Changing Perception Of Witches In Popular Culture Summary

The books thesis is based on why a person was accused of being a witch and the relative circumstances thereof. Marital status, sex, community standing, wealth, and relationships with others all play an important part of a person chances of being accused of being a witch.

Dahl’s definitions of witches as women speak badly about women and shows unfair judgement about gender. It criticized the women as if most of them are evil and sinner which also compared to Eva. This may be the weakness of this book. Dahl also used the ugliness of witches to communicate about standards of beauty for western women who may be seen as prescriptive or biasing to some critic. Witchcraft and magic are often see in opposition to organize religion which it maybe affects the religions of other groups. It also influences the children to be afraid to women as it was stated that witches are all

In both Goblin Market and “The Bloody Chamber”, women face objectification as pornographic objects whose solitary purpose is to be a man’s appealing possession. Evidently, the objectification of women impacted the way each author constructed their texts. Feminist movements aiming to undermine these rigid female and male roles are prominent in the time period of both literary works. Both Christina Rossetti and Angela Carter use strange worlds to differentiate from the typical fairy tale’s predictable conclusion and instead make a statement through the use of a female heroine. Both literary works contrast the archetypal idea that a man must always be the savior

Witch hunting was the persecution and possible execution of individuals considered to be ‘witches’ loyal to the devil. It was an all too common occurrence from 1603-1712 all over Europe. However in order to understand why this happened the context must be taken into account. It was a time of change, the Renaissance - the rebirth of culture, ideas and attitudes to living. The Reformation had also only been implemented in England in the last 80 years back from 1603, when it had previously been catholic for centuries. The English civil war from 1642 to 1651 is argued to have played a part in the intensification of the witch hunts in England due to the peak in executions whilst it was on going. Some historians have taken the view that in time of crisis certain groups can be victimised like in wars, famine, disease outbreaks and changes in society structure.

Prior to the fifteenth century, rural European women were highly revered and respected pillars of rural community life; not only considered mothers and wives, but seen as community leaders, physicians, and sources of strength and wisdom. Women had a special and imperative role in rural life, and even those that lived on the fringes of society were well respected as the village healers and wise women. These old women would possess the wisdom of the ages and pass it on to others. This respect for women quickly deteriorated, however, during the witch hunts. The belief spread that women were morally weaker than men and driven by carnal lust, therefore making them more susceptible to being tempted by the Devil, and thus practicing witchcraft. (Levack p. 126) As people took this belief to heart, it is apparent that society would be affected indefinitely by such intolerance.

As an academic treatise on witchcraft, the Malleus Maleficarum represents a perfect example of the Rationalist historiographical concept of an elite response to social change. The Malleus was a formulated interpretation of preceding instances of witchcraft through the lens of clerical elites and, in the words of P.G Maxwell-Stuart in his introduction to the Malleus, it illustrated “the collective intense disquiet of a zealous elite.” As the work that served to codify the built up mythology of witchcraft, the Malleus shaped the mindsets and logic of the villagers and witch-hunters who would face and enforce witch purges in the following centuries. Becuase of this, it can also tell us a great deal about elite conceptions of gender, and the roles

A striking feature of the Malleus Maleficarum, written in 1487 by Heinrich Kramer and Jacob Sprenger, was its pronounced stereotype of witches with regard to gender. The witch its authors embarked to expose and persecute was exclusively female. Women’s weaknesses in body and spirit rendered them liable to the devil’s snares, and that witches were thus likely to be found among women. Witchcraft was linked to the point of identity with feminine sexuality, thus overlooking the possibility of male witches in medieval Europe. Male witches in the Malleus are alluded to only in the most veiled terms, with the authors carefully exempting them from the negatively-connoted classification of “witch”.

Fairy tales and myths, although often cited as children’s stories, rooted in a distant world of magical realism, still form the bedrock of both literary history and cultural consciousness. As Duffy quotes “a part in our literary DNA.” (from the interview i listened too need to find it to refernce) Yet in most fairytales, such as disney, the works of Perrault, or Grimm, the tales remain governed by an archaic ideology, that do not represent the progressed gender equality of both 20th and 21st century auiences. Both Carter, and Duffy utilise this stigmatised genre to reflect the empowerment of women; the works of “the bloody chamber” and “the worlds wife” akin give a new radical voice piece for women in society. However critics of both works question wether the authors have replaced misogyny with misandry, using their work to mock masculinity.

The subversion of gender roles introduces the idea that women are capable of being powerful and influential figures. Specifically Lady Macbeth and the witches question the meaning of masculinity and they indicate characteristics men are known to possess. Women of the 1600’s were accustomed to submissive behavior and were stereotyped as the “weaker” sex. Shakespeare opposed

(Buckley, para.2) What this quote explains is that witches were used to show women not to step out of their boundaries. Historically, women were always considered less superior to men and there were certain things they were not allowed to do. This has taken a change in the modern era however. Witches are now a beacon of light for the feminism movement and this has taken affected their appearance.

"I'll get you my pretty, and your little dog too!" The Wicked Witch of the West...

In this case, the woman has again become the literal sacrifice for the sake of men. Witch burnings were done when a women was said to be possessed by evil spirits or had made a deal with the devil. The use of the word “Ancestress” (21) indicates that this witch is the predecessor for all current women writers. When her mouth is “covered” (22), she is being blocked, unable to speak and share her thoughts. The “leather” (22) is used to “strangle” (23) words.

Whether Female antagonists within fairy tales are portrayed in a positive or negative light their roles within the stories are very important if not crucial to the development of the protagonists. Karen Rowe in “Feminist and fairy tales” explains the divide between different female antagonists. Female antagonist come in all forms, Faeries, ogresses, evil queens, and evil witches step mothers and or step sisters. For the most part these characters are often divided between good and evil, or light and dark, but what is often realized, is that there isn’t much of a combination between the two groups in which an antagonist falls in between both categories. In this essay I will lay out the thematic roles of these different types of female antagonist’s portrayed within fairy tales.

Fairy tales have had a great importance to not only children, but society throughout the 17th century and beyond. Many of these fairy tales were written to represent the importance of a certain moral within a human being’s life and that we should be aware of such dangers around us. These fairy tales show value such as being kind, appreciative, and being aware of one’s surroundings. Fairy tales in general have certain focuses such as the role of women in society was very frightening and dangerous, and that the talk of women was seductive and wicked. Also, the lives the original tellers lived was from marriage to childbirth to mother to step-mother to mother in-law. Fairy tales withstood the test of time in that they were edited and changed as they were written down, removing the darker and more gruesome elements of the story. “The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood” is amongst these fairy tales, which demonstrates the representation of women and the dangers that are among them.

There are very few famous male witches. Sure, there’s Harry Potter and Harry Dresden, but they’re wizards. After over 30 minutes of searching Google, I could not find a magical man who is explicitly labelled as a witch. Witches are almost always female, they have been throughout history – from the Bible and before, to the Greeks, to even modern literature. The real question, though, is why are witches always women? Why have magical women been revered and feared throughout history? Why are women witches? It’s because they’re scary.