his freedom, as he expresses early in the play. Prospero, pleased with Ariel's good and faithful service, promises to free him if he will simply do his bidding for a few more days. Prospero is depending on Ariel's many magical powers and command of lower spirits as he plans his revenge on those who wronged him.

Ariel is musical and has a sense of fun that makes doing magic enjoyable to him. However, he is most notable for his empathy and capacity to feel. Although he faithfully does Prospero's bidding in rounding up and frightening the "shipwrecked" souls on whom Prospero wants to wreak revenge, Ariel also feels sorry for them. As he informs Prospero in act 5, Prospero, too, would feel pity and compassion if he could see the wretched state they were in.

The mercy that Ariel, a mere "airy spirit," feels toward the other humans has a profound impact on Prospero, drawing out his better self. Prospero decides that if Ariel can feel for the captives, he, too, should be able to arrive at a place of mercy. He therefore makes the decision to take what he realizes is the rare path of forgiving his enemies.

Ariel is a sprite or spirit who Prospero frees when he arrives on the deserted island. The delicate, airy Ariel had been imprisoned in a cloven (split) pine tree by the evil witch Sycorax because he would not do her bidding.

Ariel has a kind nature and is grateful to Prospero for freeing him. As such, he acts as a foil, or opposite, to the angry Caliban. Although Ariel would like his freedom, he willingly and obediently works as Prospero's slave. As the play opens, Prospero promises to free Ariel if he just does his bidding for two more days. Ariel agrees.

Ariel enjoys his work bewitching the other humans, as he loves the music, enchantment, and beauty his tasks of deception involve. He is quick, competent, and intelligent about his work.

Ariel shows his loyalty when he interferes with a plot against Prospero's life in act 3, when Caliban plans to use the shipwrecked sailors to kill Prospero in his sleep.

Perhaps Ariel's most important quality is his sense of compassion. When he has to gather the frightened men who dethroned or threatened Prospero together to await Prospero's revenge, he reports back to his master that he feels for their sufferings. He says,

Your charm so strongly works 'em
That if you now beheld them, your affections
Would become tender.

Prospero is so moved that Ariel, a mere spirit, would feel "a touch, a feeling / Of their afflictions" that he decides to show mercy to his former foes.

Ariel is a complex character. He, she, or it (Ariel's a spirit, and the sex is never specified) seems quite fond of Prospero at times, but quite resentful at others. Ariel is like Caliban in that both serve Prospero. Ariel was bound in a "cloven pine," by Caliban's mother, then freed by Prospero. Ariel has to serve him as a result.

Flexible, changeable, magical, all of these are Ariel. Ariel is a servant, but like a second daughter to Prospero in some ways. Ariel takes joy in the exercise of magic for its own sake, and so in that sense is more pure than Caliban (or even Prospero, for that matter).