The deterministic concept of Race, the notion that an individual's worth inheres in their detectable membership in a particular group, has been historically central to the construction of any community. This provides us with an opportunity to explore this concept's pivotal role in the conception of such characters as Caliban in The Tempest. In the Middle Ages, this notion was characterised by religious and political differences in addition to phenotypic differences such as skin colour. When Shakespeare was writing, the chief empires in England were the Dutch, the Spanish, the Venetians and the Ottoman Turks. Despite the expulsion of the Jews, a small fraction of Portuguese and Spanish Jews had managed to stay back in London. However, it must be clarified that it was not the size of the Jewish population that mattered during Shakespeare's time, but rather their political and cultural standing.
In spite of their conversion, an overriding Anti-Semitic disposition characterised the English society. As observed by Jewish Shakespearean scholar James Shapiro, Spanish and Portuguese Inquisition records, in addition to the persistent complaints of the Catholic ambassadors regarding the members of the Jewish group in London celebrating Yom Kippur and Pesach, implies that the English population placed an excessive focus on the Jewish community and that Shakespeare might have been more aware of the customary English condemnation of Judaism than scholars had suspected. By 1300 CE, Jewish preoccupation had become virtually intrinsic to the spirit of Elizabethan England. This raises an important question regarding how the socio-political structure of any given era influences the epistemological conscience of the people of the same age— a seminal notion articulated originally by Foucault from a Structuralist perspective. Several infamous portrayals of Jewish characters can be found in Literature from the 1300s onwards— perhaps most famously in Shakespeare's very own The Merchant of Venice, and Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Marlowe's Jew of Malta, and Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe.
The re-inscription of a dramatic text or of a character like Caliban is, of course, not a novelty. In today's post-Structuralist era, pioneered by Derrida's application of the critical practice of Deconstruction, it is the standard practice to take advantage of a text's indeterminism. One such ambiguous aspect of Shakespeare's The Tempest is the nationality of Caliban. While Caliban has not been openly stigmatised as a Jew, Shakespeare has introduced a series of stereotypes that his audience would have recognised as Jewish or Jew-like. The construct named 'Caliban' has led to multiple interpretations of his character, both racially and nationally. This contributed to demonstrating how his character is in line with the English understanding of the Jews. The stereotypical representation of Caliban as an inhuman offspring of Sycorax and the Devil, his association with black magic, his portrayal as the rapist of an 'alien' woman, his fetishism of the blood and gore and even his "fishy smell" further strengthen the hypothesis that Caliban is indeed Shakespeare's representation of "the Jewish Other."
The dehumanisation of the Jewish people through generalised assertions of Jews being inherently wicked soon led to their association with the Devil. Thus, when Prospero describes Caliban as the Devil's son, he evokes a lineage that the Jewish people share with Caliban, the alleged offspring of Satan. Biblical scriptures have also contributed to the construction of Caliban in this light. Shakespeare was heavily influenced by the Bible and loaded most of his plays with biblical references. Ceremonial devotion was of paramount importance in his time.
Reading and interpreting Shakespeare demands a detailed understanding of the Biblical scriptures. Alongside his association with the Devil, Caliban has a deep connection with black magic, another similarity with the English understanding of Judaism. Throughout the Middle Ages, the Jews were falsely accused of kidnapping Christian children and eventually murdering them to use their blood for religious rituals. This legacy of "the blood libel" runs throughout the play in the form of Caliban's bloody desires to murder Prospero. Caliban is shown to be particularly vicious and bloodthirsty in his attempts to kill Prospero- "paunch him with your stake", "cut his weasands with thy knife", "bite him to death, I prithee" are some of his appeals to Stephano. This obsessively gory nature of his forthcoming revenge is one of the more striking similarities between Caliban and the Jewish antagonist in The Merchant of Venice, Shylock. The generous dynamic of a wicked Jew being forgiven by an ever merciful Christian (the Shylock-Antonio syndrome) reverberates in The Tempest when Prospero takes up the role of a Good Samaritan by acknowledging Caliban as his "thing of darkness" and forgiving him. In Prospero's accusation of Caliban's attempts to "violate the honour" of Miranda, Caliban yet again slips into the stereotype of a Jewish goyishe rapist, a social parvenu who tries to climb the civic ladder by engaging in sexual relations with an apparent blue blood. Another gruesome stereotype employed by Shakespeare is Caliban's foul stench which is reminiscent of a fish. Trinculo, in his first encounter with him, immediately notes his odour— "A fish, he smells like a fish— a very ancient and fish-like smell; a kind of not-of-the-newest poor John." Caliban's stench is meant to reflect his beastliness. Smells were often charged with moral implications in the Middle Ages. The Christian belief that good spirits are characterised by a sweet fragrance. In contrast, evil spirits are distinguished by a remarkably foul stench. During Shakespeare's times, Jews were believed to have been afflicted with the foetor Judaicus or the "Jewish odour": "Noxious and anything but nostalgic smells recalls the repulsive, feminised, and often sexualised 'odour' that pervaded the popular and scientific imagination of post-emancipation Europeans: the innate stench of the Jew, the foetor Judaicus." The Christians believed that the Jews carried an offensive stench as punishment for Judas' betrayal of Christ.
Perhaps the most significant detail regarding Caliban's nationality that Shakespeare incorporates in the play is Caliban's dress. When Trinculo hides under Caliban's "gabardine" to protect himself from the brewing storm: "Alas! The storm is come again! My best way is to creep under his gabardine; there is no other shelter hereabout", he forcibly reminds us of the ‘Jewish gabardine’ of the most famous of the Jews of the Elizabethan playhouse. In Shakespeare's time, a gabardine was not just a neutral, value-free name of a fabric with a specific weave but also a loose upper garment that marked the wearer as a Jew.
The storyline of The Tempest demands that there be a monstrous native on the island who would serve Prospero. We need not question that demand, as it is the writer's choice of the development and the conclusion of the story. But the way Shakespeare has constructed this monster of iniquity, this Caliban, is of interest to us. As a famous playwright, he had to ensure that he struck the right chords in his audience's heart. It was vital for him to make his audience react spontaneously— not only intellectually and emotionally, but also morally— to the character of Caliban. To elicit this reaction, he had to rely on the most easily identifiable symbol of the depravity of his time— namely the Jew. Whether he personally believed the Jews to be offensive or not does not concern us here. As a professional playwright, he knew that he had to give the audience what they wanted, and he gave it to them.
(Cover image courtesy: Royal Shakespeare Company)
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