User:Roder.chap/Witchcraft

Witches in Literature

Reference of witches in literature span a wide array of characterization with respect to popular opinion on the definition of the female figure. In contribution to a better understanding of the social understandings involving witchcraft and magic, literature often labels the witch as villain, victim, and heroine. Various scholars associate these labels with the female witch with texts such as the German fairy tale Hansel and Gretel, by Brothers Grimm and Stella Benson’s scholarly work Living Alone (1919).

Over the nineteenth century the growing popularity of literary fairy tales mobilized the works of the Brothers Grimm. Hansel and Gretel serves as an example of illustrating the witch figure as the “witch villain”. The fairy tale involves a cannibalistic witch that eventually becomes outwitted by the children she tries to eat and is burned to death in her own oven. Snow White displays a murderess, tempting magician for its main antagonist. The witch is labeled an evil queen and meets her demise after being forced to dance in red-hot iron shoes. The Six Swans includes a step-mother who magically turns her step-children into swans out of spite and jealousy. In retaliation, the figure labeled as witch due to her magical powers is eventually burned at the stake. Such examples within the Brothers Grimm’s works demonstrate not only evidence of the figure of “witch villain” but also exhibits their punishment by injury or death as well.

Significant authors such as Friedrich Spee and John Gaule demonstrate the witch as a victim to social cruelties, highlighting examples of torture towards witches or those females suspected of wizardry. Such works not only feature evidence toward excessive brutality, but display excessive inclination toward extreme violence in the conviction of guiltless victims.

Living Alone, published in 1919, uses female liberation as a metaphor in support of the “witch heroine.” Stella Benson’s novel surrounds the musings of a female witch who functions as an archaic force in the lives of middle-class Londoners. Her non-harmful magic aims to “shake the most downtrodden women out of complacency and normality” to hopefully meet a state of liberation. The importance of such a heroine sheds light on the positive effects associated with magic and witchcraft, a refreshing change from the often brutalized and tortured illustrations found in early nineteenth century literature.