Witches, Madeline Miller

Introduction :

The document under study an extract from online article ( theguardian.com) written by Madeline Miller and published in 2018. It focuses on the way witches are seen in society, where all these stereotypes come from and why all this is associated with women. The author underlines the fact that the persecution of witches was not intended to fight against witchcraft and the evil they could cause but that it was a hidden form of misogyny, the author wanted to show us how society transmitted to us (book, children's account, movies…) a negative and ugly image of the witch, through stereotypes and stories told and that is still present today.

I) Where does this image of society come from ?

First of all, the frightening image of witches comes from the Christian era when women “consorted with the devil”. On the other hand, the image of the awful/evil and ugly witch existed before the era of Jesus. Roman literature, children’s story (fairy tale), movies… also play a role in the monstrous and repulsive description of witches. Moreover, the misogyny of people pushes them to accuse women of witches. Plus, this story witches has been going on for centuries: since Greek mythology, since Christian era and again today.

II) Stereotypes and person targeted: women and witches → form of misogyny?

Witches are associated with a list of clichés, stereotypes, they are described like ugly evil and repulsive. They are described as having animal behaviors and just making love potions and casting and doing disgusting spells. Madeline Miller shows us some example of works that shows this description : In Shakespear’s play “Macbeth”, in the classic fairy tale witch “ Hansel and Gretel” where the witch eats children, in the Slavic Baba Yaga in the “ Wicked Witch of the West”. Before women were supposed to be “as attractive, and young as possible”, this is why “different” women are targets. These descriptions targets wise women, older figures, poor widows because they have experience as midwives, herbalists or hedge-doctors. People were jealous of their great knowledge and take advantage of their solitary and vulnerability to accuse them of witches. Foreign women and women with politic power also are targets because they hold a high rank in society and have authority . Still today, women politicians are persecuted and accused of being a witch. Indeed Hillary Clinton, Gillard, Theresa May are insults and be filmed by people.

To concluse, the author tries to show us that the vision of the witch is not only a simple form of witchcraft ... etc but that there is a part of misogyny, of which the aim was to suppress the knowledge of the women and that a witch is not just evil but succeptible to be a superior woman and all of that is still present today.

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