DOCSLIB.ORG

Caliban Upon Setebos”

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Caliban Upon Setebos” Skibinski 1 Nick’s Key Passage Analysis on Robert Browning’s “Caliban Upon Setebos” “Thinketh, such shows not right nor wrong in him, Nor kind, nor cruel: He is strong and Lord. ‘Am strong myself compared to yonder crabs That march now from the mountain to the sea, ‘Let twenty pass, and stone the twenty-first, Loving not, hating not, just choosing so. ‘Say, the first straggler that boasts purple spots Shall join the file, one pincer twisted off; ‘Say, this bruised fellow shall receive a worm, And two worms he whose nippers end in red; As it likes me each time, I do: so He.” Page 1368, Lines 98-108 In this poem, Browning uses Caliban’s prayer as a thinly veiled criticism of Christianity. This is hinted at in this passage by the usage of the word “Lord” in reference to Setebos, which is also used in Christian references to God. The intent of this section is stated very clearly in the first lines: “Thinketh, such shows not right nor wrong in him,/ Nor kind, nor cruel: He is strong and Lord.” This offers insight into Caliban’s issues of faith. While Caliban still believes in and worships Setebos, he cannot bring himself to see a deity that allowed him to be enslaved as kind. This in turn shows what this section is arguing: that God is neither good nor evil, rather, God is capable of enacting whatever arbitrary judgements he pleases. There is no fairness to God’s actions, and there is no judgement, merely the exercise of power by a being that is impossible to comprehend. It is almost a coping mechanism, arguing that being abandoned by God is due to God’s arbitrary nature rather than a person’s sin. Caliban does not see Setebos as divine, rather as a being like him that is infinitely more powerful, but just as prone to human faults. There is no higher plan, no impossibly complex machinations. Merely the same bored cruelties Caliban might indulge in, as shown in this quote Skibinski 2 “‘Am strong myself compared to yonder crabs . ‘Let twenty pass, and stone the twenty-first,/ Loving not, hating not, just choosing so.” There is no judgement of the twenty-first crab. It did nothing wrong. It was not a sinner who deserved to suffer. It was merely in the wrong place at the wrong time, a victim of fickleness rather than cruelty or judgement. Kindnesses are just as arbitrary, as seen in this quote “‘Say, this bruised fellow shall receive a worm,/ And two worms he whose nippers end in red.” Prospero and Ariel were not placed in power of Caliban because there is anything better about them. Rather, they benefit from pure, arbitrary chance. Rather than position in society being some God given decree on a person’s worth and place in the world, it is a meaningless system. On the surface, Caliban criticizes the arbitrary nature of his god. Below the surface, this section explores Caliban’s attempt to understand the motives of his god. Below that, Browning offers a criticism of a Christian belief in God given superiority. But, at its core, this section argues that all beings are created equal, and differences in fortune or station are meaningless as assessments of a person’s goodness. Word Count: 426 “I hereby declare upon my word of honor that I have neither given nor received unauthorized help on this work.” Nick Skibinski .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Eco-Migration: Shakespeare and the Contemporary Novel
    SAA 2021: Ecomigration: Shakespeare and the Contemporary Novel Seminar Organizer: Sharon O’Dair, University of Alabama Abstracts. Walter Cohen University of Michigan SAA 2021 Historical Novel (and other genres) of Early Modern World (1450-1700) Key issues a. History/temporality i. Renaissance vs. other periods as object of historical representation. Do you get anything different from delimiting the historical novels under scrutiny to the early modern period—i.e. anything different from historical novels about other periods? This question asks us to compare the historical novels in this study grouping to historical novels about Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the 18th-mid 20th century. ii. Different periods in which accounts of Renaissance are composed. Do you get anything different from delimiting the historical novels under scrutiny to the early modern period—i.e. anything different from seeing realism- modernism-postmodernism as successive forms of the historical novel? This question asks us to compare the historical novels in this grouping to each other along the historical/formalist lines of the three obvious periods of the historical novel. It uses Perry Anderson’s 2011 survey of the historical novel as a baseline for comparison. iii. Composite account of the era? What if you keep the different times when the novels were written, the different genres (realism-modernism- postmodernism), the different languages in which they’re written, and the different places and events they treat all in the background? Instead, we ask: what do we get from reading these novels as a composite account of the era? Is it different from what we get from a more familiar history of the historical novel (Lukács-Anderson) and/or from the current state of historiography of the period? How is it inflected by early modern writers themselves—above all Shakespeare? b.
