Costa Magic explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• The Body and Mortality

  Cesira's physical decline from phthisis and her eventual death are central to the chapter, highlighting the fragility of the body.

• Religion and Mythology

  The ritual at the magic tree and the belief in bewitchment invoke folk magic and supernatural causation.

Characters to notice

• Cesira

  The daughter who is bewitched by her father, falls ill with phthisis, and dies after a ritual at a magic tree.

• Exodus

  Cesira's father, who is described as a rabid man and is suspected of bewitching his daughter.

• Nurse

  The wise woman who instructs the family to take Cesira to the magic tree.

Key passages

• “It is unnatural in a Father Bewitching a daughter Whose hair down covers her thighs.”

  The narrator reflects on the unnaturalness of a father casting a spell on his own daughter, whose long hair reaches her thighs.

  This line underscores the taboo of paternal bewitchment and the intimate, disturbing nature of the act.

• “Cesira becomes as a wild beast A tree of age”

  At the magic tree, Cesira transforms into a wild animal, as if the tree itself is ancient.

  The transformation at the tree blurs the line between human and beast, suggesting a loss of self under the spell.