Sunday, July 26, 2015

Freckles in Shakespeare's The Tempest

I came across another red hair Shakespeare reference recently - well, not quite red hair actually, but more freckles - the sister blemish of red hair. Again red hair and freckles are represented in a bad light. In this case it's the character Caliban who has the misfortune. Caliban is a savage and deformed slave who tries to rape Miranda, the daughter of Prospero. Another great red-haired role model :/
"A freckled whelp, hag-born -  not honoured with a human shape"
His mother, the witch Sycorax, is described as a "blue-eyed hag", reinforcing this association.

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