Oct 19, 2025
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Fandom: The Tempest - Shakespeare
Relationships: Caliban & Prospero
Characters: Prospero (The Tempest), Caliban (The Tempest)
Word count: 1151
Summary:
Academic essay on Act I, Scene 2.
Despite being ostensibly master and slave, Prospero and Caliban subvert the differences and hierarchies that are presumed and demanded by the colonialist-antiblack framework of slavery. Close examination of their exchange in lines 307-375, in fact, leads to doubt of the very foundations of the European-hegemonic reasoning used to justify slavery.