    [Show full text]
  • Annual Atwood Bibliography 2016
    Annual Atwood Bibliography 2016 Ashley Thomson and Shoshannah Ganz This year’s bibliography, like its predecessors, is comprehensive but not complete. References that we have uncovered —almost always theses and dissertations —that were not available even through interlibrary loan, have not been included. On the other hand, citations from past years that were missed in earlier bibliographies appear in this one so long as they are accessible. Those who would like to examine earlier bibliographies may now access them full-text, starting in 2007, in Laurentian University’s Institutional Repository in the Library and Archives section . The current bibliography has been embargoed until the next edition is available. Of course, members of the Society may access all available versions of the Bibliography on the Society’s website since all issues of the Margaret Atwood Studies Journal appear there. Users will also note a significant number of links to the full-text of items referenced here and all are active and have been tested on 1 August 2017. That said—and particularly in the case of Atwood’s commentary and opinion pieces —the bibliography also reproduces much (if not all) of what is available on-line, since what is accessible now may not be obtainable in the future. And as in the 2015 Bibliography, there has been a change in editing practice —instead of copying and pasting authors’ abstracts, we have modified some to ensure greater clarity. There are a number of people to thank, starting with Dunja M. Mohr, who sent a citation and an abstract, and with Desmond Maley, librarian at Laurentian University, who assisted in compiling and editing.
    [Show full text]
  • Tempest Activities.Pub
    Classroom Connections Before the performance... Stormy Weather Ariel & Caliban in Visual Art It’s no surprise that a play named The Tempest opens in the Ariel and Caliban, two of Shakespeare’s non-human middle of a huge storm at sea. But how can a director and a characters, have left much room for interpretation in how team of designers create that storm onstage? Ask students they can be portrayed. The 19th century produced a number to brainstorm different ways to present the storm and of artists inspired by Shakespeare who put scenes of his play shipwreck onstage. Then break the class into three groups on canvas. Visit this site (http://www.english.emory.edu/ and assign each a budget—one group has a high school classes/Shakespeare_Illustrated/TempestPaintings.html) and drama club budget, one has a regional theatre budget, and find a painting depicting Ariel or Caliban from The Tempest. one has a Broadway theatre budget. Each group should Compare how you expected these characters to look with develop a concept or proposal for the storm scene, complete the artist’s rendering. Keep these images in mind when you with lights, set, sound, props and costumes, considering see the play and compare all three interpretations! their respective budgets. Have each group present their ideas to the class. How does budget affect the staging of the storm? How realistically should the storm be staged? What Really Happened in Jamestown As described in the article A Whole New World, Shakespeare Love at First Sight drew inspiration for The Tempest from real accounts of a crew headed to Jamestown, Virginia, that crashed on the In The Tempest Miranda and Ferdinand are instantly island of Bermuda and then reappeared almost a year later.
