The Significance of Colonialism Essay Example

The Significance of Colonialism Essay Whether it is all consuming character of Prospero, the vainglorious superiority of the Utopians or the savage greed of the first English Virginian colonists; there is a common will exercised in these three literary texts: conquer and take all. It is my aim in this essay to prove how an underlying theme of colonialism is being operated and advocated in these three texts, as a means of the progression and enrichment of a society specifically European and even more specifically white and English. To attempt to discuss the discourse of colonialism in these texts, it is important to locate them in the historical and political climate of the time. During the late 16th and early 17th centuries, England was experiencing a vast array of problems, both internally and externally. The foremost of these were a private-enterprise seaborne war against Spain (James 5), and a litany of potentially subversive Catholics resident within England itself and of course the newly acquired issue of overpopulation. An influential group of English courtiers and councillors, including the Earl of Leicester, Sir Francis Walsingham and Sir Walter Raleigh, (James 5) saw the vision of an expansionist Empire across the sea in the New World as the solution to many of these difficulties. Many plays, pamphlets and images were circulated which accorded with these aspirations. We will write a custom essay sample on The Significance of Colonialism specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The Significance of Colonialism specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The Significance of Colonialism specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer In fact, accounts of the miraculous survival of members of the company of the Sea Adventure, wrecked off Bermuda in 1609, are said to have provided Shakespeare with an immediate source for The Tempest (Tmp) (Brown 48), and there is much evidence to suggest that Shakespeare had America in mind when writing this play as, the spirit, Ariels songs are seen to be based on Algonquian dances and intended Caliban to be representative Indian and Prospero a planter. (Wilson 333). Utopia is said to be inspired by accounts of the communistic way of life observed in some of these new found lands, although it is an imaginary world whose backbone is based upon slavery. Needless to say, Utopia seems to have inspired some of the ideology behind the concept of colonialism during this era, such as this portion from the play Eastwood Ho, which was written by George Chapman, Ben Jonson and John Marston and first performed in London during the summer of 1605. In this fragment, Captain Seagull describes th e wealth of the Virginian Indians: Why, man, all their dripping pans and their chamber pots are pure gold: and all the chains, with which they chain up their streets, are massy gold; all the prisoners they take are fettered in gold; and for rubies and diamonds, they go forth on holidays and gather em by the seashore, to hang on their childrens coats. (James 4) This description bears an uncanny resemblance to the Utopians treatment of gold, written by More almost a century earlier, and proves that Utopia contributed greatly to the adventurous beliefs associated with these new lands across the ocean. they make their chamber pots and close-stools of gold and silverof the same metals they likewise make chains and fetters for their slavesThey find pearls on their coast, and diamonds and carbuncles on their rocks; they do not look after them, but, if they find them by chance, they polish them, and with them they adorn their children (More 25) A Map of Virginia (Virginia) was written by John Smith as a promotional literary piece to encourage new settlers to the Virginia colony, for al is open for labor of a good and wise inhabitant (Smith 80). It is a historical, anthropological and geographical piece of literature which details the people and the commodities of the region and how those commodities may be used and made profitable. Consequently it is evident that a theme of colonialism is deep rooted in these texts, as Tmp and Virginia were written at the epicentre of the expansionist age, and Utopia written at the dawn of this era, when news of these new lands and peoples as just beginning to reach English shores and a dream of an empire was being pondered upon. It is interesting to note that the word colony comes from the Roman colonia which meant farm or settlement, and referred to Romans who settled in other lands but still retained their citizenship (Loomba Colonialism 7). In Tmp, Prospero is ousted from his dukedom of Milan and arrives on the island on which the play is set and sets up his own colonia on the isle, after expropriating it from its previous owner, the poisonous slave (Shakespeare 1.2.319), Caliban. This subjugation of Caliban, is justified by Prospero due to the tyranny of his mother, thy wicked dam (Shakespeare 1.2.320) Sycorax and to his innate savage behaviour, on whose nature / Nuture can never stick (Shakespeare 4.1.188-9). Although when Prospero first arrived