Within his enslavement to Prospero, Ariel becomes more and more trapped as the play progresses, largely because he becomes more emotionally involved. Following the chronology of his increasing enslavement, Ariel’s place of physical confinement is in the left half of the frame and the words and pine cones representing his more complex psychological confinement are on the right. I used the striking line, “Do you love me, master?” to represent Ariel’s mental confinement within his enslavement to Prospero (4.1.48). I elected to leave out the word “master” in my piece to capture the essence of Ariel’s sentiment more sympathetically, and focus on Ariel's emotional need for "love." The phrase's connection to Prospero is contextually defined nonetheless. Though physical confinement, like Ariel’s in the tree, may seem more intuitively inescapable than anything, Ariel’s emotional attachment to Prospero proves more gripping when it leaves the reader questioning if he would be able to leave his master even if his enslavement “split,” or presented an opportunity to escape, like the tree. In the end, Ariel’s emotions are more inescapable than anything. Unlike the dead, harmless, already-split tree on the left, the falling seeds sown in Ariel’s mind with each of the words in his question are bound to grow into incredible prisons.
For my creative project, I chose to represent Ariel’s enslavement to Prospero and his confinement in their relationship in Shakespeare’s The Tempest using a black ballpoint pen drawing. I attached my overall impression of Ariel’s involvement in the creation of his confinement and its layers to the motif of the “cloven pine,” as the first place Ariel was physically confined (1.2.276). Since reading The Tempest, I’ve been especially interested in the different degrees of confinement visible in Ariel and Prospero’s relationship. For simplicity, in my drawing, I sought to represent two: emotional and physical confinement. The larger tree on the left represents Ariel’s physical confinement, which has been mitigated by Prospero’s aid in his liberation. However, in the play, Ariel is far from free when he escapes the tree–now dead and harmless in my drawing–because he’s Prospero’s indentured servant instead.
Within his enslavement to Prospero, Ariel becomes more and more trapped as the play progresses, largely because he becomes more emotionally involved. Following the chronology of his increasing enslavement, Ariel’s place of physical confinement is in the left half of the frame and the words and pine cones representing his more complex psychological confinement are on the right. I used the striking line, “Do you love me, master?” to represent Ariel’s mental confinement within his enslavement to Prospero (4.1.48). I elected to leave out the word “master” in my piece to capture the essence of Ariel’s sentiment more sympathetically, and focus on Ariel's emotional need for "love." The phrase's connection to Prospero is contextually defined nonetheless. Though physical confinement, like Ariel’s in the tree, may seem more intuitively inescapable than anything, Ariel’s emotional attachment to Prospero proves more gripping when it leaves the reader questioning if he would be able to leave his master even if his enslavement “split,” or presented an opportunity to escape, like the tree. In the end, Ariel’s emotions are more inescapable than anything. Unlike the dead, harmless, already-split tree on the left, the falling seeds sown in Ariel’s mind with each of the words in his question are bound to grow into incredible prisons.
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