The Sublime Savage Caliban on Setebos - 1106 Words

The Sublime Savage: Caliban on Setebosnbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; nbsp;Caliban my slave, who never / Yields us kind answer.nbsp; (The Tempest, I.ii.310-1)nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Caliban on Setebos was one of Robert Brownings more popular poems among the Victorians, for its presumed satire of orthodox Calvinism, Puritanism, and similarly grim Christian sects. And Browning as Shakespeares savage does indeed seem to hurl a few barbs in that direction, but the poets exercise seems to be as much one in alternative theology. Calibans bog-bound conjectures, in their significant departures from standard religious doctrine, serve as both an interesting repudiation of Archdeacon Paleys attempts to rationalize God, and as an†¦show more content†¦26) as almost a creative afterthought. The concept of a deity who dwelleth i the cold o the moon (l. 25) influences all of what is to come, for Calibans unhappy living conditions become Setebos, Calibans yoke of drudgery in an unhappy home the kernel for a limited deity ill at ease: / He hated that He cannot change H is cold / Nor cure its ache (ll.31-33). From the very beginning, Calibans nocturnal habits and marginal humanity have produced an interesting variant on traditional religion: that the eventual result will have some resemblances to Brownings rejected orthodox Calvinism is both an interesting philosophical twist and an effective satire. nbsp; Caliban proceeds, Descartes-like, to further deduce the existence, personality, and behavior of his deity, all based on his own condition. Archdeacon Paleys similar natural theology soon becomes ridiculous-looking in comparison with Brownings counter-example. For what Calibans musings most reveal is Calibans own self-serving egotism: with almost every point he proposes, he relates a story or theory of himself in a similar situation, describes his behavior, then attributes the same to Setebos with the recurrent, terse refrain so He. nbsp; Caliban dislikes his condition and wishes he could create servants, distractions, baubles: so Setebos. Caliban, enslaved by a sometimes capricious Prospero, believes in the power of the stronger working