The Undermining Power of Masculinity in The Tempest
“The more people argue loudly, against feminism, the more they prove we need it”
-Caitlin Moran, How to Be A Woman
Sycorax is ostensibly absent from Shakespeare’s The Tempest. The witch does not appear on stage once, as she dies long before the actions of the play begin. She is, however, invoked frequently, through memories and retellings and secondhand accounts, primarily by the character of Prospero. Many critics have used Sycorax’s absence as undisputable proof that The Tempest, with few traditionally powerful female characters, is, at its core, an anti-feminist play. However, while it may seem as though the easiest way to absolve women of their power is to exclude women from the narrative altogether, in fact, Sycorax’s absence serves not to emphasize patriarchal power, but to undermine it. In her absence, Prospero is able to create a twisted construction of her to bolster his reach of masculine power– it is this construction that ultimately becomes a threat to his own system. Sycorax’s absence, and subsequently, her constructed self, ultimately exist as both contradictions to Prospero’s masculinity, and symbols to challenge patriarchal thought.
Though Sycorax is physically absent, she lives in the play as an idea, constructed solely on the words and memories of others, especially Prospero. Throughout the play, he presents her history through fragmented and biased recollections of her. Those recollections are unreliable because Prospero repeatedly invokes memories of her in anger, using her to manipulate other characters to his will. He first mentions Sycorax (but not by name) while justifying the prolonging of Ariel’s servitude. Prospero asks, “Dost thou forget / From what a torment I did free thee?” (1.2.294-95). The torment he refers to is the tree in which Sycorax imprisoned Ariel. Prospero then goes so far as to manipulate his memory by asking him, “Has thou forgot the foul witch Sycorax, who with age and envy / Was grown into a hoop? Hast thou forgot her?” (Bate 1.2.3-303-05). Prospero reminds Ariel that “…for mischiefs manifold, and sorceries terrible to enter human hearing, from Algiers, thou knowest [Sycorax], was banished: for one thing she did they would not take her life” (1.2.310- 15). To further manipulate Ariel by invoking Sycorax, Prospero adds, “Refusing her grand hests, she did confine thee…and in her most unmitigable rage / Into a cloven pine” (1.2.322-25). It seems as though Prospero creates or at least embellishes what Ariel knows firsthand about Sycorax. But Prospero lacks firsthand observation or concrete evidence about Sycorax; thus, Prospero constructs Sycorax as simply his opposite and tool. Because Prospero never knew Sycorax, his detailed descriptions of her can only be his own construction, which he manipulates for his benefit, specifically to legitimize his power. The more emphatically Prospero tries to demonize Sycorax’s powers, the more he evokes her permeating presence.
For any structure to be created and sustained, it is necessary to have an “other” on the opposite side– thus, by damning Sycorax, Prospero does two things; a) solidifies Sycorax as the ‘other’ or a competitor, and b) confirms the existence of a structure or ulterior motive– in this case, patriarchal power. Thus, the implicit power struggle, which seems to be gendered, between Sycorax and Prospero is revealed. Although Sycorax is dead, Prospero’s struggle to be the stronger power is an undercurrent throughout the play. There are some commonalities between their powers, like their command of the spirits that inhabit the island, but the major difference is the source and nature of their abilities. However, Prospero’s power is more masculine, based on domination, exploitation, and possessiveness. Prospero appropriates the island from its rightful heir. In his final quest for specific outcomes, i.e. the marriage of his daughter, confrontation with his usurping brother, and exodus from the island, he dominates and controls everyone around him. Prospero’s need for dominion over women and their identities also makes his power a patriarchal one– though Sycorax is dead, Prospero continues to construct her in the spirit of a) having control over her identity, and b) to intimidate others in the name of exercising and maintaining his own powers. Prospero consolidates his power by repeatedly making comparison between his “white magic” and Sycorax’s “ black magic” in order to legitimize his takeover of the island and its inhabitants and claim his greater strength and superiority. Their positioning as competitors can be seen especially when Prospero manipulates Ariel to despise the memory of Sycorax for imprisoning him in a pine and he threatens to imprison him also. He outdoes Sycorax by referring to the use of the stronger oak tree as a potential prison. He taunts, “If thou murmu’st, I will rend an oak / And peg thee in his knotty entrails till / Thou hast howled away twelve winters” (1.2 98-100). Through his invocations, Prospero appears to be in direct competition with the dead witch.
By competing with and simultaneously demonizing Sycorax, Prospero attributes both a sense of danger and power to her, converting her into the main threat to his own patriarchy. While he claims to be more powerful than she because his magic “Sycorax / Could not again undo” (1.2.289 – 290), his actions and the constant reminder of her seem to suggest otherwise: he feels threatened. She is not alive, she does not exist anymore, and yet she is powerful enough to incite fear. She is real in his head, and thus is real in the text, borne by Prospero’s insecurity in his powers and in himself.
This claim makes even more when the similarities between the two characters are examined. Prospero accuses Sycorax of enslaving and torturing Ariel, but he treats him and Caliban, the exact same way. They are both rulers, they have both been exiled because of their magic, and both are parents. It seems as though the version of Sycorax that Prospero built is really not that far from what he is himself. He constantly tries to portray Sycorax as the villain of the story, the woman that should be hated and feared, but the truth is that she is not a villain but Prospero’s foil; in other words, a character that exists in order to contrast or highlight another character's features. Even though Prospero constructs Sycorax to be the complete opposite of what he is, she is actually created as a reflection of himself (as they are both supernatural beings who, reportedly, use their powers with the same aims), as well as a representation of Prospero's deepest fears and insecurities.
Should Prospero be so powerful, Sycorax’s powers would not phase him. Should Prospero be so secure in his abilities, he would not need to compete with her own. Should Prospero be so strong, he would not need to invoke her name to incite fear. In fact, by excluding Sycorax and relegating her character to the sidelines, Shakespeare throws a comical wrench into the plot; Sycorax did not even need to be there in body to undermine Prospero’s powers; he undermined himself. How powerful can masculinity really be if it must always be held up against something? Sycorax, though voiceless and ostensibly absent, illuminates that question, in the process becoming a symbol of enduring feminine power and a defining, unwavering force in The Tempest.