Dr. Dawkins
AP English Literature
3 January 2016
Analysis of “Calibanian Metamorphosis”
This work was influenced by William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and by Kamau Brathwaite’s “Letter SycoraX.” I purposefully removed traditional names for the two primary characters in my story, who represent Caliban (the latter) and Prospero (the former). I chose to do so in order to emphasize that these characters influence each other. In Shakespeare’s world, Caliban is the receptacle of Prospero’s culture and language. Prospero ends the play as the property of Europe–he literally returns to reclaim his place. As a result, Caliban becomes placeless because he exists as a mix of island and European influences, whereas Prospero never faces domination by Caliban’s world. In addition to recognizing this approach, I also wanted to reflect Brathwaite’s depiction of Caliban, in which he becomes the personification of “dark. / ness writin in light” (Brathwaite, 115). That is to say, Caliban influences Prospero’s world just as Caliban himself is influenced by Prospero’s civilization. Brathwaite creates a kind of equality, in which both Prospero and Caliban face a redefinition of identity. My decision to write about “the former” and “the latter” maintains the power structure that exists in The Tempest. The former (Prospero) trains Caliban (the latter) to be part of his social construct. Although Caliban was originally the former on the island, Prospero’s conquest forces Caliban to relinquish this title, and he becomes the latter. At this point, I involve Brathwaite’s perception of the inevitable relationship between Caliban and Prospero. As the latter, Caliban is left at the mercy of Prospero’s lessons, but he also refuses to be fully formed according to Prospero’s standards. This blurs the line between colonizer and colonized because it leaves Caliban with the possibility to grow as an entity that contains that which Prospero gave him, but also has the potential to influence Prospero’s world as someone distinct from it. In this way, he becomes “the latter” instead of “the former II.”
In the first chapter of my story, Prospero is afraid of Caliban even as he punishes him. Caliban seems to possess the capacity to experience a metamorphosis in which “the latter might contort the air inside his head into picturesque impressions of the memories that the former wants to keep from him” (Sewell, 1). The air refers to the “sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not” in The Tempest (The Tempest, 3.2). I chose to transform this lie that Caliban tells about the implications of Prospero’s colonization into Caliban’s potential liberation. The former is afraid because the latter might take back the air for himself, and in doing so, the latter’s memories of a time of power will become reality as he releases the air from Prospero’s control. I chose to leave the part about Caliban running “to the feet of someone new” open. Setebos might fill this role, or Caliban might run back to his original island self that was untaught and untrained.
Prospero’s domination of Caliban comes into play as I write about the latter’s first confession. The pre-confession section refers to the implications of Caliban’s attempted rape of Miranda in The Tempest. Caliban routinely expresses confusion during the two chapters that encompass the confessional process. The former tells him that “He can save you but he can’t forgive you” in order to reflect the traditional Christian motif of redemption (Sewell, 2). However, the latter does not yet know that penance is necessary for forgiveness. The reader also becomes confused as the former says to ask for something that is said to be impossible to attain. As such, the reader momentarily becomes a Caliban–someone who is being trained to live and act according to European standards, but does not fully understand this training.
In confession, Caliban does not know how he has sinned because he did not start out as a member of Prospero’s society, and as such, he cannot yet be held fully accountable for his attempted rape. The lack of traditional quotation marks during this conversation adapts Kamau Brathwaite’s decision to ignore convention for my own purposes. While he chooses to write in a nation-language to develop Caliban’s independence, I ignore standard English to make it difficult to discern who is talking in order to establish the interdependence of European and island discourse alike. In confession, Caliban speaks with a priest. The final statement “Can I” comes as a uniquely European plea to apply God’s power to earthly conquests (Sewell, 2). The priest asks for permission to save the latter, but the latter doesn’t give it. This ambiguous ending hints to the self-sovereignty that Caliban starts to reclaim from Prospero’s world in “Letter SycoraX.” Finally, Caliban hurts the former with his rosary, which acts as the symbol of the European world. The former responds with more pain, and as such, European and island world alike start to combine as Caliban learns how to rebel, and Prospero is forced to respond.
In chapter 4, the latter embraces European concepts even though he doesn’t yet understand them. André Breton, a French poet, wrote a poem that was completely composed of newspaper cutouts. The reader interprets the poem, but the interpretation is inevitably incorrect in comparison to Breton’s original meaning. This draws attention to Caliban’s relationship to European customs. He interprets, but he interprets differently, and as such, Prospero’s society must learn how to deal with his definitions. Pinocchio unites the respective journeys of the latter and the former. Pinocchio is a puppet until he learns how to behave according to the Blue Fairy’s standards. Only at this point does he become a real boy, and define himself as that which he always wanted to be. Carlo Collodi, the author of Pinocchio, paradoxically forces freedom to come from submission. Similarly, Prospero and Caliban must submit to each other in order to come to the balance that exists in Brathwaite’s poem. Caliban does not understand Prospero yet, but he hopes to someday participate in Prospero’s culture and to be forgiven for the rape of Miranda as he internalizes European ideas. This connects events that occur within The Tempest to Caliban’s hope to participate in the white society that Brathwaite creates. When I write that the “priest will shed acts of contrition,” I represent the ultimate unification of European and island influences that will occur when Caliban no longer has to apologize for his birthplace and can be the son of Sycorax, Europe, and himself simultaneously (Sewell, 3).
