Ariel is a magical, airy, spirit servant to Prospero. He bears some similarities to Puck (the mischievous fairy servant to the King of the Fairies in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream). Like Puck, Ariel is quick and alert and ready to fly at a moment’s notice to play some sort of magical prank upon humans.
When Prospero calls him, Ariel reports on his activities during the storm. When the storm was at its height, Ariel boarded the ship and magically transformed himself into fire and lightning to scare the people on board. Further, Ariel was responsible for various sound effects, especially loud thunder (line 205: “sulphurous roaring”), to frighten the passengers and crew even further. As a result, the people on board were frightened out of their wits – they went a little crazy; and the passengers were so maddened that they jumped into the wild and tempestuous sea. The scene parallels Puck’s antics when he decides to scare the simple artisans who are meeting in the forest at night (Act III, Scene 1, of A Midsummer Night’s Dream). Like Puck, Ariel playfully performs his magical tricks in order to serve his master.
Prospero is pleased by Ariel’s report, and the magician’s pleasure is increased when Ariel also confirms that all of the passengers and crew are safe. Ariel also reports that the various passengers are spread out at different points along the island and that Ferdinand, the king’s son, is by himself (according to Prospero’s plans). None of the various groups knows if the others on board the ship have survived or not.
Other ships had been sailing alongside the ship carrying Alonso and Antonio, but Ariel reports that through his magic the people on the other ships “saw the King’s ship wrecked, and his great person perish” (237-38). And, so, these others ships have returned to Naples.
Although Prospero is pleased that events are going as he hoped, he tells Ariel that they still have more work to do that very day. However, Ariel becomes a little moody. Prospero had promised Ariel that he (Prospero) would set the spirit free if Ariel performed his tasks without complaint. In a way, Ariel is not unlike the genie of the Arabian tale “Aladdin.” In that tale a powerful genie is released from a lamp and performs magical deeds for the hero. Although the earliest known version of “Aladdin” dates back to only 1709, Arabian tales of a similar nature were written much earlier and some were known in England during the Middle Ages. Like the genie freed by Aladdin, Prospero had freed Ariel, who had been imprisoned in a tree.
Prospero cannot afford to let Ariel go at that time because he still needs the help of his airy spirit, and the magician reminds Ariel of the trouble he had been facing before Prospero had come to his rescue.
Before Prospero had come to the island, a foul and wicked witch named Sycorax lived on the island. Sycorax had been living in Algiers (in northwest Africa), but the authorities there condemned her for her cruel and terrible acts. They were going to execute her. However, “for one thing she did, they would not take her life” (268-69). In other words, because she was pregnant, the authorities in Algiers instead decided to banish her to the island. Most local authorities would not execute pregnant women at that time.
Ariel at that time was Sycorax’s slave. However, Ariel refused to follow the witch’s “earthy and abhorred commands” (275). Shakespeare implies a double meaning with the word earthy: (1) even today the word can mean coarse or crude, and Shakespeare is also implying that the commands were vile or sinful. (2) The word also literally means of the earth. And since Ariel is a spirit of the air, he would not find it easy to operate in a different element (the four elements of medieval science being earth, air, fire, and water). Because Ariel refused to obey the malicious and vile commands of the witch, Sycorax imprisoned the airy spirit in a pine tree. Shakespeare perhaps chose the pine tree because it was a symbol of immortality and thus would be a permanent prison for the airy spirit. In any event, Ariel was trapped inside the tree for twelve years. During that time Sycorax died, and Ariel did not get out of his prison until Prospero landed on the island and released him. Ariel thus owes his freedom to Prospero.
Ariel thus agrees to be obedient to Prospero and fulfill any commands that he may have. Prospero thus commands Ariel to take the form of “a nymph o’ th’ sea” (304). Like a Christian angel, which, according to early belief, could take the form of either male or female, Ariel becomes female in appearance. But Prospero also commands the airy spirit to be invisible before all others eyes except his. Of course, the audience will continue to see him (or her) as well.