Caliban and Ariel -The Tempest

Shakespeare often used certain themes or characters throughout many of his plays. One such theme that is present in many of his plays in the idea of magic and the supernatural (although many of his tragedies have such elements, only two of his comedies have this trait). Those two comedies are "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "The Tempest". Both plays have a magic element that is the driving force in the play and the reason …

…body. The spirit Ariel can, in a way, be seen as being ubiquitous Ariel is considered to be beyond humanity at the spiritual end of the scale and Caliban is beneath humanity at the animal end of the scale. In addition, Ariel rides "on the curl'd clouds" and Caliban lives on "this hard rock." Caliban and Ariel exist at opposite sides of the spectrum and because of this, they are like foils to each other.