Circe

by

Madeline Miller

Themes and Colors
Power, Fear, and Self-Preservation Theme Icon
Women, Power, and Misogyny Theme Icon
Change, Initiative, and the Self Theme Icon
Mortality, Fragility, and Fulfillment Theme Icon
Family and Individuality Theme Icon
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Circe, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.

Power, Fear, and Self-Preservation

Circe is a novel about power, showing how the quest for power often leaves a chain of abuse in its wake. Circe is set in mythological ancient Greece and depicts the brutal worlds of gods and mortals, both of which embody a dog-eat-dog mentality: in order to survive (or, for the immortals, thrive), one must trample on others or else be trampled on. As a result, power is an obsession for humans and gods alike…

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Women, Power, and Misogyny

Circe explores how women cope with a society that sees them as inferior to men. The novel’s protagonist is a nymph named Circe, who experiences ancient Greece’s misogyny firsthand. Nymphs are at the bottom of the gods’ ladder of power and, as women, they are susceptible to violence and abuse from mortal men and immortal gods alike. From a young age, Circe witnesses how women are not expected to hold power—and, if they do…

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Change, Initiative, and the Self

Change is a central topic in Circe and plays a key role in the main character’s development. Transformation is Circe’s greatest skill—she is able to transform people and things into different kinds of beings—and she also longs to transform the world around her to be less cruel. But the most remarkable change in the story is Circe’s own, as she transforms herself from an impotent nymph into a powerful goddess-witch and then, at the…

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Mortality, Fragility, and Fulfillment

Circe explores the differences between gods and humans. The novel follows Circe from her beginnings as a bullied nymph in her father Helios’s halls, to Aiaia, her island of exile, where she encounters gods and mortals alike. As the story progresses, Circe’s life becomes intertwined with mortals: she falls in love with mortal men, thwarts the attacks of mortal sailors, and even gives birth to a mortal child. At the same time, Circe distances…

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Family and Individuality

Much of Circe’s story involves her trying to distance herself from her family, the cruel immortals of ancient Greek mythology. She is not alone in these endeavors; characters from Pasiphaë to Medea to Telemachus also seek to escape the violence in their families. In fact, all the families in Circe have significant faults, with Circe’s family being perhaps the most ruthless. Circe grows up in her father, Helios’s, halls, where she witnesses and…

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