Categorizing of People in Shakespeare’s Tempest and Dante’s Inferno :: Comparison Compare Contrast Essays

Categorizing of People in Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Dante’s Inferno Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Dante’s Inferno both exhibit Foucault’s idea of categorization and subjectification using â€Å"dividing practices.† (Rabinow 8) Foucault argued that people can rise to power using discourse, â€Å"Discourse has the ability to turn human beings into subjects by placing them into certain categories.† (Rabinow 8) These categories are then defined â€Å"according to their level of deviance from the acceptable norm.† (Rabinow 8) Some examples of such categories are the homosexual, the insane, the criminal and the uncivilized. (Rabinow 8). By the above method, called â€Å"dividing practices,† people can be manipulated by socially categorizing them and then comparing them to norms. In this way human beings are given both a social and a personal identity (Rabinow 8) and this is how superiority among human beings can be established. In the play, The Tempest by William Shakespeare, Prospero took control of Caliban and made him his servant. Prospero was able to do this because he viewed Caliban as an uncivilized being; Caliban was portrayed as a beast. Thus, Prospero was able to assume power over Caliban. It can be seen from Prospero’s speech that he thinks that Caliban is inferior to him when Prosper says, â€Å"I have used thee, Filth as thou art, with human care [†¦]† (1.2.348-349). Prospero tries to justify enslaving Caliban, but all he really does is place Caliban into a category of bestial and uncivilized and as a result enslaves him. Even Miranda, Prospero’s daughter, speaks in a way that categorizes Caliban as an uneducated and uncivilized savage. â€Å"I pitied thee, Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour [†¦] When thou didst not, savage, know thine own meaning [†¦]† (1.2.356-359) Miranda doesn’t stop there; she continues labeling Caliban, â€Å"But thy vile race, though thou didst learn, had that in’t which good natures could not abide to be with; therefore wast though deservedly confined into this rock [†¦]† (1.2.361-364). Exactly this kind of discourse turns Caliban into a subject. If Caliban had not been alone on the island, then Prospero and Miranda would have categorized a whole group of human beings rather than just one. In addition to the above, Prospero also accused Caliban of trying to rape Miranda. The fact that in the play Caliban doesn’t contest this challenge shows that his character is being categorized as a â€Å"black rapist† (Loomba 324). The â€Å"black rapist† theme is the thought that black men have a lust for white women and that they are much more likely to rape a white woman.