She's a WITCH!

Although the cover explicitly shows large outlines of witches on broomsticks, I was never really sold on the idea that Laura was going to be supernatural. I figured that Warner wanted to play off of the idea of the Salem Witch Trials persecuting women who did not follow societal norms. Even when she states she is now a witch after the kitten, obviously sent by the Devil, scratches her I still thought it was just Laura’s imagination running wild (similar to the werewolf story). I saw it as a more tangible way to show Laura’s growing independence and how society has hindered her thinking, giving it a negative connotation of witchery. I was unsure whether Laura seriously thought she was a witch or was somewhat parodying the idea as Warner presumably meant to.

After reading father and seeing how the whole town was involved in witchcraft and there was an actual Devil in charge of them, I realized I was imposing too many of my own thoughts on the text. Just as many of us wanted a larger feminist stand that the beginning of the book prefaced with Caroline, I expected more subversive tones of witchcraft and the supernatural after seeing such blatantly stereotypical figures on the cover (I suppose I thought they were going for irony). While just reading it at face-value, I found it hard to discover the meaning of the novel after our original idea of feminism is somewhat shattered by Laura’s liberation coming from her subservience to a male Devil.

The Devil however is “chill” as Danielle said. He is “undesiring” and has “indifferent ownership” of her creating a striking contrast with how Titus viewed his ownership of the land (symbolizing men’s ownership and “way of loving” in general). He wants to control and create it through his illustrations while the Devil allows Laura to make her own decisions. Titus also shows his desire for it when he mentions “I should like to stroke it” while the Devil is truly indifferent and leaves Laura to collect more souls. Although Laura’s “escape” from the expectations of femininity is through a traditional male rescuing female dynamic, it is still rather effective since they do not have a traditional relationship.