I chose to try and look a little deeper into The Tempest. I didnt really have a path that I knew I wanted to take, so I just searched randomly for articles. I came across an article by Katherine Steele Brokaw titled "Ariel's Liberty."
I found the article rather interesting of how it discusses the "preformed Ariel." It goes to describe the different portals and how the role really allows for each actor/actress to portray her completely different. It was also interesting to read that s/he is such a dynamic character that often directors will chose to cast several actors/actresses to preform Ariel so that they can full capture all of the aspects of her/him.
The article then goes on to state how most of Shakespeare's characters are very specific on how to be played, yet Ariel has a million possibilities of how it could be pulled off. I find it interesting that Shakespeare chose to do this for Ariel and it seems to be because s/he is not "real." He seems to have wanted Ariel to be very ghost like and un real. The name Ariel may have been a play on "aerial" further emphasizing this idea of an unreal spirit.
This article makes me want to watch a performance of the Tempest which I play to do this weekend. I will have to focus specifically on the portrayal of Ariel. It also makes me want to go back and pay more attention specifically just to Ariel and the vagueness and where there is the room for interpretation. I wish I had access to several adaptations so that I could compare them. Perhaps I will try to find some different You Tube clips.
This was pretty interesting and something I hadnt thought about.
Brokaw, Katherine Steele. "Ariel's Liberty." Shakespeare Bulletin 26.1 (2008): 23-42. International Bibliography of Theatre & Dance with Full Text. Web. 13 Jan. 2012. <https://www.lib.byu.edu/cgi-bin/remoteauth.pl?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ibh&AN=31603658&site=ehost-live&scope=site>.
Ariel is such an intriguing character. I read the entire play and still have no idea is Ariel is a boy or a girl! I think this contributes to making Ariel seem unreal--we don't even know if it is a boy or girl.
ReplyDeleteI found a cool clip from the recent movie rendition of The Tempest that showed Ariel as an unclothed almost transparent figure (boy). But then later in the movie they show 'him' as almost a demonic angel. Let me know what you find visually in the version you watch. :)