TITLE:
The Two Witch Hunts by Shakespeare
AUTHORS:
Junxian Ji
KEYWORDS:
The Tempest, Witch, Orientalism, Witch Hunt
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.12 No.5,
May
26,
2025
ABSTRACT: As Shakespeare’s final work, the existing theoretical literary research of The Tempest have mostly neglected the female character Sycorax, the sorceress, who has passed away and is presented in words of characters as a wicked old witch from North Africa. However, the protagonist Prospero has behaviors and experiences similar to those of Sycorax, whom he detests. They get different ends of life as magicians. It’s notable that Prospero’s attitude towards his political enemies who have exiled him and his daughter is quite different from that of his criticism of the unacquainted Sycorax and her descendant. He can put aside his hatred and share his past with his foes, but he resents Sycorax and her son Caliban almost unreasonably. The settings of Shakespeare’s two trials of literary witch hunting are designed to make the two magicians confront their own final end through trials, and only one survives. This article will take experiences and images of the two magicians as the primary point, to try to analyze their intrinsic similarities and differences, and then to clarify the reason why Shakespeare designed them in this way.