on the isle, relations were quite cordial between the two, as Caliban recounts: When thou camst first, / Thou strokst me and made much of me ; wouldst give me / Water with berries int, and teach me how / To name the bigger light and how the less and then I loved thee, / And showed thee all the qualities othisleCursed be that I did so! (Shakespeare 1.2.332-339) Prospero masked his dependence on Caliban for information about the island with displays of physical affectionOnce petted, Caliban now remains penned like a pig, but on a rock barren of all food. Tales of initial native hospitality and sharing of fold and resources were stock-in-trade of English colonisers (Seed 203). Similarly, in Virginia, initial relations were positive, with regards to the relationship between that of John Smith and the Powhatan tribe of Amerindians. When the colonists first arrived in the Cheapeseake Bay area, the people in al parts kindly intreated them (Smith 31/32), and even after some disorder between the two groups, so moved are the Indians by the suffering that the starving colonists are enduring that they even share their corn with them: God the patron of all good indeavours in that desperate extreamity so cha~ged the harts of the Salvages, that they brought such plenty of their fruits, and provision as no man wanted. (Smith 35) After Smith is captured by the Powhatans, he manages to mesmerise them with his knowledge of science and geography, and in doing so is able to trick them into believing that he and his associates are of a superior power to them and come in friendship. This is reminiscent of the way that Prospero once loved and petted Caliban, teaching him how to name the bigger light and how the less burn by day and night. So he had incha~ted those poore soules (being their prisoner) in demonstrating vnto them the roundnesse of the world, the course of the moone and stares, the cause of day and night the largenes of the seas the qualities of our ships, shot and powder, The devision of the world, with the diversity of people, their complexions, customes and conditions. All which he fained to be vnder the command of Captaine Newport, whom he tearmed to them his father. (Smith 16-17 (38)) Prospero and John Smith use their knowledge to gain control over the dominions that they seek to conquer. Prospero has an aide in the spirit Ariel, who can subject the poor Caliban to endure tremendous pain and torments: Thou shalt have cramps,/ Side-stitches that shall pen thy breath up. Urchins/ Shall, for that vast of night that they make thy work, / All excercise on thee. Thou shalt be pinched / As thick as honeycomb, each pinch more stinging / Than bees that made em. (Shakespeare 1.2.325-330)) One of the ways that Prospero marks out Caliban as inferior is by his physical appearance. He is described as a freckled whelp, hag-born-not honoured with a human shape. (Shakespeare 1.2.283-284), and later in Act 2 Trinculo arrives on the island and encountering Caliban, gives a description of his appearance: What have we here-a man or a fish?A strange fish ! Were I in England now, as once I was, and / had but this fish painted, not a holiday-fool there but would give a piece of silver. There would this monster make a man-any strange beast there makes a man. / When they will not give a doit to relieve a lame beggar, they will lay out ten to see a dead Indian. Legged like a man, and his fins like arms! (Shakespeare 2.2.24-34). What Trinculo could possibly be making reference to here is to the possibility that Indians who died in England could have possibly been embalmed, clad in their indigenous attire and put on show for paying audiences, as no records attest to the departure or burial of more than a dozen Amerindians whose presence in England during Shakespeares lifetime is certain (Vaughan 58-59). Calibans subjugation is also justified because he is the spawn of a wicked dam (Shakespeare 1.2.320), the foul witch Sycorax (Shakespeare 1.2.257). There is no doubt that Sycorax was an African woman, as Prospero outlines her banishment from Algiers by the king of Tunis. Sycorax is branded as inferior due to her blackness, her female gender and then finally for the black arts that she practised and did harm with. The magical power that Prospero holds never comes into question for he is a white male and even though his sorcery too is evil and causes harm, he is protected by the colonial hegemony he has establis hed upon the island. Thus Prospero establishes a colonial power which is specifically white and male. He goes to great pains to enroot this belief by reminding the spirit Ariel of the cruel life enforced upon him by the islands old queen: This damned witch Sycorax, / For mischiefs manifold and sorceries terrible / To enter human hearing, from Algiers / Thou knowst was banished-for one thing she did / They would not take her lifeThou, my slave, / As thou reportst thyself, was then her servant,Refusing her grand hests, she did confine theeInto a cloven pine (Shakespeare 1.2.264-277). Prospero sees himself as superior and therefore reasonable in his enslavement of Caliban; because of Calibans assumed physical