    [Show full text]
  • Tempest in Literary Perspective| Browning and Auden As Avenues Into Shakespeare's Last Romance
    University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers Graduate School 1972 Tempest in literary perspective| Browning and Auden as avenues into Shakespeare's last romance Murdo William McRae The University of Montana Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation McRae, Murdo William, "Tempest in literary perspective| Browning and Auden as avenues into Shakespeare's last romance" (1972). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 3846. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/3846 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE TEMPEST IN LITERAEY PERSPECTIVE: BRaWING AM) ADDER AS AVENUES INTO SHAKESPEARE'S LAST ROMANCE By Murdo William McRae B.A. University of Montana, 1969 Presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts TJNIVERSITT OF MONTANA • 1972 Approved by; IAIcxV^><L. y\ _L Chairman, Board ox Exarainers tats UMI Number EP34735 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent on the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMT MUiMng UMI EP34735 Copyright 2012 by ProQuest LLC.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction to Shakespeare Is an Introduction to Literature; It Is Also an Introduction to Shakespeare Studies and by Extension an Introduction to Literary Studies
    INTRODUCTION TO Shakespeare Jeffrey R. Wilson (Undergrad Syllabus ) COURSE DESCRIPTION How does Shakespeare help us understand the world we live in? Why is he the most celebrated English author? How should his plays be performed today? What were his politics, and what are the politics of working with Shakespeare now? Because Shakespeare is such a canonical author, an introduction to Shakespeare is an introduction to literature; it is also an introduction to Shakespeare studies and by extension an introduction to literary studies. Alert to these larger concerns, this course introduces students to some Shakespearean texts and contexts. Emphasis is placed on Shakespeare’s choice of drama— thus the plays are treated as plays, and experienced in performance—and on close reading and interpretation. But interpretation will be done in light of the traditions in and against which Shakespeare wrote, most especially the conventions of the four traditional Shakespearean genres: comedy, tragedy, history, and romance. Our readings will include the texts and contexts of Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Richard III, 1 Henry VI, The Merchant of Venice, and The Tempest, as well as their modern afterlives. We’ll discuss Shakespeare’s reception—how a provincial playwright came to be England’s literary figurehead—and adaptations that span the globe, some of them speaking back to Shakespeare, with fire, in addition to some recent trends in Shakespeare studies, especially interdisciplinary work. REQUIRED TEXT The Norton Shakespeare. Edited by Stephen Greenblatt, third edition. Norton, 2015. COURSE SCHEDULE Weeks 1-2: Interpretation Hamlet (1602-03) Week 3: Text Hamlet, first quarto edition (1603) Hamlet, second quarto edition (1605) Hamlet, first folio edition (1623) Week 4: Collaboration Marlowe, Nashe, Shakespeare, and others, 1 Henry VI (rev.
    [Show full text]
  • Caliban Between the Worlds
    Volume 12 Number 4 Article 14 6-15-1986 Caliban between the Worlds David Bratman Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Bratman, David (1986) "Caliban between the Worlds," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 12 : No. 4 , Article 14. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol12/iss4/14 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Mythopoeic Society at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature by an authorized editor of SWOSU Digital Commons. An ADA compliant document is available upon request. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To join the Mythopoeic Society go to: http://www.mythsoc.org/join.htm Mythcon 51: A VIRTUAL “HALFLING” MYTHCON July 31 - August 1, 2021 (Saturday and Sunday) http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-51.htm Mythcon 52: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien Albuquerque, New Mexico; July 29 - August 1, 2022 http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-52.htm Abstract Study of Caliban as a character in Shakespeare’s Tempest, as a metaphor, and as a character re- interpreted by post-Shakespearean authors. Additional Keywords Caliban in literature; Shakespeare, William—Characters—Caliban; Shakespeare, William. The Tempest; Patrick Wynne This article is available in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol12/iss4/14 Page 48 MYTHLORE 46: Summer 1986 Caliban between the Worlds David Bratman "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." A less pre-judged physical description of Caliban Ever since William Shakespeare's time, other artists comes from Trinculo the jester.
    [Show full text]
  • Robert Browning Oral Marguerite Hagerty Loyola University Chicago
    Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Master's Theses Theses and Dissertations 1944 The Grotesque Artist - Robert Browning Oral Marguerite Hagerty Loyola University Chicago Recommended Citation Hagerty, Oral Marguerite, "The Grotesque Artist - Robert Browning" (1944). Master's Theses. Paper 624. http://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_theses/624 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 1944 Oral Marguerite Hagerty 'f THE GROTESQUE ARTIST - ROBERT BROWNING by Oral Marguerite Hagerty A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of. the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Loyola University ·Department of English Chicago, Illinois, June, 1944. p: The Grotesque Artist - Robert Browning ... The Grotesque Artist - Robert Browning Table of Gontents Chapter Introduction 1 I. Ori~in and Nature of the Grotesque Considered Historically and Esthetically ------ 3 II· Reasons for Browning's use of the Grotesque -- 28 III• Browning's Treatment of the Grotesque ----- 50 A. His Method - Grotesque Situation - 0har- - acter - Treatment 51 B. Types of Grotesque Used - Noble - Fanci- - ful - False Grotesque --------- 57 1. Noble Grotesque - "Caliban Upon Setebos" 58 2. Fanciful Grotesque - "The Pied Piper" - 108 3. False Grotesque - "Pacchiarotto" --- 122 IV. Artistic Possibilities and Worth of Browning's Grotesque ------ 130 Conclusion ---------- 148 BibliograPhy ------------ 151 )--( ..... THE GROTESQUE ARTIST - ROBERT BROWNING INTRODUCTION The immense vitality and wide productiveness of Robert Browning demand classification.
