Psycho-Existential Displacement in Shakespeare’s The Tempest: A Fanonian Study

This research presents a critique on William Shakespeare’s The Tempest (1623) by using Fanon’s idea of ‘Psycho-Existential Crisis’. Unlike the traditional western criticism that enshrines Shakespeare as the champion of human values and universality, Postcolonial Criticism dethrones and subjects him to Critical Race Theory, Feminist and New Historicist Analogies. Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks (1967) and The Wretched of the Earth (2004) have been used as primary texts with the particular focus on ‘Psycho-Existential Crisis’ that permeates the ideology where whiteness is associated with humanity and one is also required to meet white standards if one wants to be a human. Caliban and many other characters in The Tempest have been depicted with this racist mentality. This research, therefore, puts a lens at the power relationships tracing out the torturing effects of this racist tendency upon the mental and physical health of the people of colour. It challenges Shakespeare’s representation by arguing that Shakespeare was complicit in racial politics.