defects, his lineage from the corrupt witch Sycorax and his uncivilised behaviour. Prospero has confined Caliban on the hard rock (Shakespeare 1.2.343) because of an unsuccessful attempt to rape Miranda, but previous to this act, Prospero and Miranda had attempted to educate and civilise Caliban with disappointing results. Abhorred slave, / Which any print of goodness wilt not take, / Being capable of all ill! I pitied thee, / Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour but wouldst gabble like / A thing most brutish But thy vile race- / Though thou didst learn-had that int which good natures / Could not abide to be with ; therefore wast thou / Deservedly confined into this rock, / Who hadst deserved more than a prison. (Shakespeare 1.2.350-361). Caliban is a failure at learning properly the language that Miranda has gone to such great pains to teach him. Prospero once even once lodged thee/ In mine own cell, till thou didst seek to violate / The honour of my child (Shakespeare 1.2.346-348). Miranda teaches Caliban language with the intention of conscripting him within the project of moral renewal but his wicked deed culminates in him being dispossessed and driven from her presence (Gillies The Figure 194). Calibans fall is reminiscent of Aristotles theory of the natural slave; unable to learn a language succinctly and incapable of bridling his sexual desires, Calibans punishment is a lifetime of servitude and shame. Thus his failure at education and misdemeanour provides Prospero with rationale for the expropriation and enslavement of Caliban. Patriarchal colonial rule is established upon the isle with Prospero as supreme head of state; protecting his pure, virginal daughter (even though she is quite capable of uttering a pr ofanity herself) from the unchecked carnal desires of the deformed Caliban. This preoccupation with preventing sexual connections (or even the threat of such contact) between English women and native men (Seed 211), has proven itself to be an enduring characteristic of many British colonies, where it has often been used the reasoning behind many cruelties and displays of violence (Seed 211). Something that would have resonated with Shakespearean audiences who watched this play were the many images circulating during this time, depicting the Sceptred isle as full and the New World as empty (Seed 205) as English colonists wanted to begin peopling the excess English population into this new territory; a concept which resonates with The Tempest during Calibans speech upon his failed attempt of raping Miranda and therefore unable to realise his dream: Thou didst prevent me-I had peopled else/ This isle with Calibans. (Shakespeare 1.2.348-349) In Virginia, special attention is also paid to the physical appearance and habits of the native Indians. He describes their attire as being assembled in a rude manner and the natives are viewed in subhuman, animalistic terms. In describing the character of the Powhatan tribe, Smith writes: Some are of disposition fearefull, some bold, most cautelous, all SavageThey are soone moved to anger, and so malitious, that they seldom forget an injury (37). (A stark contrast to Smiths description of them as seeming of an honest simple disposition earlier in the text). Smith accuses the Indians of child sacrifice, and of executing a fellow colonist, George Cassen, of a most merciless and cruel method of death (de-jointing a victim, then disembowelling him, finally setting him alight while being bound to a tree throughout the entire ordeal). Although these situations could have possibly occurred, he has evidence to support neither of them. Both accounts are merely hearsay, are hardly objective and obviously entered with the desired effect of swaying the judgment of the reader to thinking of the engrained savage nature of these Indians. There are many other tirades launched against the Indians (despite them saving the colonists from starvation out of compassion) but the cornerstone of his argument for civilising them is their religion, as Smith outlines their Chiefe God they worship is the Diuell. Him they call Oke serve him more of feare then loue. Smith writing this during a period of extreme religious piety in England and the actuality that the majority of the first colonists were God fearing Puritans, highlights the point that Smith was trying to make that these Indians were heathens and to colonise and therefore civilise them was Gods will. And end to the high glory of God, to the erecting of true religion among Infidells, to the overthrow of superstition and idolatrie, to the winning of many thousands of wandering sheepe, vnto Christs foldhave strayed in unknowne paths of Paginisme, Idolatrie and superstition (Smith ?). These new aims that claimed by Smith and his followers are quite different from the aims that Smith acknowledged the Virginia Company had outlined for them as to discover the country, subdue the people, bring them to be tractable, civil and industrious, and teach them trades, that the fruits of their labours might make vs recompence, or plant such colonies of our own that must (Smith ?). The use of