Talk:Caliban

message: In many Anglo-Saxon legends he takes on forms such as troll, ogres, and other subhumans. - if the character was created by Shakespeare, and the name derives from "cannibal" anc "Carib", how could it be in Anglo-Saxon legends? RickK 04:13, 25 Jan 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Caliban 

message: The article suggests that Caliban isn't native, as his heritage is the same as his foreign mother's. While I'm unfamiliar with citizenship in Shakespeare's day, I think it's unreasonable to assume that Caliban isn't a native of the island Prospero finds himself on. Indeed, if the island has ANY native, it's Caliban, who was born there, raised there, and ultimately finds himself there alone again. He's about as native as you get. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 163.120.254.253 (talk) 21:39, 11 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: It is clearly in Prospero's interest to downplay any claim Caliban may have to the island.  Can we be sure he's a reliable source? He himself was not on the island when Sycorax (and possibly Caliban) arrived. Caliban93 (talk) 01:16, 12 April 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  native? 

message: Doth Jeanette Winterson actually use the neologistic epicene pronoun zirself zirself?  If she do, I'd be willing to leave it stand; else I think it should be replaced with standard English. - Smerdis of Tlön 15:33, 26 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[Jeanette Winterson]] 

message: This is not quite what you expect when you click on Caliban (character). Could the author please add essential information for the uninitiated? Again, there are people outside the US reading this! Best wishes, KF 09:10 May 13, 2003 (UTC)
What is THE ANALYTICAL KNIFE? What is this all about?  --KF 09:28 May 13, 2003 (UTC)
I'm removing it. While we're at it, is that the correct spelling of "Rousseauean"? it looks a little ... vowelish to me -- Tarquin 10:17 May 13, 2003 (UTC)
*I would have thought it should be Rousseauvian, but Rousseauean actually gets more Google hits. --Metropolitan90 07:15, 19 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Knives, etc. 

message: Trivia
The figure of Caliban, or just his name, has been used by many writers, musicians and filmmakers over the years.
=== In literature ===
Robert Browning wrote one of his dramatic monologues from the point of view of Caliban, Caliban upon Setebos, in which he views Caliban as a Rousseauian "natural man." Caliban also gives a lengthy monologue in the style of Henry James in W.H. Auden's long poem The Sea and the Mirror, a meditation on the themes of The Tempest.
Ernest Renan's philosophical drama Caliban represents the struggle between aristocratic and democratic principles, represented by Prospero and Caliban.
The American poet Louis Untermeyer (1885–1977) wrote Caliban in the Coal Mines, published in 1914 in his collection Challenge.
Fantasy author Tad Williams retells the story of Caliban from his point of view in the short novel Caliban's Hour (1993).
Inspired both by The Tempest and Caliban upon Setebos, Caliban is revived as a monstrous inhuman beast in Dan Simmons' literary science fiction duology Ilium/Olympos.
Caliban also is mentioned in the Preface of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, albeit very briefly, as quoted below:
:"The nineteenth century dislike of Realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass.
:The nineteenth century dislike of Romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass."
In John Fowles' novel The Collector, one of the main characters, Miranda, constantly compares her abductor, Frederick Clegg, to Caliban. He reminds her of a monstrous savage, deprived of any human emotion.
In P.G. Wodehouse's novel Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit Percy Gorringe, a poet, is mocking the crude Stilton Cheesewright in a poem called Caliban at Sunset.
In James Joyce's novel, Ulysses, Malachi "Buck" Mulligan compares Stephen Dedalus with Caliban. Also, the analogy becomes a political reference in terms of the Irish desire for "Home Rule" in place of British occupation.
"The rage of Caliban at not seeing his face in a mirror, he said. If Wilde were only alive to see you!" - Ulysses, Chapter One: Telemachus
In Jeanette Winterson's novel Written on the Body, the narrator compares himself/herself (the gender is unspecified) to Caliban, chained to a rock, ostensibly by love.
"Caliban" is also the alias of the protagonist in Michael Pryor's 1996 novel The Mask of Caliban.
Nineteenth-century Russia is referred to as the "Caliban of Europe" in Tom Stoppard's play The Coast of Utopia.
"Caliban" serves as a metaphor for U.S. and British imperialism and Anglo-Saxon backwardness in Rubén Darío's "El Triunfo de Calibán" (1898). The same analogy is utilized by the Uruguayan essayist José Enrique Rodó, whose influential Ariel (1900) posits the Shakespearean spirit against Caliban in an argument for the superiority of the more culturally (if perhaps not materialistically) developed Latin America.
In a Hartford Evening Press editorial in March 1860, Gideon Welles described Abraham Lincoln by saying “He is not Apollo, but he is not "Caliban". He is in every way large, brain included, but his countenance shows intellect, generosity, great good nature and keen discrimination.”
Caliban Leandros is a main character in supernatural series by author Rob Thurman. His mother, Sophia, named him after the character from Shakespeare's The Tempest because he is half-human and she saw him as a monster.
C. L. R. James refers to himself, and by extension all West Indians, as Caliban in the preface to his "Beyond a Boundary." "To establish his own identity, Caliban, after three centuries, must himself pioneer into regions Caesar never knew." Caesar is a metaphor for the British colonialists.
"Caliban" appears as a the beast-man from Shakespeare made flesh in Dan Simmons' 2003 novel Ilium. The creature inhabits (along with a holographic Prospero) a dead city built upon an asteroid circling the earth where he eats the humans sent to the 'firmary' for repair after every twenty years of life on Earth or when they are injured or killed before their 100th birthday to be rebuilt.
"Caliban" or "Isaac Asimov's Caliban" is a science fiction novel by Roger MacBride Allen (1993) [Ace Books] exploring the concepts behind Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, their deleterious effects on humanity in the Spacer Worlds, and potential solutions through New Law and No Law robots. Caliban itself is a No Law robot, neither human nor robot slave, neither man nor beast, or maybe both.
"I'd rather be Caliban, a most scurvy monster." in Nancy Mairs's 1986 collection of essays Plaintext.
A Caliban is a sentient entity in Frank Herberts Novels Whipping Star and The Dosadi Experiment, that facilitate very long range travel across the universe. I think they are stars and if one is destroyed everyone they ever transported dies. I do not know what relationship they have to the Shakespeare character.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Perambulate87 (talk • contribs) 11:38, 16 October 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Trivia (moved from article) as there isn't a single reference 

