not, savage,
Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like
A thing most brutish, I endow'd thy purposes
With words that made them known. But thy vile race,
Though thou didst learn, had that in't which
good natures
Could not abide to be with; therefore wast thou
Deservedly confined into this rock,
Who hadst deserved more than a prison.
CALIBAN:
You taught me language; and my profit on't
Is, I know how to curse. The red plague rid you
For learning me your language!

9. Act 2:Scene 2

Caliban continues to act as Prospero’s
servant, collecting wood and cursing his
master.
Caliban represents the natives of an island –
the audience needs to think about the way
that he is treated.
Is he civilised or savage?

10. His speech: Act 2Scene 2

 All the infections that the sun sucks up
From bogs, fens, flats, on Prosper fall and make him
By inch-meal a disease! His spirits hear me
And yet I needs must curse. But they'll nor pinch,
Fright me with urchin--shows, pitch me i'the mire,
Nor lead me, like a firebrand, in the dark
Out of my way, unless he bid 'em; but
For every trifle are they set upon me;
Sometime like apes that mow and chatter at me
And after bite me, then like hedgehogs which
Lie tumbling in my barefoot way and mount
Their pricks at my footfall; sometime am I
All wound with adders who with cloven tongues
Do hiss me into madness

11. Trinculo stumbles across
Caliban, and describes him:

What have we here? a man or a fish? dead or alive? A fish: he
smells like a fish; a very ancient and fish- like smell; a kind of
not of the newest Poor-John. A strange fish! Were I in England
now, as once I was, and had but this fish painted, not a holiday
fool there but would give a piece of silver: there would this
monster make a man; any strange beast there makes a man:
when they will not give a doit to relieve a lame beggar, they will
lazy out ten to see a dead Indian. Legged like a man and his fins
like arms! Warm o' my troth! I do now let loose my opinion; hold
it no longer: this is no fish, but an islander, that hath lately
suffered by a thunderbolt.
Highlight the words he uses to describe Caliban. What
opportunities does he see if he could capture Caliban and
return him to Europe?

12. Review

 Who has power over Caliban?
 Does he hold any power?
Consider what happens with Stephano and Trinculo,
who is in control here?

13. Knowledge check

 Come up with three questions to test another
group’s knowledge of Caliban and how he relates to
the wider themes of the play.
 Your group must know the answer to the question!
5 minutes

14. Question types

1. Must be a simple knowledge question.
2. Must be an analysis question.
3. Must be an evaluation question.
5 minutes

15. Success Criteria:
3. You MUST understand the character of Caliban and
show awareness of how he relates the theme of power.
(C grade description)

2. You SHOULD analyse the character of Caliban and
identify and comment on how he relates to the theme of
Power.
(B grade description)
1. You COULD analyse and evaluate the character of
Caliban and how he relates to the theme of power and
wider context.
(A-A* grade description)