the Ariel Convex Mirror

The Ariel convex mirror is a classic in my work.  The silver-leafed frame is filled with Venetian glass rods and small glass spheres.  The “rays” are quartz crystal.

This mirror is about 10 inches in diameter.  It is being placed in my Atlanta showroom, Ainsworth-Noah.  Call  (404) 231-8787 for more!

Jewelry for walls.

Ariel is a spirit who appears in William Shakespeare’s play The Tempest( written late in his life around 1610-1611).  Ariel is bound to serve the magician Prospero, who rescued him from the tree in which he was imprisoned by Sycorex, the witch who previously inhabited the island. Prospero greets disobedience with a reminder that he saved Ariel from Sycorax’s spell, and with promises to grant Ariel his freedom. Ariel is Prospero’s eyes and ears throughout the play, using his magical abilities to cause the tempest in Act One which gives the play its name, and to foil other characters’ plots to bring down his master.

Ariel’s name means Lion of God. Ariel may also be a simple play on the word “aerial”. Scholars have compared him to sprites depicted in other Elizabethan plays, and have managed to find several similarities between them, but one thing which makes Ariel unique is the human edge and personality given to him by Shakespeare.

Because the stage directions in The Tempest are so precise, critics and historians are better able to see how this play may have originally been performed than with other Shakespeare plays. Several of the scenes involving magic have clear instructions on how to create the illusion required, causing critics to make connections and guesses as to exactly what sort of technology would have been used in Shakespeare’s troupe to stage Ariel’s role in the play. Also, a line by Ariel in Act IV allows scholars to ask if the original actor for Ariel also played the part of Ceres, due to a shortage of boy actors.

Ariel is widely viewed as a male character, although this view has wavered over the years, especially in the  Restoration, when, for the most part, women played the role.