Summary
Suddenly, Trinculo and Stephano recognize each other. They are excited to see one another and Trinculo tells him that he floated to shore atop a barrel. Stephano tells him he floated on his stomach—"nearly the same thing"—and they discuss what to do about Caliban. Stephano offers Caliban the bottle and Caliban drinks a little bit.
The two men discuss the shipwreck and the fact that it wasn't so bad after all. Stephano suggests that the shipwreck "...got rid of a lot of old farts that were always keeping the world down!" He remembers that Trinculo liked the kings and dukes, but that he never liked them. "Down with tyrants!" he says. They believe that the King and Duke are dead, and Stephano crowns himself king of the island.
All of a sudden, Caliban yells "Long live the King! But beware the usurper!" and tells Stephano and Trinculo about Prospero, who he says took the island from him. "...This island used to belong to me, except that a man named Prospero cheated me of it," he says. They drink and sing together. Stephano instructs them to rest, so that they can prepare to take down the tyrant, Prospero.
Scene 3. In his cave, Prospero instructs Ariel to gather all of the gods and goddesses to entertain the children. He tells Ariel that he wants to introduce the children to "the spectacle of tomorrow's world: logic, beauty, harmony, the foundations for which I have laid down by my own will-power."
The Gods and Goddesses enter and perform, followed by Nymphs. Ferdinand and Miranda are enchanted by the gods, when suddenly Miranda notices another god who she thinks must be a Devil. Eshu laughs and says that he is a God to his friends, but a Devil to his enemies. "What are you doing here?" Prospero asks. Eshu laughs and says that since no one invited him, he had to invite himself. He alludes to the fact that he likes eating dogs, which shocks Miranda, and Prospero shoos him away. Eshu agrees to leave, but sings a song about himself and his trickery.
The song is about how Eshu plays a lot of tricks and throws everything into chaos. "Eshu is a merry elf,/And he can whip you with his dick,/He can whip you,/He can whip you..." he sings. The Greek gods talk about how the song is obscene, and leave, as Prospero struggles to get Eshu to leave.
Prospero summons Ariel and complains to him that Caliban is gathering a guerrilla force. He instructs Ariel to send a fleet of poisonous creatures to punish Caliban. Ariel tries to defend Caliban, saying, "You've got to understand: he's a rebel." Prospero tells Ariel that Caliban's insubordination has made an imbalance in the spiritual and supernatural world of the island, and instructs him to leave some trinkets and brightly colored secondhand clothes on the side of the road to attract Caliban. "I will not compromise with evil," he says, angrily.
Scene 4. The spirits speak to each other in the forest during the night. An ant, a fly, a vulture, crabs, calaos, hummingbirds, and others all chatter. As the sun rises, and the spirits disperse, Caliban stands and delivers a monologue about all of the creatures that are trying to bite him. "Prospero is Anti-Nature! And I say, down with Anti-Nature!" Caliban yells.
Analysis
Trinculo and Stephano are parallels of one another, both low-status characters who are trying to get by and are exceedingly indulgent. Trinculo is a jester with a drinking problem, while Stephano is a butler with a drinking problem, and they both share a certain bumbling quality. When Stephano stumbles upon Trinculo, imagining him to be a bodily extension of Caliban, the two are momentarily locked in a moment of suspended comprehension, each recognizing the other, but failing to put together what exactly is happening.
With Trinculo and Stephano, we see the issue of class discrepancy among white characters brought into view. Trinculo and Stephano are no less racist or violent in their views of Caliban than their higher-ranking associates, but their status is lower than the white kings and dukes that we have encountered thus far. In many ways, Trinculo and Stephano are foils for Ariel and Caliban, only instead of discussing differing approaches to racial difference and discrimination, they discuss their differing approaches to class discrimination. Stephano the butler notes that Trinculo the jester actually likes the noblemen he serves, while Stephano resents them. Just as Caliban accuses Ariel of foolishness for wanting to make nice with Prospero, Stephano makes fun of Trinculo for actually enjoying the company of the men who keep him down.
Stephano and Trinculo's political critiques are rather superficial, it turns out, and they are soon enough fighting over the crown, believing that the king and duke are both dead. After living their lives subjected to the dominance of tyrants, they immediately want to assume the regal position themselves. There is humor in their hypocrisy, the ridiculousness of their intentions to drunkenly crown themselves, when there are no crowns or republics in sight.
Césaire continues to infuse Shakespeare's story with a critical exploration of colonialism in his introduction of Eshu, a Yoruba trickster god. In a performance that he has staged for Ferdinand and Miranda involving a number of Roman gods, Eshu appears, insisting that "no one invited me," so he had to invite himself. In this moment, Césaire stages a meeting between colonizers and a trickster god that protects the colonized people on the island. This subverts the traditional tale and shows the ways that the inhabitants of the island in the play already had a way of life and a spiritual system before Prospero and the others arrived, and that their arrival has been an intrusion and a marginalization.
Embedded in Césaire's postcolonial angle is an environmental message. While Prospero has gained control of the island politically, he does not quite have control over the natural world. Caliban makes reference to this in his monologue in Scene 4, after Prospero has sent animals to come and punish him for his rebellion. At one point, Caliban yells, "How can any animal—any natural animal, if I may put it that way—go against me on the day I'm setting forth to conquer Prospero! Unimaginable! Prospero is the Anti-Nature! and I say, down with Anti-Nature!" Here, Césaire suggests that Prospero acts against nature, trying to subjugate it to his will, but that he can never have full control of it.
