73 pages • 2 hours read
The Witches
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Symbols & Motifs
Subverting Gender Norms
The witches subvert unequal gender norms that often apply to women. The narrator says real witches “dress in ordinary clothes and look very much like ordinary women” (9). Witches use the appearance of women as a disguise—“what makes her doubly dangerous is the fact that she doesn’t look dangerous” (11). In other words, witches appear as normal women because society doesn’t think that women pose a threat. In her legal memoir, Bad Lawyer (Grand Central Publishing, 2021), the writer and cultural critic Anna Dorn says, concerning women: “The only role we are entitled to play is the victim; this is the role we’ve always played” (unpaginated). The witches use society’s misogynistic idea of women to their advantage.
The narrator declares: “A witch never gets caught” (11). Their spotless record relates to their apparent gender. Society doesn’t suspect them because people regularly underestimate women. They don’t think women can be something else—something powerful or predatorial like witches. The witches manipulate sexist gender norms to hide their identities. They’re beyond gender—they “are not actually women at all” (32).
Grandmamma destabilizes gender norms. She smokes cigars like a powerful man, stands up to men like the hotel manager and Mr. Jenkins, and pretends to be a man when on the phone with the police chief. Grandmamma’s deviation from gender norms is central to her identity. It makes her unique and sets her apart from the other adults who lack her understanding and imagination.
The witches and Grandmamma flip the typical power dynamics between men and women. In the story, the women have the authority. The men come across as inept and inferior. Even the Grand High Witch makes fun of the hotel manager. She calls him “rrridiculous” (116). In The Witches, the men don’t pose a threat. The battle is between women or between women and a young boy who’s become a mouse.
Tolerance and Diversity
The novel’s exploration of tolerance and diversity works in tandem with the themes of Good Versus Evil and Appearances and the Fluidity of Identity. The witches can’t tolerate children. A real witch “hates children with a red-hot sizzling hatred” (9). This makes them evil. The other adults in the story have a problem with diversity and tolerance. They don’t like the idea that people can change their identities and appearance and become something different—mice.
The witches’ plan to exterminate the children of England reflects the intolerant mindset of adults. The witches know that teachers will want to get rid of the mice—who are different creatures—immediately and put out mousetraps and cheese. Thus, the children/mice become the other—someone different from the majority. Most adults in the story have little tolerance for the other. The hotel manager doesn’t want the boy to have mice, and Bruno’s dad doesn’t want his son to be a mouse. He screams: “I can’t have a mouse for a son” (188). Bruno’s mom agrees. She’d prefer her familiar cat to her changed son.
The characters who welcome fluid identities and appearances are good. Grandmamma, the boy, and the taxi driver don’t hate mice. Grandmamma accepts the boy’s transformation. She cares for him and loves him as much as she did before he became a mouse. The boy, too, embraces his new identity. He also liked mice before he was a mouse. He wanted to start a mouse circus. The taxi driver appreciates mice, and even Bruno, though he didn’t tolerate the ants, accepts his transformation.
Grownups as Unbecoming Symbols
Throughout the story, the majority of adults represent unimaginative and narrow ideals. They’re insipid, and Dahl paints them as unbecoming. They’re not people that one should want to become. Even the witches scorn adults. When a witch wonders what will happen if a grownup eats a sweet with the mouse-transforming formula, the Grand High Witch replies dismissively: “That’s just too bad for the grrrown-up” (117). The witches use unthinking and reactionary adults to their advantage. They presume the teachers will become hysterical once the kids turn into mice, setting traps to kill them.
In the dining room, the adults’ reaction to the witches’ metamorphosis confirms the witches’ thesis. The boy observes: “All over the Dining-Room women were screaming and strong men were turning white in the face and shouting, ‘It’s crazy! This can’t happen! Let’s get the heck out of here quick!’ (194).” The adults lose their composure. They lack imagination and can’t appreciate the fantastic sight. They don’t want to stay and watch: They’re not curious. As the narrator notes: “Only the children in the room were really enjoying it” (194-95). Thus, the children represent becoming conduct.
Not all adults represent are dull and limited. Grandmamma is a laudatory grownup, as is the taxi driver. Yet Grandmamma arguably acts more like a child. She’s not obtuse and cranky like Mr. Jenkins. She symbolizes imagination and an open mind—what the gleeful kids in the dining room represent. Grandma further subverts her adult status by treating the boy as her equal. She offers him a cigar and views him as a peer. The boy becomes like his grandma—a witchophile or a witch hunter—because her tolerant, inclusive worldview is aspirational.
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