Tristan's Essay

Tristan Yerkes
English 2
Mr. Salsich
27 January 2009
“Ask a Man In For Life, if He Would Take Another Chance:
An Essay On Confinement of Ariel and Caliban In William Shakespeare’s The Tempest”

Confinement is a word with a relatively simple definition: restriction or limitation within the boundaries or scope of something. At first glance, this definition seems pretty clear-cut, but in The Tempest by William Shakespeare, confinement takes on several different roles in the lives of Shakespeare’s characters. Caliban and Ariel’s situations are both defined by confinement, are very different, and also very similar.
Confinement can take many different forms, and in Ariel’s case, she makes a choice that results in her undetermined confinement. Ariel makes the choice to not perform Sycorax’s evil tasks, resulting in her confinement. Prospero retells this decision when he says, “For thou wast a spirit too delicate to act her earthly and abhorr‘d commands.” Ariel made this decision, accepting the probability of her punishment, and so, her confinement. Originally, Ariel had no certainty as to how long she would spend imprisoned, but when Sycorax died, she knew it was for life. Once again, Prospero reminds Ariel of the witches death, saying, “[Sycorax] died and left thee here.” Prospero is perfectly accurate when he says Sycorax “left thee here”, showing that Ariel then had no one to release her, and no hope of becoming free. One may say that Ariel was “confined” with the understanding that that confinement was a death sentence unknowingly self-bestowed upon Ariel when she chose to not perform Sycorax’s evil deeds.
Ariel has her own situation, but Caliban also has a situation he has to deal with. Being horribly disfigured,[OPENER] Caliban was forced into slavery by Prospero. Caaliban led a life on Prospero’s island, lurking about, performing Prospero’s deeds, and lamenting the loss of his witch-mother Sycorax. Caliban did not choose this life, unlike Ariel, he never made a decision that led to his confinement. Caliban had been enslaved for most of his life, beaten, and treated like scum. This treatment sucked away what little hope Caliban ever had of escape or release. Caliban had to live his life this way, disagreeing with his enslavers’ motives. [CLOSER]
Caliban had a hard life, as did Ariel, but they had different lives, with different types of confinement. Caliban had a life of enslaved confinement imposed upon him for no reason, whereas Ariel chose to disobey Sycorax, resulting in her lifelong confinement. Caliban had, not only different reasons for his confinement than Ariel’s, but also a different type of confinement altogether. In ways, the two are essentially identical, but in other ways, they are polar opposites.