Caliban, the Controversial Character

Caliban

            One thing that I would like to talk about that hasn’t been talked about a whole lot during class is the character of Caliban.  Throughout the book, Takaki has referenced the character of Caliban a lot and how the English easily saw him and grouped him as one of the Africans because of his skin or his color or his overall looks.  I guess I just find it extremely interesting that when this character from The Tempest was first introduced to the public, they immediately grouped him together with the Africans because he was different than they were.  That just shows, I guess, just how ridiculous ignorance is and how it can be hurtful to someone or a whole people. 

            In order to go a little further in depth about this I decided just to look at a few different production photos of The Tempest to see how the character of Caliban has been portrayed throughout the years in different productions.

            This is one of the first pictures I came across and I found it to be almost disturbing.  Imagine if you were one of the English citizens and this is something that came out on stage.  What would your first reaction be?  Obviously, scared and unsure.  You haven’t seen anything like this anywhere else except for the Africans whose ONLY similarity was a darker skin complexion. 

            I guess, I just have to ask, what do you think of when you see this photo?  Is this a picture of someone you would expect to see everyday?  If you saw someone who looked like this walking the streets, would you talk to them if they came up to you?  Do people really not see color like they say they do?