The Tempest Act 1 introduces the power struggle between Prospero and Caliban through an intense confrontation which establishes fundamental questions about control and property rights and legitimate authority. Prospero shows himself to be a kind ruler who first treated Caliban with compassion while he describes his role as Caliban’s teacher who gave him the ability to speak and permitted him to wander the island. Prospero believes he has the right to control the territory because he thinks his educational efforts brought knowledge and organization to a region that existed in a state of barbarism.

Caliban, however, tells a very different story. He asserts that Prospero seized control of the island which belonged to him because his mother Sycorax bequeathed it to him. Prospero presents Caliban as an ungrateful character who deserves punishment while Caliban sees himself as a dethroned monarch who has become a slave. The educational experience which Prospero calls “education” arises as a method for him to control people according to his agenda.

The initial observation shows that their fight continues through time because it has become a battle between political powers. Shakespeare presents power on the island as a fluctuating force which emerges from two competing sources of authority which exist in the struggle between Prospero’s intellectual power and civilized authority and Caliban’s aristocratic right to control his ancestral land. Shakespeare presents both characters to the audience for judgment because their presence established competing claims for authority which lead to questions about whether military success ever produces complete legitimate control.