Describe the character Ariel from The Tempest.

For an airy spirit, Ariel is a complex character. He is a loyal servant to Prospero and yet he wants wants his freedom. He loves nature. He misleads and plays jokes on characters in the play, but he is an emotionally sensitive character who asks for Prospero's love and urges Prospero to show mercy at the end of the play.

When Prospero asks more of Ariel than their agreement, Ariel reminds him of the good work he, Ariel, has already done—and of Prospero's promise of freedom:

Remember I have done thee worthy service,

Told thee no lies, made thee no mistakings, served

Without or grudge or grumblings. Thou didst promise
To bate me a full year.

Ariel looks forward to his freedom from Prospero so that he can enjoy a kinship with nature:

To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride
On the curled clouds...

Always sensitive, Ariel questions Prospero about his love:

Do you love me, master?

Prospero shows that he values this servant, saying:

Dearly, my delicate Ariel.

Near the end of the play, Ariel shows his tenderness of heart and ability to empathize as he describes the "sorrow" and "dismay" of the humans, especially Gonzalo. He says to Prospero:

if you now beheld them, your affections
Would become tender.

Ariel's sensitivity, even though he is not human, encourages Prospero to lean into his own mercy and compassion, causing him to show forgiveness at the end of the play. Prospero says to Ariel that his feelings shall be tender:

And mine [feelings] shall.
Hast thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling
Of their afflictions, and shall not myself,
One of their kind, that relish all as sharply
Passion as they, be kindlier moved than thou art?

Ariel is a loyal, caring, competent, nature loving, and compassionate spirit who sets an example of mercy and forgiveness for Prospero to follow.

What is Ariel's importance at the beginning of The Tempest?

Ariel’s role in the beginning is very significant, because he is the one who conjures the tempest that causes the shipwreck.  He does this at Prospero’s bidding, because he was once imprisoned in a tree on the island by the evil witch Sycorax, and Prospero freed him.  Ariel has been promised freedom from captivity a year early if he performs certain services for Prospero: creating the tempest which causes the shipwreck, setting fire to the mast, and making sure that all the ship’s passengers arrive on the island safely, but in separate groups.  Ariel, who is invisible to all but Prospero, then uses his magic to set up the encounters and events that occur for the rest of the play.

What does the character Ariel represent in The Tempest, considering his words, actions, music, and "spriting"?

We might look at Ariel in Shakespeare's The Tempest as a character of contrasts and arguably one of the most moral characters in the play. Let's examine this more thoroughly to help you form your own opinion of Ariel.

Ariel is a spirit, and therefore, he should be the most free of beings. He has the power to do many things, even cause a storm that is bad enough to wreck a ship but does not take lives. Yet Ariel is not free. He was first the slave of the witch Sycorax, who punished him by imprisoning him in a tree. Then he became the slave of Prospero, who rescued him from the tree.

Ariel seems mostly happy to be serving Prospero, and he does so to the best of his ability. But he still longs to be free. We may wonder why Ariel does not simply try to take his freedom. He is most likely far more powerful than Prospero is, and he could probably overwhelm his master with his magic. Yet Ariel has made a bargain, and he keeps it, even when Prospero delays his freedom. We see, then, that Ariel is a character of contrasts, for he is a slave with immense power.

We can answer the question of why Ariel refuses to take power over Prospero and free himself by pointing to Ariel's moral code. Ariel is a spirit of his word, and he also has a strong sense of the moral meanings behind actions. He feels sorry for those suffering from the shipwreck, for instance, and he is the one who convinces Prospero to have compassion on his enemies and finally make peace. In so doing, Ariel works his way to his own freedom.