message: Robert Browning wrote one of his dramatic monologues from the point of view of Caliban, Caliban upon Setebos, in which he views Caliban as a Rousseauian "natural man." Caliban also gives a lengthy monologue in the style of Henry James in W.H. Auden's long poem The Sea and the Mirror, a meditation on the themes of The Tempest.
Ernest Renan's philosophical drama Caliban represents the struggle between aristocratic and democratic principles, represented by Prospero and Caliban.
The American poet Louis Untermeyer (1885–1977) wrote Caliban in the Coal Mines, published in 1914 in his collection Challenge.
Fantasy author Tad Williams retells the story of Caliban from his point of view in the short novel Caliban's Hour (1993).
Inspired both by The Tempest and Caliban upon Setebos, Caliban is revived as a monstrous inhuman beast in Dan Simmons' literary science fiction duology Ilium/Olympos.
Caliban also is mentioned in the Preface of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, albeit very briefly, as quoted below:
:"The nineteenth century dislike of Realism is the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass.
:The nineteenth century dislike of Romanticism is the rage of Caliban not seeing his own face in a glass."
In John Fowles' novel The Collector, one of the main characters, Miranda, constantly compares her abductor, Frederick Clegg, to Caliban. He reminds her of a monstrous savage, deprived of any human emotion.
In P.G. Wodehouse's novel Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit Percy Gorringe, a poet, is mocking the crude Stilton Cheesewright in a poem called Caliban at Sunset.
In James Joyce's novel, Ulysses, Malachi "Buck" Mulligan compares Stephen Dedalus with Caliban. Also, the analogy becomes a political reference in terms of the Irish desire for "Home Rule" in place of British occupation.
"The rage of Caliban at not seeing his face in a mirror, he said. If Wilde were only alive to see you!" - Ulysses, Chapter One: Telemachus
In Jeanette Winterson's novel Written on the Body, the narrator compares himself/herself (the gender is unspecified) to Caliban, chained to a rock, ostensibly by love.
"Caliban" is also the alias of the protagonist in Michael Pryor's 1996 novel The Mask of Caliban.
Nineteenth-century Russia is referred to as the "Caliban of Europe" in Tom Stoppard's play The Coast of Utopia.
"Caliban" serves as a metaphor for U.S. and British imperialism and Anglo-Saxon backwardness in Rubén Darío's "El Triunfo de Calibán" (1898). The same analogy is utilized by the Uruguayan essayist José Enrique Rodó, whose influential Ariel (1900) posits the Shakespearean spirit against Caliban in an argument for the superiority of the more culturally (if perhaps not materialistically) developed Latin America.
In a Hartford Evening Press editorial in March 1860, Gideon Welles described Abraham Lincoln by saying “He is not Apollo, but he is not "Caliban". He is in every way large, brain included, but his countenance shows intellect, generosity, great good nature and keen discrimination.”
Caliban Leandros is a main character in supernatural series by author Rob Thurman. His mother, Sophia, named him after the character from Shakespeare's The Tempest because he is half-human and she saw him as a monster.
C. L. R. James refers to himself, and by extension all West Indians, as Caliban in the preface to his "Beyond a Boundary." "To establish his own identity, Caliban, after three centuries, must himself pioneer into regions Caesar never knew." Caesar is a metaphor for the British colonialists.
"Caliban" appears as a the beast-man from Shakespeare made flesh in Dan Simmons' 2003 novel Ilium. The creature inhabits (along with a holographic Prospero) a dead city built upon an asteroid circling the earth where he eats the humans sent to the 'firmary' for repair after every twenty years of life on Earth or when they are injured or killed before their 100th birthday to be rebuilt.
"Caliban" or "Isaac Asimov's Caliban" is a science fiction novel by Roger MacBride Allen (1993) [Ace Books] exploring the concepts behind Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, their deleterious effects on humanity in the Spacer Worlds, and potential solutions through New Law and No Law robots. Caliban itself is a No Law robot, neither human nor robot slave, neither man nor beast, or maybe both.
"I'd rather be Caliban, a most scurvy monster." in Nancy Mairs's 1986 collection of essays Plaintext.
A Caliban is a sentient entity in Frank Herberts Novels Whipping Star and The Dosadi Experiment, that facilitate very long range travel across the universe. I think they are stars and if one is destroyed everyone they ever transported dies. I do not know what relationship they have to the Shakespeare character.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Perambulate87 (talk • contribs) 11:38, 16 October 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  In literature 

