Prospero's Hypocrisy

One thing is evident throughout the play, Prospero has power beyond normal limits, and he uses it often.  Ariel is Prospero's magic invisible being who was freed by Prospero after he was locked up by Sycorax.  Prospero says that he will let Ariel go free if he obeys his orders, yet I found that Prospero was very hypocritical.  He wants revenge on his brother for taking over his power, yet he does not free Ariel right away.  Prospero forgets that he too was forced to do something, in his case be sent away from Milan, and he acts the same way towards Ariel.
I also found it interesting that Ariel was not a woman.  This is not because of his name, but rather because of the status of women during Shakespeare's time.  I would have expected Ariel, who is a servant to Prospero, to be a woman because that is what woman were back then, just obedient to men.  The fact that Ariel was a man does show that status also had a major part in social affairs, and it wasn't just based on sex.  The men standing on the floor, or the groundlings, at the theater might have even felt a connection to Ariel because he was someone they could relate to in that they did not have power in society.

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