    [Show full text]
  • Browning's Theme: "The Letter Killeth, but the Spirit Giveth Life."
    /f(/ qo/ BROWNING'S THEME: "THE LETTER KILLETH, BUT THE SPIRIT GIVETH LIFE." THESIS Presented to the Graduate Council of the North Texas State University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS By Martha A. Rollins, B. B. A. Denton, Texas August, 1974 L1,, Rollins, Martha A., Browning's Theme: "The Letter Killeth, but the Spirit Giveth Life." Master of Arts (English), August, 1974, 62 pp., bibliography, 6 titles, This thesis is concerned with the establishment of an underlying philosophy for Robert Browning's many themes. It asserts that a notion found in II Corinthians 3:6, "the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life," is basic to ideas such as Browning's belief in the superiority of life over art, of the wisdom of the heart over the intellect, and of honest skepticism over unexamined belief. The sources used to establish this premise are mainly the poems themselves, grouped in categories by subject matter of art, love, and religion. Some of his correspondence is also examined to ascertain how relevant the philosophy was to his own life. The conclusion is that the concept is, indeed, pervasive throughout Browning's poetry and extremely important to the man himself. TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION . ....... * * * . 1 II. THE ESSENCE OF ART . 4 III. THE ESSENCE OF LOVE..*. ... .... ....19 IV. THE ESSENCE OF RELIGION . - - . 32 V. CONCLUSION.-a. -..-. *1 - - * . -.653 BIBLIOGRAPHY . -0 -0-------- -................ ...... 63 iii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Robert Browning's poetry contains many recurring themes. His major themes, which have been discussed by various scholars, are sometimes independent of each other and sometimes over- lapping.
    [Show full text]
  • Robert Browning
    w H grsm ^fl^ntTK ,r\ns»v~"ti I \"> <h ROBERT BROWNING BY C. H. HERFORD Professor of English Literature in the University of Manchester V OF THE UNIYERSH OF NEW YORK DODD, MEAD & COMPANY 1905 '*-iif ijLI Copyright, igoj By Dodd, Mead and Company Published, March, igoj or THE UNIVERSITY TO THE V^CAUFoafiifc* REV. F. E. MILLSON DEAR OLD FRIEND, A generation has passed since the day when, in your study at Brackenbed Grange, your reading of " Ben Ezra," the tones of which still vibrate in my memory, first introduced me to the poetry of Robert Browning. He was then just entering upon his wider fame. You had for years been one not merely of the few who recognised him, but of those, yet fewer, who proclaimed him. The standpoint of the following pages is not, I think, very remote from your own ; conversa- tions with you have, in any case, done something to define it. You see, then, that your share of responsibility for them is, on all counts, considerable, and you must not refuse to allow me to associate them with a name which the old Rabbi's great heartening cry : " Strive, and hold cheap the strain, Learn, nor account the pang, Dare, never grudge the throe," summons spontaneously to many other lips than mine. To some it is brought yet closer by his calm retrospect through sorrow. >24 PREFACE Browning is confessedly a difficult poet, and his difficulty is by no means all of the kind which op- poses unmistakable impediments to the reader's path.
