Magic plays a big role in Shakespeare’s The Tempest as the protagonist Prospero uses magic to conjure the eponymous tempest which stirs the play into motion.

During Shakespeare’s time, magic was divided into two camps, white magic and black magic. The former was thought to be beneficial and healing, while the latter was meant for harm and practiced by witches. People believed that witches had minions or animals that would do their bidding for them, the actual deliverers of the black magic. White magic operated much like totems or charms which could ward off evil. So called magicians would sell their wares, promising immunity, good health, and other miscellaneous effects. In place of science, people relied upon magic to cure them of ailments and to wish for good fortune. When tending to medical wounds, magic was often used to try and cure the ailment. One cure for headaches involved taking a lock of one’s hair, boiling it in one’s urine, then boiling the entire thing over fire.

Magic, or the occurrence of things that could not otherwise be explained, went almost hand in hand with religion. Saints were often believed to almost possess the power of magicians, capable of accomplishing miraculous feats through their religious faith. Different saints could protect you from a variety of unfortunate events.

Starting in the late 16th centuries, animosity towards witchcraft and witch hunts began occurring all throughout England. Elizabeth I even decreed an “Act against Conjurations, Enchantments, and Witchcrafts” in 1563, outlawing all witchcraft and magic. Witches became associated with this image of an old crone, an image we often see replicated in our own modern Halloween costumes. Cats, especially black ones, also became associated with witches and bad fortune; monarchs were said to own many pets, but never any cats due to their negative connotation.

While such fervent dislike for witches was part of the culture Shakespeare lived in, it seems that our protagonist Prospero escapes most of these villainous terms. Prospero, like witches, made use of a familiar, Ariel the spirit indebted to him, to do his bidding. Yet, his image as a father figure and man distances him from the stereotypical look of a witch. Additionally, Prospero, described as a sorcerer, is not the only magical character mentioned in the play. An unseen character, Sycorax, represents the witch foil to that of Prospero’s white magic. A cruel witch, she gave birth to the monstrosity that is Caliban and mistreated Ariel. Yet later on in the play, Prospero torments Caliban through his magic, torturing him and making use of black magic, or witchcraft. It is interesting to see Prospero, who is not immediately associated with being a witch due to being male, as the protagonist of the play who uses his magic not just for good but often for bad too. The wronged Prospero, who uses his magic for justice, surely can not be an evil witch. However, I see Shakespeare as a talented playwright capable of writing sophisticated plays full of complex characters who are greater than simply the sum of their parts. Prospero is one of those characters, who is neither black and white, but more gray, a questionable sorcerer who uses magic as a means to get to his vengeful ends.