I wrote “I love you” twelve times to reflect Caliban’s adaptation of the social construct of time. There are twelve months in a year, so while Caliban learns to speak, he also learns how to tell time, and in doing so, the stages of Caliban become tangible. At this stage, Caliban is still so infatuated with European concepts that he has not yet surpassed the childlike behavior that occurs within “Letter Sycorax,” which is why he “says these things to the former because he should, but not at all because he knows what it means to do so” (Sewell, 4). At this point, I move back to The Tempest in order to portray the original Prospero who has not learned how to compromise. When I write that “The worst thing would be for the latter to come up with his own sentence-level constructions,” I acknowledge the disdain for Caliban that Prospero feels in The Tempest while I also foreshadow the reality that Prospero will have to accept in “Letter SycoraX,” in which Caliban claims Prospero’s words (Sewell, 4).
When Caliban asks “Does he love me,” I solidify the potential for mutual acceptance that Brathwaite fosters in “Letter SycoraX.” Unlike in The Tempest, where Caliban is unworthy of love, he learns to expect more for himself in Brathwaite’s poem. There are two bold letters. If you count the letters, you’ll notice that there are 16 of them before the first bold letter, which is “s.” Counting the “s,” there are 11 letters until the next bold letter, which is an “o.” This refers to the year in which The Tempest was originally performed, which was 1611. However, the highlighted letters and the question mark spell the word “so?,” which implies that the year of this performance is not enough for Caliban. He learns how to become part of Brathwaite’s world in this section, and as such, he leaves parts of The Tempest behind in favor of a new performance that’s relevant to his new existence in the modern world. The psalm comes from the Bible and appears in Robert Browning’s “Caliban upon Setebos.” I chose to remove Setebos from consideration in order to make Caliban the one who is not necessarily identifiable–he’s not “one” because he is composed of fragments as he transitions from the world of The Tempest to that of “Letter SycoraX.”
The ending is one that I’ll leave to the reader to interpret. I’ll say that while “you” refers to the reader, it also refers to others. As such, the reader becomes a member of literary worlds, and literary worlds become real due to their social implications. Nobody is correct about Caliban. He’s learning to understand himself, and as he reclaims self-dominance through compromise in “Letter SycoraX,” we must wait for him to speak to us, if he chooses to share his answers. This marks the complete transformation of Caliban from Shakespeare’s object to Brathwaite’s subject of conversation.
Dr. Dawkins
AP English Literature
3 January 2016
Calibanian Metamorphosis
1.
Air halts when the former walks into a room. The latter tries to hold it, and the former admonishes him for stealing. He punishes the latter but he is truly afraid that if the latter clutches enough of an afternoon draft he’ll be able to condense it and trade ethereal substance for the memories that the former has worked so hard to remind him of. Then, to make the situation worse, the latter might contort the air inside his head into picturesque impressions of the memories that the former works to keep from him. Yes, the former knows that a song, a few lines of prose posing as poetry at the wrong moment will set nothingness free until the latter takes it and runs to the feet of someone new. The former shudders at this thought, so he shuts the window before heading to confession.
2.
Ash Wednesday marks the latter’s first confession. It is the former’s responsibility to explain to him what it means to ask for forgiveness from someone incapable of forgiving him.
Go in, pray, and hope that the law doesn’t kill you for it.
I am heartily sorry for having offended you.
You’re wrong. I am not offended, but God is.
You said that he can’t forgive me.
He can save you but he can’t forgive you.
So what am I asking for?
Forgiveness.
The latter traces a sign of the cross on his heart to feel whether or not the beating has stopped. He steps into the room and he stares at the floor because the sky beckons him without desire and he is sick of it.
3.
How have you sinned?
I don’t know.
God cannot forgive you if you do not know.
I know.
In that case, pray the rosary and he will forgive you.
He will save me?
No, he will forgive you.
No he won’t.
Why?
What?
How?
You say that you know.
I never said such a thing, I said that I know that I do not know.
In that case, he will not forgive you.
Will he save me?
Can I?
He walks out of confession; but he cries because he confessed to himself instead of to God. His penance is to finger the rosary. Instead of doing so, he allows the beads to drop from trembling hands and they shatter on the floor. Glass pieces pierce the former, but the pain that they cause can’t compare with the pain that the former’s eyes and response inflict upon the latter.
4.
Post confessional hymnals are not meant to be sung.
This is what the former sings to the latter.
André Breton’s poem’s introduction sets up interpretation before the reader has even read the start of the newspaper headline cutouts. The Blue Fairy brings him so close to consequences that he is relieved. Stars and staircases are not all that different in that both fall when they’re broken into components.
The latter does not understand references to Paris and failing puppets, let alone galaxies more compassionate than his own, but he listens attentively. If the former will forgive him, he’ll sacrifice all of God’s forgiveness and more...just to see the angles that reflect and writhe in the former’s eyes fall to the floor. The priest will shred acts of contrition and the latter will pick up the pieces. For now, though, he hears and he does not see.
5.
I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you I love you
Twelve cheap sentences without final punctuation melt into the months that follow confession. The latter says these things to the former because he should, but not at all because he knows what it means to do so. Intertwined with cassette tapes, these three words populate the storage space until nothing else can live . . . nothing else can breathe. A single separate word would help to clean up the clutter that the latter creates within his world, but such a word is not to be found.
Maybe the latter just wants to see something come to a close. It’s possible that he recites the covers of cheap magazine covers because he can’t afford anything more. Either way, the former never feels completely satisfied with these necessarily empty promises, but he holds his disappointment back. The worst thing would be for the latter to come up with his own sentence-level constructions. The volatility could hurt him.
Does he love me Does he love me Does he love me Does he love me Does he love me Does Does Does Does Does Does MEEE?
“Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thyself” (David, Psalm 50.21)
Good. It’s hard to tell who speaks now; but it’s good to think that whoever does speak has the upper hand. And it’s not you. Or you. Or you. Repeat it twelve times, and maybe it’ll finally be you.