Who is Sycorax in The Tempest: Critical Essay

Topics:	The TempestWilliam Shakespeare
Essay type:	Critical
Words:	466
Page:	1 This essay sample was donated by a student to help the academic community. Papers provided by EduBirdie writers usually outdo students' samples.
Updated:	27.10.2023

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It could be clearly noted that gender issues have a crucial role in The Tempest. The lack of female characters can be obviously seen when dealing with gender issues in The Tempest. This could be possible because the only present female character is Miranda in the play and the other two characters such as Sycorax and Claribel do not appear. Despite the fact that they do not appear on the stage, they're even told about by a male character who is Prospero. All the knowledge the audiences have are derived from Prospero and he doesn't have a positive view of her. Prosper negatively describes her in a conversation with Aries as he states “This damned witch Sycorax” (1.2.264). Not much is known about her and the only source that provided a short description of her is Prospero. What the reader knows well about her is that she is “blue-eyed” (1.2.269), but the few lines describing Sycorax are not enough for the reader to have a clear understanding and vision of her character. Even such little information is not directly told by herself, for this reason, the reader cannot rely on such a description. Judith (1989)

According to Collen (2017), Prospero continuously exploited his daughter, Miranda. She is the only representative of the female gender in the play who has quite contrastive characteristics with Sycorax. She is a virgin, benevolent, and innocent whereas Sycorax is described as evil and licentious. The contrast between these two female characters is interesting, it shows the depiction of female characters as being one-sided, along with considering sex with aberration in women's cases. The female absent witch does not appear on the stage but her name is mentioned several times throughout the play by the main characters. She has been the angle of attention from a number of points of view, feminism is the most popular one among them. Her strange name is one of the aspects that attracts the reader's attention. Shakespeare is famous for giving names from a mythological or historical precedent or a newly created name to show significant characteristics about the character. It is not easy to point out the reason why Shakespeare chose such a name, but many scholars have a deep concern about the origin of the name “Sycorax”. There are two common assumptions behind this name, the first one suggests that the origin might be derived from Greek words ''sys'' and ''corax'' which mean sow and raven, both words relate to witchcraft. The second assumption is based on the derivation from Corax of Syracuse who is one of the founders of ancient Greek rhetoric. Shakespeare was familiar with the study of Greek and he might have known the meaning of Sycroax. Stephan (2012) claims that her name alone on the stage would be a curse without her appearance and action.

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Who is Sycorax in The Tempest: Critical Essay. (2023, October 27). Edubirdie. Retrieved March 4, 2025, from https://hub.edubirdie.com/examples/who-is-sycorax-in-the-tempest-critical-essay/

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