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In Shakespeare's play "The Tempest " a spirit named Ariel and a creature named Caliban play significant roles. If one sticks to Shakespeare's text one will learn that both Ariel and Caliban are males. Caliban is the son of the witch Sycorax

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ARIEL Yes, Caliban her son.

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Ariel is a little more tricky since Prospero always speak to Ariel and not about Ariel , but the scenic notes also made by Shaksespeare states clearly that Ariel is a man:

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[Thunder and lightning. Enter ARIEL , like a harpy; claps his wings upon the table; and, with a quaint device, the banquet vanishes]

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At first glance one is not puzzled by this, but reading through the entire play one begins to wonder.

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There are three issues which must puzzle the keen reader I think:

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1.
Ariel and Caliban seem to some degree to be each others' anti-theses.
If this anti-theses should be carried through, on a visual basis, one should be male and the other female, yet both are men.

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2.
In act III scene III Ariel appears as a Harpy, which is a monster half bird and half woman. Ariel could have taken numerous shapes so why the shape of a monster specifically female if Ariel is a man? Many other places in the play Ariel takes on others shapes such as a sea nymph (act I scene II) and Prospero speaks of Ariel as a bird (Act IV) and "my chick" (act V) an expression which today as well as back then was used about women.
Shakespeare uses it himself i e.g. 3 King Henry VI Act V Scene V:

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KING HENRY VI The bird that hath been limed in a bush,
With trembling wings misdoubteth every bush;
And I, the hapless male to one sweet bird,
Have now the fatal object in my eye
Where my poor young was limed, was caught and kill'd.

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3.
The relationship between Prospero and Ariel is at times very intemate as e.g. Act IV:

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ARIEL Before you can say 'come' and 'go,'
And breathe twice and cry 'so, so,'
Each one, tripping on his toe,
Will be here with mop and mow.
Do you love me, master? no?

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PROSPERO Dearly my delicate Ariel . Do not approach
Till thou dost hear me call.

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Or Act V :

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PROSPERO Why, that's my dainty Ariel ! I shall miss thee:
But yet thou shalt have freedom: so, so, so.
To the king's ship, invisible as thou art:
There shalt thou find the mariners asleep
Under the hatches; the master and the boatswain
Being awake, enforce them to this place,
And presently, I prithee.

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ARIEL I drink the air before me, and return
Or ere your pulse twice beat.

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The text clearly says that Ariel is male, but still many situations makes us wonder if that is really so.
If this was intended is a good question. Shakespeare plays with gender many a time in his plays. He lets men dress out as women and women dress out as men. At times women fall in love with the women dressed out as men while the dressed out women fall in love with men.
So indeed the question of the gender of Ariel might be one of Shakespeare's fine jests as well.

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But when all that is said we still stand with the question:
What is the gender of Ariel ?
Should we listen more to the scenic notes?
Or should we listen more to the conversation in the play?
As far as I see none of the choices are right and none of them are wrong. It is a matter of what you stress the most.

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I myself think of Ariel as female even though I am aware that the scenic notes says otherwise. I have, however, never seen The Tempest performed where Ariel was played by a woman.
In the list of shakespeare names I made for the namesake section I sticked to the folio's scenic notes and marked Ariel as male though.

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-Selwyn