Although Prospero has traditionally been seen as a European who tried to help the "monster" Caliban become more civilized, in recent decades their relationship has been understood as that of the colonizer and the colonized. In Act I, scene 2, Caliban describes how Prospero first treated him with kindness when he was shipwrecked on the island:
"When thou cam'st first [when you first came]/Thou strok'st and madest much of me, wouldst give me/Water with berries in it ..."
In return, Caliban teaches Prospero how to survive:
"I show'd thee [you, Prospero] all the qualities o' th' isle,/The fresh springs ..." (Act I, scene 2)
However, once Prospero knows how to survive, he betrays and enslaves Caliban, mirroring what colonizers did to native peoples. Only too late does Caliban, for his point of view, learn that he has been conned.
Prospero has a different version of the story. Either he or Miranda, his daughter, depending on which version of the play you read, "pitied" Caliban and took pains to teach him "one thing or another." (Act I, scene 2). Rather than expressing gratitude for their civilizing influence, Caliban showed his "brutish" nature by trying to rape Miranda. In Prospero's eyes, this justifies enslaving him: Caliban is animalistic and cannot be trusted with freedom.
As many critics have pointed out, Prospero's actions show precisely what European explorers did to native peoples: they won their trust, learned what they needed to know from them, then turned around and betrayed them, using the rationale that the natives were savages.
Once Prospero and Caliban have their communication breakdown and Prospero enslaves Caliban, Caliban, not unnaturally, plots with Stephano to kill Prospero.
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