Is Caliban a sympathetic character or a villian?

Question

Explain your choice and show a supporting passage from the play, The Tempest. I need to have a paper down on this by tomorow!

Answer 1

Well, Shakespeare intended him to be a villain. He attempts to rape Miranda (1.2.349) He joins in with the clowns to kill Prospero in the second half of the play (3.2.55). But in our PC world, he is seen as the victim. Prospero came to the island and enslaved him (1.2.313), and anything Caliban does after that is justified.
You'd probably score more points with your teacher taking the victim route, but Shakespeare clearly intends Caliban to be a comic villain. (Comic villain, because we know his plan never has any chance of working.)