Postcolonial Discourses in Shakespearean Plays

Postcolonialism is an educated reaction to the western attitude. Around Shakespeare’s time, various explorations and trade were going on. Even several wars between nations in the name of some other ideologies were happening for trade purposes.  In India, the foreign traders realised felt teaching the English language was counterproductive to their purpose; later Christian missionaries succeeded in this and made a huge profit out of this. Using the English language to produce slaves and workers for British administration and Government was the major intention of ‘Macaulay’s Minute’ yet Indians got united through English and started shaking the British Empire. Postcolonialism changed the Education system in India and we were exposed to literature outside the geographical boundaries. When the British started coming into power they were looking down on people who needed civilisation. We can find this through the words and works of Rudyard Kipling which are “White man’s burden” and “Oh, East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet”. This represented the arrogance of the British. Scientific Racist theories emerged which claimed the western chromosome is better and this was tried to explain using evolution, this claim was countered by V K Krishna Menon using the example of Cake overcooked and undercooked. We can find such post-colonial theories and voices against colonialism.

Several Shakespeare plays have postcolonial aspects embedded through the characters, comments, dialogues, and other aspects. There are several minor and major characters in Shakespeare’s play who are from different places and cultures. Few such Postcolonial Discourses of Shakespeare are The Tempest, The Merchant of Venice, Antony and Cleopatra, Othello, etc. The dialogues like: “She defies me, Like Turk to Christian”- As you like It, “Turks with Beard” - Henry V, etc can be found in his plays.

Caliban is a character from the Play The Tempest who represents the occident of the play and the character Prospero as the orient of the Play. Caliban being the actual native of the Island who warmly welcomed and served his guests, Prospero and his daughter, in their worst times is overpowered through magic and made a slave by Prospero. Caliban is taught Prospero’s language through which all he learned is to curse. Prospero is cursing and threatens Caliban when he refuses to do the labour assigned by Prospero. Ariel, another magical spirit is also treated as a slave even though he is treated in a better manner until Ariel shows disapproval to work. Stephano and Trinculo are other characters that does a similar role. Even though they represent comical characters and foolish ones, they change when they listen to Caliban and decide to become his master by provoking him with liquor. The marriage of Alonso’s daughter Claribel to the King of Tunis is cursed by the character Sebastian in the play. Caliban who has never seen liquor in his life thinks that it's the same as the magic possessed by Prospero. Therefore, Shakespeare implicitly legitimates the colonial endeavors because people like Caliban are deprived of humanity from the side of Prospero, and can be regarded as people without history, or culture. So they don’t have any logical claim to sovereignty on their island. In this text, Caliban is introduced as a “savage and deformed slave” and not as a native of the Island.

In Merchant of Venice, the character Shylock is a Jewish Money lender who demands a “pound of flesh” as collateral for giving a loan. He is portrayed as a cruel figure and antagonist of the story. In reality, Shylock suffered a lot because of the Venice citizens and in Christian hands. He was taking revenge for his sufferings whenever he could to these people. Thus we can find the suffering and protest of a colonized in the colonizer’s society. In this play, they have considered the Jews as symbolic of absolute otherness, aliens, mysterious and uncivilized individuals. Shylock is born as an economic symbol as well as a comic and tragic figure in the play. The expressions and words like “Stubborn Turk” in the play represent the mindset and attitude of colonizers toward Non-European inhabitants.

In Othello, we can not only evaluate the attitudes of society towards Moors or Africans and not only the differences but also the racial discrimination a colonized faces. Most of the dialogue composition contributes to the shades of racism. Othello is respected for being a successful general of Venice and a great warrior of that place to lead the expedition against the Turks. But this wasn’t enough to reduce the prejudiced nations of the white Society. Othello has been addressed the names like “the thick-lips”, “the Moor”, “a Barbary horse”, and “an old black ram”. The enmity that has developed by Iago is mainly due to this racist ego that he possessed against Othello. A black moor, an African by birth marries a white princess which is a deep wound on their racist pride, and gradually developed into jealousy and enmity. Barbantio's accusation of black magic on his daughter all such things explore the elements of racism in the text. Anybody who is a Non-European is considered black and somebody who is opposed to Christian values by the Europeans. We can find other racist comments like “malignant and a turbaned Turk”, “Turning Turk”, etc in this play.

Antony and Cleopatra are represented as a text that reveals the shades of stereotypical dark Non-European woman who is portrayed as a seducer and villainess character to achieve selfish motives. In the play, the orphan character Cleopatra is presented as a black beauty who employs her beauty to seduce the warrior Antony to attain her selfish needs and power. The cultural traditions and values possessed by the character Cleopatra connect the readers with the Asiatic style. Her weapons are mainly attributed to her power to seduce and black magic. She is claimed to be a derogatory woman.

If we closely read Shakespeare's Plays through the lens of Postcolonial theory, we can find more of such situations, comments, and attitudes of colonizers towards colonized.

Submitted by

Saranya K P

LEC052151