religion as a means of suppression advocated by Machiavelli years before hand; he himself having traced the idea back to the foundation of the Roman Empire, when Romuluss successor, Numa Pompilius, finding a very savage people, and wishing to reduce them to civil obedience by the arts of peace, had to recourse to religion as the most necessary and assured support of any civil society (Greenblatt 20). The Virginia colonists aspirations to introduce the Indians to Christianity seem to be very suspicious especially when one considers the occasion when Smith fooled the Indians into thinking he was of a status of a demigod; capable of raising the poor Indian boy from the dead once his brother swore never to steal again. Even though Smith portrayed himself as a staunch Christian and as outlined previously stated that he wanted to bring an end to Paginisme, Idolatrie and Superstition, he exploited the superstitions of the Indians. The Indian king, Powhatan, asked Smith, what will it availe you, to take that perforce, you may quietly have with loue, or to destroy them that provide you food? (Smith). Powhatan was completely aware of the Virginia Companys true intentions, and there was very little Christian compassion and love engrained in them. Like Prospero, once Smith had gotten the information that he needed in order for James Town to prosper, he required a valid reason to force the Indians into submission, for as he said, For we haue a rule to finde beyond your knowledge (Smith). The Utopians, on the other hand, have already mastered the art of subduing and colonising, for although they do not hasten to go into war; when they do, they totally vanquish the enemy. Firstly, they do not use their own men in the war but employ a mercenary army of a neighbouring tribe, the Zapolets, who are a rude, wild and fierce nation, who delight in the woods and rocks, among which they were born and bred up. They are hardened both against heat, cold and labour, and know nothing of the delicacies of life (More 39). Once the Utopians have struck down their enemies and entered into their lands, they never lay their enemies country waste nor burn their corn, and even in their marches they take all possible care that neither horse nor foot may tread it down, for they do not know but that they may have use for it themselves (More 41). The use that they make of these newly conquered lands is to establish somewhat a form of a colony, extracting taxes from the occupied country. When a war is ended, they do not oblige their friends to reimburse their expenses; but they obtain them of the conquered, either in moneyor in lands, out of which a constant revenue is to be paid themThey send some of their own people to receive these revenues, who have orders to live magnificently, and like princes, by which means they consume much of it upon the place; and either bring over the rest to Utopia, or lend it to that nation in which it lies. (More 41). In Utopia, the whole foundation of their civilisation has been founded upon conquest and colonisation. For as their history records: Utopus that conquered it (whose name it still carries, for Abraxa was its first name) brought the rude and uncivilized inhabitants into such a good government, and to that measure of politeness, that they now far excel all the rest of mankind (More 17). The Utopians regard slavery as a normal part of their culture, and similar to Prosperos chastisement of Caliban, use it as the punishment even of the greatest crimes; for as that is no less terrible to the criminals themselves than death, so they think the preserving them in a state of servitude is more for the interest of the commonwealth than killing them; since as their labour is a greater benefit to the public than their death could be, so the sight of their misery is a more lasting terror to other men than that which would be given by their death. If their slaves rebel, and will not bear their yoke and submit to the labour that is enjoined them, they are treated as wild beasts that cannot be kept in order, neither by a prison nor by their chains, and are at last put to death. (More 35). Another sort of slaves are the poor of the neighbouring countries, who offer of their own accord to come and serve them; they treat these better, and use them in all other respects as well as their own countrymen, except their imposing more labour upon them, which is no hard task to those that have been accustomed to it. (More 33). A form of communal living presides in the countryside, people living together in country families, which consist of no fewer than forty men and women in it, besides two slaves (More 17). All of the most menial and unpleasant tasks of Utopian life are performed by these slaves, such as the slaughter and butchering of animals, for they suffer none of their citizens to kill their cattle, because they think that pity and good natureare impaired by the butchering of animals. (More 23). The Utopians regard themselves as morally and intellectually superior to these slaves, but due to their love of education, take it upon themselves to redeem these slaves through knowledge and pestilence.