Witches

Everyone has a preconceived notion of what a witch is supposed to be. For me, it is the green-faced, wart-riddled, cackling crone riding a broomstick into the night while her monkey henchmen come in to do the dirty work. Their goals are nothing short of your annihilation or abject humiliation and servitude. They use foul, dark magic to achieve their aims – often hunched over a bubbling cauldron stirring their evil into the world. This is an example of the stereotype we’ve created around these characters. Aware of this, Diana Wynn Jones delivers us a new idea of witches while incorporating a different set of stereotypes – that of the societal view on powerful women.

Through Mig – our narrator – we encounter Aunt Maria and her friends. It is through Mig’s emotions that ours are influenced. Her distaste and frustration becomes our own. But we have to ask ourselves about the source of that frustration. Is it that we feel that our characters are being mistreated or is it that it is a strong female character doing the mistreatment? Even those who are in service to Aunt Maria do so mostly in fear, even though they agree with her use of power.

Later we are introduced to the character of Anthony Green who seeks to wrest control from Aunt Maria. All the while, Chris and Mig are caught in the middle of the power play (at one point Chris gets turned into a dog). We see how each side tries to dominate the other, asserting their will to the detriment of the other. It is only when Chris and Mig are able to bring a balance by demonstrating the ability to share power that the town is saved.

Diana Wynn Jones delivers a powerful story with its own morals in the tale of Aunt Maria. We should be mindful of this story when we think about the division of power in our own lives.