“I’ve driven you crazy, and many mad people are driven to kill themselves in desperation… Your swords are useless against us – you’d be more successful swinging them at the empty air, or stabbing at water, than trying to cut off even one of my feathers.” (Act 3, Scene 3, Lines 58-70)
This quotation is said by Ariel in Act 3, Scene 3 meanwhile the King of Naples and his acquaintances are talking amongst each other. I believe this is an important part to understand because it proves the amount of power in which Ariel obtains and continues too throughout the play. Also in Ariel explains how many would have chosen death than to continue to expand their journey but at this point Ariel cannot let that happen because of how Prospero has planned the future. In addition to that Ariel is confident in explaining how Prospero and himself are untouchable for they possess many powers in which no human knows about. Ariel is a spirit so therefore he cannot be destroyed but rather be in charge or be under someone else’s power which of course must be greater than his.
I have found that this is important to understanding one of the main ideas because of how power/control is mentioned and evident throughout the Tempest. We clearly have read how important Ariel was from the beginning to the very end. Ariel was in charge of putting the whole plot together by getting whatever Prospero wanted , just so he can be freed once again. At the end , Ariel was able to forcefully gather all the characters in one location, and without any problems because they can’t do anything to Ariel.
I also thought Ariel was an important character in the play. I believed that without her, Prospero wouldn’t have been able to accomplish his motives. But one point you made that was interesting was about the theme of power and control. In most plays or movies or books, the female characters are usually presented as a weak character or an unimportant character. There are very few writings where the females are important. So the fact that Shakespeare made Ariel such an important character really breaks that stereotype of females. Like you said above, Ariel was able to force a gather of all the character and was able to accomplish the deeds she was given alone, makes her a strong character. Without her in the play, Prospero probably wouldn’t have succeeded in his plan.
I agree that this quote is a good representation of the importance of Ariel’s character. He plays a crucial role throughout the whole play as Prospero’s loyal servant. He is not a slave by nature and because he knows he will be released and gain his liberty, he is happy to serve Prospero. As a spirit, he has magical abilities, such as being able to shapeshift and turn invisible. His powers are mainly used to foil other characters’ plots to bring down his master Prospero. Ariel performs all of his services with great skill and presentation, and without him there would be no motive to move the story along.