SHAKESPEARE AND PSYCHOGNOSIS 



ESSAY II. MAJOR CHARACTERS OF "THE TEMPEST'" 



By Melanchthon F. Libby 



Ariel: Ideal Type 



As Ariel is called "An Airy Spirit," it might be supposed that his character 

 would defy the inductive method of criticism. But in reality he appears in six of 

 the nine scenes, and many plain but significant facts can be stated concerning his 

 words, actions, and relations to others. He appears in the second, third, sixth, 

 seventh, eighth, and ninth scenes. The thunder and lightning of the first scene are 

 the work of Ariel; or, if one judge by his words to Prospero in scene ii, he is, rather 

 than makes, the lightning. In the second scene we learn that he is Prospero's ser- 

 vant; that he comes to him at his master's wish and command. Without further 

 message, he respects the authority of the grave and learned Prospero. He has 

 remarkable powers over nature, being able to fly, swim, dive into fire, ride on 

 clouds. He has "performed to point" a tempest with terrible accompaniments of 

 lightning, thunder, wind, and wave. Through these dramatic means he has moved 

 men to tricks of desperation. He has dispersed the shipwrecked men in troops about 

 the island. He speaks with vivid powers of narration, and of his own initiative 

 mimics the attitude of the despairing Ferdinand. He has dispersed a fleet.* 



At the mention of more toil he becomes moody. He demands his liberty, desir- 

 ing to follow the play -instinct, and not to serve the ends of his moral and intellectual 

 master. He speaks boldly of the worth to Prospero of his service, which he describes 

 as truthful, free from mistakings, and free from grumblings. 



Prospero, with habitual severity, says nothing in reply to this claim. He pro- 

 ceeds to read Ariel a lesson of gratitude, in the course of which we learn something 

 of the spirit's history. 



Prospero gives us more facts about Ariel: he can walk the bed of the ocean, 

 face the cold of the north, penetrate the veins of the frozen earth. Ariel was the 

 servant of Sycorax before he was the servant of Prospero. This extraordinary fact 

 is fully emphasized. But the gross nature of the ancient rites of Sycorax roused 

 deep revolt in Ariel. For his rebellion he was horribly punished, being imprisoned 

 in a cloven pine, for a dozen years. Sycorax died. Then came an inten^al during 



" Essay I, "The Minor Characters of the Tempest," appeared in No. 2 of this volume of University of 

 Colorado Studies, p. 63. 



" This figure may have been suggested by the popular idea of the time concerning the protection of Eng- 

 land from the Armada. 



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