message: It would be interesting to know how the character has been portrayed in different productions of The Tempest. I've just seen in Spring 2014 a production directed by Aaron Posner and Teller in which Caliban was portrayed by a pair of actors (Zachary Eisenstat, Manelich Minniefee) who were costumed identically (loin cloths, brown stains all over their bodies, wild hair, blackened teeth), spoke most lines simultaneously, and walked around with one carrying the other or in other partner acrobatic postures. The lines mentioning his "four legs" when Trinculo was tangled with Caliban were changed to "six legs", but the character was otherwise treated as a single entity.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.104.34.3 (talk) 07:13, 27 May 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Portrayals 

message: The postcolonial reading has lent him special importance.Since, he represents embodiment of slavery and usurpation on "native land". This striking angle  for caliban has been ignored. Somebody, do the character and its significance justice .
Happy sage (talk) 19:01, 4 September 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  The Colonial aspect 

message: I am surprised that no one has mentioned the similarities between Caliban and Tolkien's Gollum. Particularly given their personalities, circumstances and appearance as Sir Arthur Rackham's illustration - Caliban and Ariel so closely resembles the representations of Gollum we have all come to know and love. Decuser (talk) 15:19, 18 May 2020 (UTC)
replies: text: If someone had a reliable source showing Tolkien credited Caliban with influencing Gollum, that would belong here. But merely noticing the similarity between fictional characters would be original reseach, and that doesn't belong on Wikipedia. This kind of analysis is, however, the meat and drink of TV Tropes. -- Finlay McWalter··–·Talk 15:57, 18 May 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Similarity with Tolkien's Gollum 

message: Awesome character who deserves recognition. Also a proper ending. 2601:43:8201:2400:29AA:5997:F8F3:3C58 (talk) 05:47, 6 April 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Rob Thurman’s take on Caliban? 

message: Rob Thurman wrote a fascinating take on Caliban. It should at least be taken into consideration for mention in your article. 2601:43:8201:2400:29AA:5997:F8F3:3C58 (talk) 06:39, 6 April 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  He became a hero 

message: Not savvy with wikipedia but would someone like to add Caliban's war (expanse novel) to the list of references?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caliban%27s_War 109.76.8.67 (talk) 13:54, 26 September 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Calibans war 

message: — Assignment last updated by Marisamasanchan (talk) 17:52, 11 May 2023 (UTC)
thread_title: Wiki Education assignment: Foundations of Literary Study