Comparing Ariel And A Midsummer Night Dream By William Shakespeare

In contrast, Ariel refers to Prospero as ‘you’ whereas Prospero refers to Ariel as ‘thou’. This highlights the formal and informal behaviour of the two fairies and their masters’ respectively. The reason for this is because Puck is like a friend to Oberon and is thus free to make mistakes although he is scolded for making them. Conversely Ariel is a slave who is not at liberty to make mistakes as his promise of freedom will be put in jeopardy. The friendly relationship between Oberon and Puck requires Oberon to ask Puck for favours whilst Prospero commands Ariel to carry out tasks. Additionally, Puck’s magic is natural whereas Ariel’s magic is controlled by Prospero who has learnt the Art thus Ariel’s magic also has a learned aspect (Hibbard, Adumbrations of The Tempest in A Midsummer Night Dream pg. 78). The fact that Puck is presented as a
Shakespeare strives to construct events and characters that have a high verisimilitude in order to convince and captivate his audience. For instance The Tempest play begins with a bit of practical navigation in the storm in which no expert can find any flaw (Doak, Soliciting Shakespeare, pg. 327). The nautical awareness that Shakespeare shows in manoeuvring the ship suggests that he may have conversed with an experienced sailor prior to writing The Tempest to incorporate such realism in his text. In the next scene Prospero is introduced as magus sporting a robe and a wand. Shakespeare gives Prospero some of the ordinary appendages of the professional magician of his time. Each item that Prospero is adorned with has a peculiar virtue. His robe is only worn by him when he is performing magic which can be seen when he creates the illusion of a storm. Subsequently when he attempts to enlighten Miranda about her origins he says ‘lend thy hand and pluck my magic