Ariel of Shakespeare's The Tempest

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, Shakespeare's Ariel: A lady and a gentleman. ;)

We're going to take a look at how different adaptations of Shakespeare's The Tempest portrayed Ariel as either a man or a woman.

We only have "half-a-day" to browse all of these.

So, let's begin! :)

The most usual depiction of Ariel is a woman in light clothing - white in most cases.

Here, we can see Prospero giving orders to our heroine (for the meantime) who appears to be floating and is in an illusionary form.

*As depicted by William Hamilton.

This painting nearly tricked me into thinking that this Ariel is a "He". But looking closely at her long hair and covered bosom, I decided to classify this under "Ariel is a She-under-a-bat category".

*As depicted by Henry Fuseli, 1800-10

Ariel, from the 1600's to the 1930's, is always portrayed as a woman. Stage castings and paintings retained this notion until the restoration period, from which male actors took over the role.

*Portrait of Priscilla Horton as Ariel, 1838

"Where should this music be? i' the air or the earth?" -Ferdinand

Here, he is being lured by the song of Ariel, who is invisible to him. (It was explained by the artist that the green coloring of Ariel camouflaged with nature's color, thus rendering her invisible to the man's eyes.)

*Ferdinand Lured by Ariel by John Everett Millais, 1852

From one medium to another. We now have here a performance still from The Tempest (2001, Shakespeare and Company, USA). Take note of this Ariel not wearing her usual white clothing.

And look! She's not floating/flying/levitating! She's in a ladder.

*Kristin Wold as Ariel. Photographed by Kevin Sprague. 2001

From the Marin Shakespeare Company, here is an Ariel unique from others. This is one of the few instances that Ariel was not portrayed by a white actress (aside from men portrayals, of course).

Also, take note of the radical substitutions on Ariel's wardrobe design.

*Cynthia Ruffin as Ariel

This might not be "Ariel" but this Ariel "costume" caught my attention.

Made by deviantart user gingerbread81288, this color also strays away from the usual white silk costume of Ariel in theatres (for they can't have naked Ariels like those on the paintings.) ;)

*Again, by gingerbread81288

Ariel with Caliban.

This is a deviantart user entry depicting Ariel with a petite, cartoonish figure. And yes, this is the 2nd most usual get-up of Ariel (plus the wings).

*By deviantart user zirofax

Meet Ariel.

The mischevious spirit.

We can see Ariel here manipulating two of the characters in The Tempest. This image is a good metaphor as to how big Ariel's role is in Prospero's plan.

Ariel is wearing Kabuki inspired clothing in a red hair in blue skin. Cool I know.

*By deviantart user lamech77

We're almost done so let's take a look at the "real" gender of Ariel based on the text.

"All hail, great master! grave sir, hail! I come

To answer thy best pleasure; be't to fly,

To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride

On the curl'd clouds; to thy strong bidding task Ariel and all HIS quality."

So here's Ariel using oil on canvas, size approximately 39.5 x 49.5 inches, at Tate Gallery, London.

*Ariel on a Bat's Back by Henry Singleton, 1819

Ariel again in a bat.

Another instance in the play where a male pronoun is used to illustrate his gender appears in III.iii.52:

"Thunder and lightning.

Enter Ariel, like a harpy;

claps HIS wings upon the table;

and, with a quaint device,

the banquet vanishes."

It's not a matter of "To be or not to be [a boy]".

Shakespeare really wanted Ariel to be a boy.

Cameron's Avatar?

Not quite.

This one is a play at Stratford starring good 'ol Christopher Plummer as Prospero.

That boy in blue?

Oh yes, he's Ariel.

*Julyana Soelistyo as Ariel

TIME'S UP!

I guess that's it for today.

Hope you enjoyed our short excursion regarding Ariel's gender(s). ;)

See you next time. :)

12

11

1

2

10

9

3

8

4

7

5

6