Complete Works (Modern Library)

by William Shakespeare

For Prospero what finally matters is kindness. And this is something that the master learns from his pupil: it is Ariel who teaches Prospero about “feeling,” not vice versa. Ariel represents fire and air, concord and music, loyal service. Caliban is of the earth, associated with discord, drunkenness, and rebellion. Ariel’s medium of expression is delicate verse, whilst Caliban’s is for the most part a robust, often ribald, prose like that of the jester Trinculo and drunken butler Stephano. But, astonishingly, it is Caliban who speaks the play’s most beautiful verse when he hears the music of Ariel. Even in prose, Caliban has a wonderful attunement to the natural environment: he knows every corner, every species of the island. Prospero calls him “A devil, a born devil, on whose nature / Nurture can never stick,” yet in the very next speech Caliban enters with the line “Pray you tread softly, that the blind mole may not hear a footfall,” words of such strong imagination that Prospero’s claim is instantly belied.