Ariel is a spirit who appears in william shakespeare play
The Tempest Ariel is bound to serve the magician Prospero, who rescued him from the tree in which he was imprisoned by
Sycorax , the witch who previously inhabited the island. Prospero greets disobedience with a reminder that he saved Ariel from Sycorax's spell, and with promises to grant Ariel his freedom. Ariel is Prospero's eyes and ears throughout the play, using his magical abilities to cause the tempest in Act one which gives the play its name, and to foil other character's plots to bring down his master.
The source of Ariel's name and character is unknown, although several critics have pointed out his similarities to the Ariel mentioned in
Isaiah chapter 29 in the
Bible. The name means
"Lion of the Lord", in this sense. Ariel may also be a simple play on the word "aerial". Scholars have compared him to sprites depicted in other
Elizabethan plays, and have managed to find several similarities between them, but one thing which makes Ariel unique is the human edge and personality given him by Shakespeare.
Since the stage directions in
The Tempest are so precise, critics and historians are better able to see how this play may have originally been performed than with other Shakespearean plays. Several of the scenes involving magic have clear instructions on how to create the illusion required, causing critics to make connections and guesses as to exactly what sort of technology would have been used in Shakespeare's troupe to stage
Ariel's role in the play. Also, a line by
Ariel in Act IV brings other scholars to ask questions as to whether the original actor for Ariel played the part for ceres as well, due to a shortage of boy actors.Ariel is widely viewed as a male character, although this view has wavered over the years, especially in the Restoration,
when women played the role, for the most part. Ariel has also been involved, though lightly, in the debate over the colonialist nature of the play, as scholars have tried to determine how he compares to the more rebellious Cliban in terms of service to the European Prospero.
Ariel first appears in the second scene of the play to
report to Prospero on his success in carrying out his command to
shipwreck the King of Naples and his crew in a violent tempest. Ariel adds that, as commanded, he saw that none of the group were harmed, but that all landed safely on the island, scattered and separated along the coast. After being praised by Prospero, Ariel pleads for his freedom from the magician's service in return.
Prospero declines, reminding him of the state he was in before Prospero rescued him: Ariel had been trapped by the witch Sycorax in a "
cloven pine" as a punishment for resisting her commands.
After 12 years of pain (and the death of Sycorax), Ariel was released from his prison by Prospero, who pressed the spirit into his service. The magician denies Ariel's request for freedom at this time, but promises that on the condition he follows the rest of his commands, he will grant his wish in two days. For the rest of the play, Ariel is Prospero's eyes and ears—spying on the shipwrecked sailors in invisible form, but only Prospero can see Ariel.In the second act Ariel briefly appears to stop a conspiracy to kill Alonso, King of Naples, whose brother (and heir to the dukedom), Sebastian, plots to kill him in his sleep. Ariel sings in the ear of Gonzalo, a councillor to Alonso, to wake him and foils the plot. Ariel also appears in Act Three to foil
Caliban's plot to turn the sailors against Prospero and murder him. Later in the same act, he appears with a clap of thunder and rebukes those who were involved in the plot to banish Prospero to the island, displaying his fearful power to the men. He is later called on to gather the spirits of the island before Miranda and Ferdinand, and to bring Trinculo, Stephano, and Caliban before Prospero for judgement.In the
final act, Ariel releases the prisoners of Prospero and awakens what is left of the crew of the ship from a deep slumber. Thanks to Ariel's work, Ferdinand and Miranda have fallen in love. Prospero is so impressed by Ariel's matchmaking that he says that he would set Ariel free for that one act. Thus, having fulfilled Prospero's tasks, and Prospero himself now being free to leave the island, Ariel is set free.
The
'-el' ending of Shakespeare's name translates in
Hebrew as 'God,' placing Ariel inline with more benevolent spirits, many of which were listed in sorcery books published in Shakespeare's day with similar suffixes. Jewish demonology, for example, had a figure by the name of Ariel who was described as the spirit of the waters. Another spirit,
Uriel, is also comparable. In
Isaiah 29, an Ariel is mentioned as another name for Jerusalem.
Though the actual source Shakespeare used has not yet been determined, it seems clear that Shakespeare's Ariel and his relationship with Prospero reflects more closely the Renaissance idea of a neutral spirit under the control of a magician than the religious idea of a sprite. Shakespeare, however, refuses to make Ariel a will-less character, infusing him with desires and near-human feelings uncharacteristic of most sprites of this type.
Later
Act IV, Scene 1, Ariel says:
"when I presented Ceres / I thought to have told thee of it / but I feared lest I might anger thee."
Earlier in the same scene, Ceres, along with Iris and Juno, had appeared at Prospero's command in a Masque. Scholars have wondered whether Shakespeare originally intended the actor for Ariel to cover Ceres' role, and give it away in this line. The need for a dual role may have been caused by a
shortage of boys capable of playing female parts (b
oys usually played all female roles in Shakespeare's day) as there are many female roles in
The Tempest. This changing of parts requires a change in costume, which explains a lot of Ariel's delay in scene four in carrying out Prospero's orders. Time is allowed for the character to change from Ariel to Ceres and back. On the other side, Ceres may have been associated, by Shakespeare, to the
Kairos figure, related to rhetorics, personating the opportune moment to present the convincing argument in a speech. arly critics were skeptical of the idea, saying that "
presented Ceres" could merely mean that he introduced him to the gathering. More recent studies, however, have revealed that, given the small number of boys traveling with the King's Men and the large number of parts for them to fill, there would have been little choice in the matter. The entire scene comes together in a way that leads scholars to believe that the Masque scene with the three goddesses was added as an afterthought in order to work around costuming and role-playing issues.In all textual versions Ariel is referred to with the
male pronoun "his" twice in the entire play.
"
Thunder and lightning. Enter ARIEL, like a harpy; claps his wings upon the table; and, with a quaint device, the banquet vanishes.
"
All hail, great master! grave sir, hail! I come
To answer thy best pleasure; be't to fly,
To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride
On the curl'd clouds; to thy strong bidding task Ariel and all his quality."