Ariel himself has faced adversities like Prospero. Trapped under the rule of Sycorax, an evil witch, Prospero liberates him. While this seems to restore the Great Chain of Being, Ariel ends up losing this freedom and is forced to serve Prospero instead. Shakespeare demonstrates Ariel’s unhappiness at this after the actual tempest where he pleads with Prospero for promised freedom. However Prospero at this point is unwilling to restore Ariel to his rightful position. Instead, Prospero wants to further use Ariel to perform the role of a judge in delivering convictions to members of the Court Party in Act III. Ariel still longs freedom at this point; something that Prospero reinstates at the end of The Tempest when he regains own position as Duke of Milan. Shakespeare parallels these events in the play to demonstrate the idea that Prospero is willing to restore the losses of others on the condition that they first help him restore his own losses.
In the aftermath of the storm, Alonso and Ferdinand lose each other; father and son. Alonso grieves greatly while stranded upon the island believing his son to be dead. In reality, Ferdinand is happy and alive and this ‘loss’ is nothing but a construct of Prospero’s imagination. The Tempest deals with the issue of reality and illusion in such situations and this directly ties in with Shakespeare’s presentation of Alonso’s ‘loss’. Alonso has not been dealt a physical loss, in the death of his son as he mistakenly accepts, but rather an intangible one; in the form of the loss of freedom of thought. Every situation presented to Alonso along with the rest of the Court Party on the island has first manipulated by Prospero to portray an illusion. Upon acknowledging his sins, Alonso’s state of mind is restored to reality by Prospero’s revelation of Ferdinand and Miranda playing a game of chess in Act V. Upon his journey to “a clearer life ensuing”, Alonso’s loss of his son and position as king were critical to him being restored back to a world where he has a higher understanding of his actions.
Caliban, in his physical and mental form, is portrayed in a brutish manner. His heritage suggests so; the son of a devil and Sycorax. On the surface, he appears as a sea-monster as Shakespeare presents through Trinculo who mistakes him for a “fish”. The audience learns from Prospero that Caliban is morally incapable; known from his previous attempt to rape Miranda. As a result Prospero punishes and enslaves Caliban. Not only has Caliban lost the island, which at one point belonged solely to him, but he loses his right to behave in the manner he chooses. Prospero notes that Caliban has a nature which “nurture can never stick” – indicating that Prospero believes that Caliban is not capable of improvement. Ariel and the Royal Court Party are restored to their own free lives at the end of the play. However, Shakespeare does not explicitly clarify Caliban’s fate; the audience is left with Prospero’s final command banishing Caliban to his cell. Many critics have interpreted this as a possible signal by Shakespeare that Prospero does not restore Caliban to a state of independence. Restoration almost always follows loss in The Tempest but there are instances, such as Caliban’s, where this is not the case.
Much of the main action is centred on Prospero in The Tempest. He is the ‘kingmaker’ and, with assistance of the characters actions on the island, determines their fate. Prospero’s decision to conjure the storm inflicts a series of losses upon the Court Party in the shipwreck. During their time on the island, they experience remorse inspired by Ariel who, like the island characters, has suffered a loss of freedom. Prospero surrenders his powers as a mage at the end and restores freedom to most of the characters; satisfied with the thought that those who have offended against him have acknowledged their sin.
