Caliban is what Marie-Louise von Franz would call “the shadow” character in this play. This is because all of the other characters in the play see Caliban as a lesser being in which many negative qualities are apparent.

“When an individual makes an attempt to see his shadow, he becomes aware of (and often ashamed of) those qualities and impulses he denies in himself but can plainly see in other people—such things as egotism, mental laziness, and sloppiness; unreal fantasies, schemes, and plots; carelessness and cowardice

These qualities are also those that many people claim to be most apparent in homeless individuals in today’s society. Many people believe that the reasons that homeless people can not afford food or shelter is because of their laziness or lack of good qualities which resulted them in losing employment. This, however is only true for perhaps a small portion of homeless people. Often, highly educated individuals that previously maintained respectable jobs have landed on the street after some trauma in their lives such as a death in the family. Also, nationally, mental illness accounts for twenty to twenty-five percent of the single adult homeless population. And around fifteen percent of homeless individuals left their previous homes due to domestic violence.

These reflect the qualities that are despised the most in a civilized society, and of which many can be found in Caliban’s character.

The result of homeless people being viewed as this “shadow” is something along the lines of extreme social exclusion. There have been reports of homeless people being treated with great fear and disrespect, and are not even allowed in some public places. All of this is simply because people see these negative qualities in homeless people whether or not they even actually exist. However, the results of the views of homeless people are not nearly as bad as those that other cultures have been put through. Some cultures, such as the Jewish people during World War II were even executed in great numbers simply because of their ethnicity. This act of exterminating peoples of an ethnic group is called genocide.

In America, those in power, the United States government, often think of homeless people as a weak link in society. This is because many of these officials believe that homelessn

Some topics in this essay:
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