What magic does Sycorax use? (2023)

How does Prospero's magic differ from the witch Sycorax?

Sycorax was allied with the devil, who gave her power over the air with its invisibility and swiftness of motion, but her evil work resulted in her banishment and death. Prospero invoked only his own mental intelligence to win greater powers.

Setebos (Shakespeare), the deity purportedly worshipped by the witch Sycorax in William Shakespeare's play The Tempest.

Sycorax is an unseen character in William Shakespeare's play The Tempest. She is a vicious and powerful witch and the mother of Caliban, one of the few native inhabitants of the island on which Prospero, the hero of the play, is stranded.

In The Tempest, Prospero describes Sycorax as an ancient and foul witch native to Algiers, and banished to the island for practising sorcery "so strong / That [she] could control the Moon".

In fact, Prospero is described as even a more powerful magician than Sycorax. She was a very strong and mighty witch who lived on the island before. However, Prospero's studies have not gone wasted, and he reached the level that allows him to control everything.

She is mentioned in 1.2 and 5.1. Ariel was her servant but punished him for disobedience (Ariel was "too delicate/To act her earthy and abhorr'd commands"), trapping him in a cloven pine for a dozen years, during which time she died.

Role in the play

Prospero declines, reminding him of the state he was in before Prospero rescued him: Ariel had been trapped by the witch Sycorax in a "cloven pine" as a punishment for resisting her commands.

Ariel is a spirit of the air who, because he refused to serve the witch, Sycorax, was imprisoned in a tree until rescued by Prospero.

Meaning:Witch. If you're looking for an edgy name with a dramatic flair, consider Sycorax, a feminine name of English origin that means "witch." Sycorax is the name of the powerful sorceress in William Shakespeare's The Tempest.

The term ''blue-eyed hag'' appears just once in The Tempest, in reference to Sycorax. Sycorax is a powerful witch and Caliban's mother, though she is not present in the play. She was the one who imprisoned Ariel in a tree before dying.

Why is HAG seed named after Caliban?

"Hag-seed" is what Prospero calls Caliban when he curses him, because Caliban is the son of a witch.

Act 3, Scene 1 takes us to the romantic heart of The Tempest; it is the scene where the play's two young lovers, Ferdinand and Miranda, confess their love and vow to marry.

As Prospero reminds him in Act I, scene ii, Ariel fell out of favor with Sycorax, and she imprisoned him in a “cloven pine.” Ariel remained stuck in the tree for twelve years, during which time Sycorax died, abandoning Ariel to an eternity of pain.

Caliban, a feral, sullen, misshapen creature in Shakespeare's The Tempest. The son of the sorceress Sycorax, Caliban is the sole inhabitant of his island (excluding the imprisoned Ariel) until Prospero and his infant daughter Miranda are cast ashore.

Ariel had been a servant of Sycorax, a witch banished from Algiers (Algeria) and sent to the island long ago. Ariel was too delicate a spirit to perform her horrible commands, so she imprisoned him in a “cloven pine” (I. ii. 279 ).

This comes to show that Prospero was always the character that had all the power and that no one was able to overpower him.

Thus we find that Prospero's forgiveness is solemn, judicial and has init something abstract and impersonal. He does not want to act against his own noble nature and therefore gives up the desire for revenge. Prospero also forgives the three rogues — Caliban, Trinculo and Stephano.

Prospero is the central character in The Tempest and all the action revolves around him. Using magic, he is able to control the movements and all the actions of the other characters, which allows him not only to be the central character but also the actual author of the plot of the play.

Sycorax, while pregnant, was banished from Algiers to the Mediterranean island for practicing sorcery, in parallel with Prospero's being usurped because of his immersion in his studies rather than in governing his state, and ending up on the island. Like Prospero, too, she was spared death.

Prospero constructs Sycorax as evil by projecting his anxieties about women and power onto her. Using Loomba's “language of misogyny,” Prospero calls Sycorax a “foul witch,” “damned witch Sycorax,” and “hag” (1.2. 258, 264, 270) in his first discussion of her.

How long was Ariel held Sycorax?

The old hag here refers to Sycorax. She imprisoned Ariel for not carrying out her foul and disgusting orders. So with the help of her more powerful spirits, she imprisoned him in the rift of a pine tree. Ariel was held in the pine tree for twelve years.

Although Ariel is a character in a play, and although he interacts with human characters, he is not like human beings, with their complex human characteristics, comprised of the good and the bad. He is notable for displaying only a good side.

Ariel's appearance as an avenging harpy represents the climax of Prospero's revenge, as Antonio, Alonso, and the other lords are confronted with their crimes and threatened with punishment. From Prospero's perspective, the disguised Ariel represents justice and the powers of nature.

Ariel's Backstory

When Ariel asks Prospero to free him from his servitude, Prospero reminds Ariel that Ariel's life was much worse before he and his daughter arrived on the island. The island was inhabited by Sycorax, a witch, who imprisoned Ariel within a tree for twelve years before Prospero saved him.