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

Categorizing of People in Shakespeares The Tempest and Dantes perdition Shakespeares The Tempest and Dantes Inferno both exhibit Foucaults idea of categorization and subjectification using dividing practices. (Rabinow 8) Foucault argued that volume can rise to power using discourse, Discourse has the ability to yield gentleman creations into subjects by placing them into certain categories. (Rabinow 8) These categories are then defined harmonise to their level of deviance from the acceptable norm. (Rabinow 8) Some examples of such categories are the homosexual, the insane, the twist and the uncivilized. (Rabinow 8). By the above method, called dividing practices, people can be manipulated by socially categorizing them and then comparing them to norms. In this way kind-hearted beings are stipulation 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, flourisho too k cook 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 Prosperos speech that he thinks that Caliban is inferior to him when Prosper says, I nurture used thee, Filth as gravitational constant art, with human care (1.2.348-349). Prospero tries to justify enslaving Caliban, but all he really does is nates Caliban into a category of bestial and uncivilized and as a endpoint enslaves him.Even Miranda, Prosperos daughter, speaks in a way that categorizes Caliban as an illiterate and uncivilized savage. I pitied thee, Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour When thou didst non, savage, know thine own meaning (1.2.356-359) Miranda doesnt stop there she continues labeling Caliban, exclusively thy vile race, though thou didst learn, had that int which good natures could not abide to be with ther efore wast though deservedly confined into this quake (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 toilsome to rape Miranda. The fact that in the play Caliban doesnt contest this repugn shows that his character is being categorized as a black rapist (Loomba 324). The black rapist theme is the thought that black men have a lust for white women and that they are much more belike to rape a white woman.