Christine Oatman

The green cursive script above the blackboard is a quote from Shakespeare’s The Tempest, specifically words spoken by Prospero to acknowledge Caliban as his slave. In the context of the tableau, however, the phrase is used in a more metaphorical sense as it relates to the light and dark aspects of human nature as well as racial differences. In Blake’s poem the polarity of black and white/good and evil is also a strong theme.