In The Witch's Defence: Female Agency in Madeline Miller's Circe

Ikhvan, Alifia Taati (2025) In The Witch's Defence: Female Agency in Madeline Miller's Circe. S1 thesis, Universitas Andalas.

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Abstract

This thesis analyses the female agency in Madeline Miller’s novel Circe (2018). The research of this thesis seeks to identify the victims and agents of patriarchy in this novel that perpetuates the patriarchal system in its society. Furthermore, this thesis examines how Circe’s assertion of her agency ultimately challenges the patriarchy. This thesis applies Sylvia Walby’s six structures of patriarchy as described in her book Theorizing Patriarchy (1990) and Simone de Beauvoir’s theory of Feminist Existentialism as explained in her book The Second Sex (1949). The results of this analysis are presented descriptively. The findings of this thesis discover that there are five victims of patriarchy shown in the novel and three agents of patriarchy. Moreover, in identifying the victims and agents of patriarchy, this thesis discovers that some structures of patriarchy are interconnected, such as sexuality and male violence, and male violence and state, showing that patriarchy is a social structure that exists to dominate and oppress women. This thesis also discovers that Circe asserts her agency by working through her magic, embracing intellectualism through her continuous learning of her magical prowess, striving for a social transformation by protecting her son, and rejecting the role of the “other” imposed by the gods and accepts herself as the object.

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