The Tempest

To what extent would you agree with Prospero’s description of Caliban as a “thing of darkness”?

In the list of characters Caliban is described as a “savage” and “deformed” slave. On stage he has been played as a lizard, a dog, a monkey, a snake and a fish. Most productions opt for the form of a misshapen man as it’s very hard to imagine how the other forms could perform all the other chores that Caliban must do to satisfy Prospero. Also, it is a lot easier to fell sorry for a deformed man than a snake or fish.
We first meet Caliban when Prospero “calls” for his “slave”. From this scene we learn that Prospero views Caliban as a “filth”. We know this by the way that Prospero speaks, “hag-seed” and ”most poisonous slave” both conveying the full weight of Prospero’s disgust. We also learn that when Prospero and Miranda first arrived, Caliban helped them to survive a...