The Tempest (William Shakespeare) — Complete Play — Practice

Question 1

What is the significance of Ariel in The Tempest? Why does Ariel serve Prospero?

Accepted Answer

Ariel is an 'airy spirit' — a being of pure imagination, fire, and air. Ariel serves Prospero for a specific reason: Prospero FREED Ariel from a pine tree where the witch Sycorax had imprisoned him for refusing to carry out her 'earthy and abhorred commands.' Ariel had been imprisoned for 12 years when Prospero arrived. Prospero released him — and in exchange, Ariel owes Prospero service. The SIGNIFICANCE of Ariel is multiple: (1) POWER: Ariel is Prospero's instrument — he creates the tempest, the harpy vision, the music, the masque. Without Ariel, Prospero's magic is theoretical. (2) MORAL COMPASS: Crucially, it is Ariel who first suggests PITY for the enemies in Act 5 — 'Your charm so strongly works 'em... if you now beheld them, your affections / Would become tender.' This inspires Prospero's turn toward forgiveness. (3) FREEDOM: Ariel represents the artist's imagination — creative, free, longing for release. When Prospero frees Ariel at the end, he frees his own artistic power and his own imagination.

Question 2

Examine Prospero's decision to forgive in Act 5. Is his forgiveness convincing?

Accepted Answer

Prospero's turn to forgiveness in Act 5 is the play's moral culmination. Ariel's description of the suffering nobles moves Prospero: 'The rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance.' He chooses 'nobler reason' over 'fury' — and in doing so demonstrates the highest human virtue. THE CASE FOR GENUINE FORGIVENESS: Prospero has total power — he could destroy his enemies entirely. His choice to forgive is therefore FREELY MADE, not forced. He forgives Alonso (who shows genuine repentance and grief), Sebastian, Antonio, and even Caliban. He frees Ariel. He gives up his magic. THE CASE AGAINST (its incompleteness): Most critically, ANTONIO never repents. His silence in Act 5 is one of the most disturbing moments in Shakespeare — Prospero forgives him, but Antonio offers nothing in return. Is this forgiveness — or something closer to surrender? Furthermore, Caliban remains on the island; his dispossession is not addressed. Shakespeare deliberately leaves these threads unresolved. The play's honesty lies in this ambiguity: forgiveness is shown as POSSIBLE and ADMIRABLE — but its moral sufficiency is left to the audience to judge.

Question 3

How does Shakespeare present the colonial encounter in The Tempest? Is Caliban a victim or a monster?

Accepted Answer

The Tempest is Shakespeare's most sustained exploration of power between coloniser and colonised — a reading that became central to postcolonial literary criticism in the 20th century, though the play was written in 1611, just as England's colonial expansion was beginning. CALIBAN AS VICTIM: The evidence for Caliban's victimhood is woven throughout the play. He had clear PRIOR OWNERSHIP: 'This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother, which thou takest from me' — his claim predates Prospero's arrival by birth, not conquest. Prospero 'civilised' him — taught him language — and then used that civilisation to JUSTIFY enslaving him. Caliban understands the trap: 'You taught me language, and my profit on't / Is, I know how to curse.' The only benefit of the coloniser's gift is the ability to resist him. His LYRICAL SENSITIVITY further undermines the 'monster' label: 'The isle is full of noises, sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not' — this is poetry, not savagery. CALIBAN AS MONSTER: Shakespeare also gives Caliban genuine transgression — the attempted rape of Miranda. He never repents this. His willingness to worship Stephano and offer to serve any master who gives him wine suggests an absence of dignity and self-determination. HIS COMPLEXITY: The most honest reading holds both simultaneously. Prospero CONSTRUCTS Caliban as monstrous to justify enslavement — 'poisonous slave, got by the devil himself.' But Shakespeare gives Caliban lines that unsettle this construction. Caliban is Shakespeare's most morally complex character: victim and transgressor, colonised subject and would-be murderer, lyric poet and slave.

Practice — The Tempest (William Shakespeare) — Complete Play

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