55 pages • 1-hour read
The Bewitching
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Symbols & Motifs
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, graphic violence, and animal death.
Witch Marks
Throughout the narrative, witch marks symbolize the power of knowledge and Women’s Legacy of Empowerment and Agency. When carved into the wood in a room, witch marks protect it against the harm posed by a witch or a warlock. Ginny carves witch marks into her room at Stoneridge even before she learns the identity of the person bewitching her. Minerva uses this inherited knowledge gleaned from her research to carve similar marks into her own room. Much of the knowledge that is passed down in the narrative is done so by women, and within the world of the novel, both knowledge and power are feminized.
Minerva learns much of what she knows about witchcraft from her great-grandmother Alba, which she combines with the things she learns from Tremblay’s writing and the research it references. Minerva is interested not only in her own family’s history, but also in the way that storytelling and folklore result from a “collective unconscious” which serves as a repository for various pieces of cultural knowledge, highlighting The Impact of Storytelling as a driving force in the novel. Because she sees so many similarities in traditions that have emerged from different parts of the world, she also sees value in respecting those traditions and accessing the power they offer to use for her own liberation.
Moreno-Garcia presents witch marks as an integral tool in cultural histories of the supernatural that Minerva believes have been hidden because of their association not only with women but also with “folk” traditions, highlighting the novel’s thematic engagement with The Tension Between Folk Wisdom and Modern Beliefs. While many of the novel’s socially advantaged characters look down upon folk beliefs, the author’s narrative lens respects and validates these traditions.
Poison
Moreno-Garcia also uses poison to interrogate social and economic privilege. Throughout the novel, poison symbolizes the reclamation of agency by women who experience discrimination for both their gender and class. In literature, poison often symbolizes evil and malevolence, used by characters with malign intent. Moreno-Garcia subverts that symbolism, using poison to symbolize female agency and protection, used for good and to vanquish rather than aid evil forces. Both Arturo and Carolyn represent privilege, affluence, and institutional power in their respective contexts, and both succumb to the poison because of their desire to “feed on” the disenfranchised—those they consider their social inferiors.
Arturo’s hubris drives him to control those around him, literally draining power from those he deems weak by drinking their blood. Carolyn’s generational wealth and influential family make her believe she can wield her witchcraft unchecked. As Tremblay writes, “Back then, affluent people still took a dim view of […] new money, foreign roots, and a lack of a good Protestant heritage […] and Carolyn was more snobbish than your average girl” (69). Arturo and Carolyn fall victim to the poison because both of them disregard the power of those they view as victims. Before they deny—evaporating into nothing—both characters stop feeding when they recognize the presence of poison in their victims’ blood. The moment when each character realizes that, had they stopped earlier or eaten more slowly, they might have saved themselves, highlights the danger posed by greed, unchecked desire, and unchecked wealth and privilege.
Birds
In The Bewitching, witches use the bodies of birds as talismans to ward off evil. Both Alba and Minerva are drawn to birds. Alba keeps small birds and dislikes the brutal killing of chickens on the farm, and Minerva loves her suite of rooms at Stoneridge, in part, because of its collection of taxidermized birds. Because of her interest in the supernatural and witchcraft, the birds seen delightfully atmospheric rather than ominous to Minerva, and she relishes the opportunity to live somewhere that feels like a haunted house. As the menacing nature of her own bewitching escalates, Minerva utilizes the birds for protection just as Alba taught her. This knowledge, inherited from the world of folk magic rather than Western science, reinforces the novel’s exploration of The Tension Between Folk Wisdom and Modern Beliefs. The use of bird talismans is part of Minerva’s family history, but it is also part of the broader history of folk magic in the Indigenous spaces that eventually came to be called Mexico during the years after colonization. Utilizing this legacy of folk magic becomes a way for modern-day characters like Minerva to maintain a connection both to their family histories and to their cultural identities.
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