    [Show full text]
  • © L U Isa G Re E N Fi E Ld 2 0
    © Luisa Greenfield 2010 (*1966) MING TSAO Die Geisterinsel Serenade Die Geisterinsel (2010 –2011) chamber opera Miranda: Tajana Raj mezzosporano based on works by William Shakespeare and Johann Rudolf Zumsteeg 50:18 Ensemble Gageego! Prospero: Claudio Otelli bass 1 Steine Fernando: Daniel Kluge tenor Cecilia Vallinder mezzosoprano 2 Blumen Caliban: Hans Kremer and speaking voices Kate McDermott clarinet Ragnar Arnberg 3 Tiefer ins Leben 14 Serenade (2012) 12:24 Stefan Merki bass clarinet Carolina Grinne oboe/English horn 4 Schrecken, die uns drohn for mezzosoprano and 12 musicians Per Ivarsson trumpet 5 In der Hülle dieses Sklaven Jens Kristian Søgaard trombone 6 15 Orpheus Vokalensemble Fremdling höre meinen Willen If ears were all that were needed... (2007) Mattias Johansson violin for guitar solo 2:26 Michael Alber choir director 7 Vor des nahen Sturmes Grimmen Johanna Persson viola 8 Traurige Korallen My Hellgren violoncello 9 „Where the Bee sucks“ Staatsoper Stuttgart Jonas Larsson percussion 10 Der Sturm TT: 65:26 Martin Ödlund percussion Andreas Noack flute 11 Geisterchoral Mårten Landström piano Michael Kiefer oboe/English horn 12 Ich heiße Caliban Seth Josel guitar Stefan Jank clarinet 13 Sandfall Gunter Pönisch clarinet/bass clarinet Rei Munakata conductor Andreas Spannbauer trumpet 1-13 Staatsoper Stuttgart · Orpheus Vokalensemble · Stefan Schreiber conductor Karen Schade horn mezzosoprano bass tenor Tajana Raj · Claudio Otelli · Daniel Kluge Bernard Leitz trombone If ears were all that were needed… Hans Kremer · Stefan Merki
    [Show full text]
  • Toward an Informal Music…
    Ming Tsao Toward an informal music… In discovering what it means to talk of composition in a post-Postmodern con- text, I found myself revisiting the atonal works of the second Viennese school— some of my favorite music—before twelve-tone technique and, later, serialism had set in. These are works that somehow always seemed to me intuitively yet precipitously balanced between “organization to an extreme degree” and “a tendency toward the chaotic.”1 Indeed, Schoenberg’s Erwartung and Berg’s Drei Orchesterstücke are examples that Adorno points to as stepping stones toward conceiving a musiqué informelle: where the rigor of the compositional act progresses with an “unrevised, unrestricted freedom,” never asserting itself in a way that feels superimposed, arbitrary, or contrived, integrating “a sense of the chaotic, the incommensurate and the disintegrative” through the creative experience of powerful forces for order, including structural and sty- listic consistency.2 Rethinking the idea of an informal music as one in which radically disassociated fragments of cultural perceptions are integrated into a single composition formed by interlocking layers of contextual focus, as Fern- eyhough has suggested, is key toward understanding what a post-Postmodern music could be.3 An informal music has much in common with Adorno’s conception of the essay as form, where an unbroken chain of ideas negates systematic thinking through a discursive logic that takes a critical stance towards historical reality.4 In my view, an essay format for music composition generally resists self-referen- tiality, a quality that often closes a work under the guise of an absolute music.
    [Show full text]
  • Robert Browning 1 Robert Browning
    Robert Browning 1 Robert Browning Robert Browning Robert Browning during his later years Born 7 May 1812 Camberwell, London, England Died 12 December 1889 (aged 77) Venice, Italy Occupation Poet Notable work(s) The Ring and the Book, Men and Women, The Pied Piper of Hamelin, Porphyria's Lover, My Last Duchess Signature Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets. Early years Robert Browning was born in Camberwell - a district now forming part of the borough of Southwark in South London, England - the only son of Sarah Anna (née Wiedemann) and Robert Browning.[1][2] His father was a well-paid clerk for the Bank of England, earning about £150 per year.[3] Browning’s paternal grandfather was a wealthy slave owner in Saint Kitts, West Indies, but Browning's father was an abolitionist. Browning's father had been sent to the West Indies to work on a sugar plantation, but revolted by the slavery there, he returned to England. Browning’s mother was a daughter of a German shipowner who had settled in Dundee, and his Scottish wife. Browning had one sister, Sarianna. Browning's paternal grandmother, Margaret Tittle, who had inherited a plantation in St Kitts, was rumoured within the family to have had some Jamaican mixed race ancestry. Author Julia Markus suggests St Kitts rather than Jamaica.[4][5] There is little evidence to support this rumour, and it seems to be merely an anecdotal family story.[6] Robert's father, a literary collector, amassed a library of around 6,000 books, many of them rare.
    [Show full text]