Aug 12, 2025

Who is Caliban in 'The Tempest'?

Robert Browning’s Victorian reimagining of a theologian under enslavement.

Based on the presentation by Aubrey Plourde, PhD, Assistant Professor of English at the University of Lynchburg

Read the transcription.

Who is Caliban in "The Tempest"?

Caliban is the island’s original inhabitant in Shakespeare’s play. When Prospero arrives and takes control of the island, Caliban is enslaved by Prospero. Characters often treat him as “not quite human.” That mix — original inhabitant yet demeaned and controlled — makes Caliban one of Shakespeare’s most debated figures.

Why Caliban matters in Shakespeare’s play

Caliban shows what happens when power strips away a person’s home and dignity. He is angry about losing his freedom and closely tied to the natural world around him. Because of this, readers interpret him in many ways — as monster, victim, or rebel. The question “Who is Caliban in "The Tempest"?” keeps returning because he does not fit into a single box.

Robert Browning’s reimagining of Caliban

In 1864, the poet Robert Browning wrote the dramatic monologue “Caliban upon Setebos; or, Natural Theology in the Island.” Browning imagines Caliban during a rare break from labor, when Prospero and Miranda are napping and not watching him. In that quiet window, Caliban thinks aloud. He looks at the world around him and talks about God and why life can feel unfair. As he wanders, he plays with creatures on the island — crabs and lizards — and he mucks around with pumpkins. While he plays, he sketches a rough picture of two gods:

Setebos, a powerful and moody maker who can be harsh and careless — a figure that often mirrors Prospero’s power over Caliban
“The Quiet,” a second and distant force that does not seem to care — not cruel but not comforting either Caliban does not expect an easy life now, and he does not count on a better life later. His thoughts match his reality as a person living under enslavement. In Browning’s vision, Caliban becomes a theologian learning from experience, watching nature, and testing ideas as he goes.

What “natural theology” means in this poem

Browning’s subtitle is “Natural Theology in the Island.” Natural theology means learning about God by looking at nature. Caliban looks at storms, animals, and his own actions, then tries to read the world like a book. As the talk sums it up, “Practice is prior to belief.” In other words, Caliban’s actions come first; belief follows.

How Caliban uses play to think about God

If you came here asking “Who is Caliban in ‘The Tempest’?” the short answer is this: He is the island’s first inhabitant who is enslaved by Prospero. In Robert Browning’s “Caliban upon Setebos,” we see a deeper answer: Caliban becomes a thinker. He tests ideas about God while he plays on the island.

Caliban’s rare moment of freedom

Browning sets the scene during a quiet break. Prospero and Miranda are napping. Caliban finally has a little time that is not chained to work. He starts to look around, talk to himself, and try to make sense of the world. The talk explains that he uses this time to “Muse on the nature of his God and on the questionable order of the universe.”

How play becomes Caliban’s way of thinking

Caliban does not write in a book. He does not sit and argue like a professor. He plays. He handles crabs and other small creatures. He saves some and hurts others. Then he asks what kind of god would act like that. In the talk, we hear the line “as it likes me each time I do so he.” Caliban notices his own choices and then imagines a god who chooses in the same way.

He also gets into the mud and uses his body. One vivid description says he is “flat on his belly in the pits … with elbows wide … fists clenched to prop his chin … kicking both feet.” This is learning with the whole self — physical, messy, and real.
Two gods that fit his life

While he plays, Caliban builds a rough picture of two gods.

• Setebos feels powerful, moody, and unsafe, much like Prospero’s power over Caliban “The Quiet” feels distant — it does not hurt him, but it does not help him either
• Caliban does not expect a happy afterlife. He does not even expect relief here. His picture of God fits the life he knows as an enslaved person.

“Natural theology” made simple

Browning’s subtitle is “Natural Theology in the Island.” Natural theology means learning about God by looking at nature. Caliban looks at storms, animals, and his own actions. Then he tries to read the world like a book. Plourd sums up this process with a helpful idea from the talk: “Practice is prior to belief.” In other words, Caliban’s actions come first; belief follows.

Three steps in Caliban’s pattern

1. He notices something broken or unfair, like random deaths of crabs or his own enslavement.
   He acts out the possible causes while he plays, testing different ideas.
   He uses those small experiments to think through what his life might mean.

Making and breaking on purpose

There is a powerful scene where Caliban builds a little structure and then plans to destroy it. He says there is “no use at all in the work for the work’s sole sake … shall someday knock it down again.” He imagines a hurricane that could wipe it away and adds, “who knows why.” These lines show how he practices loss in a safe way. He faces fear and unfairness through pretend, before the real storm returns.

Playing Prospero

Caliban even tries on Prospero’s role. Plourde quotes, “playing thus at being Prospero … taketh his mirth with make beliefs.” By pretending to be the master, Caliban studies power from the inside. He asks what it means to control others and what kind of god would allow it. This is not childish nonsense. It is careful learning through play.

Why play matters for faith

Plourde explains that play is not a waste of time. It is “serious business.” Play lets Caliban test ideas in a low-stakes way. He can imagine different outcomes, rehearse danger, and invent new meanings. Most of all, play keeps belief tied to real life. Caliban’s thoughts about God are born from what he does, not only from what he thinks.

Rethinking religion and the self

Plourde argues that a simple “religion is fading” story is not enough. It says scholars “underestimated the persistence of religion” and “misrepresented what religion actually is.” In other words, faith is not only what you think in your head. It is also how you join a community and how you live.

Caliban’s actions in Browning’s poem fit this bigger idea. He does not sit and argue. He plays. He handles crabs. He makes and breaks little structures. He tries on Prospero’s role. From these actions, he builds his picture of God. As Plourde puts it, “The practice is prior to the belief.” First he acts, then he believes.

A clearer answer to our main question

So who is Caliban in "The Tempest" when seen through Browning’s Victorian reimagining? He is the island’s original inhabitant who is enslaved. He is also a working theologian who uses touch, play, and speech to think about God. His faith is not only belief — it is belonging and behavior. It questions power. It blurs the lines between self and other. It is simple in form and deep in meaning