Potrayal of the subaltern in The Tempest

Abstract

The paper discusses the representation of subalterns in The Tempest by William Shakespeare, paying special attention to the silencing of the voices of lower classes and women. Caliban is the colonised and silent figure, and Miranda is the only woman in the play who is dominated and manipulated and used by her father, Prospero. By these characters, Shakespeare reveals how the ruling class possesses power and uses it over them. To explore this, the study uses Marxist feminism to bring out the connection between the oppression of classes and gender. The stance of Miranda reveals the fact that women are made property both in the patriarchal and the class hierarchy. The theory of power by Michel Foucault elaborates further on how power can work not only by rulers but also by knowledge and language, as well as everyday practices. This manipulation, though unobtrusive, is shown in the fact that Prospero has power over magic, education, and speech. Another politics that is present in the play is that of the upper classes, where Prospero as the representative of the ruling elite,can continue to dominate through silencing the voices of the subalterns, such as Caliban and Miranda. Instead of being passive victims, their struggles also demonstrate how power marginalises and erases the bottom. After all, The Tempest can be seen as much more than a magical story and as a text that dramatizes the silencing of the subaltern. This study argues that Shakespeare’s play should be read as a critique of how power, class, and gender intersect to suppress marginalised voices, especially those of colonised subjects and women.