The Witches

The boy’s grandma, Grandmamma, is meant to be a likable character, like the boy. While most adults in The Witches have unbecoming qualities, the grandma represents laudatory traits. She dutifully cares for the boy after he becomes an orphan and sacrifices her wishes to be with him. The boy says: “You don’t want to go and live in our English house, I know you don’t!” The grandma replies: “Of course I don’t. But I am afraid I must. The will said that your mother felt the same way about it, and it is important to respect the wishes of the parents” (37). Thus, the grandma believes in honor and loyalty. She abides by the wishes of her daughter and son-in-law and sticks by the boy.

Grandmamma acts as a mentor to the boy. She teaches him all about witches. The grandma is a witchophile—a witch expert—and she shares her knowledge with her grandson. Initially, the boy thinks his grandma is trying to scare him. Grandmamma replies: “I am trying to make sure you don’t go the same way. I love you and I want you to stay with me” (17). Her role as the boy’s primary caretaker links to her role as mentor. She wants the boy to know about witches because she loves him: She doesn’t want him to turn into another one of their victims.

When the witches turn the boy into a mouse, she doesn’t blame the boy, nor does she reject his new identity. At first, she cries and is worried. After the boy assures her he’s fine and likes being a mouse, the grandma says: “Of course I’ll look after you” (134). The grandma is tolerant and accepting. It doesn’t matter how her grandson appears; she’ll love him. Unlike most of the adults in the story, Grandmamma doesn’t have a hateful relationship with mice. Without meaning to, she foreshadows her grandson’s transformation when she gives him two mice, William and Mary, to train.

Once the boy becomes a mouse, Grandmamma turns into something of a sidekick. She and the boy become a team, as if they’re both spies or secret operatives. They have to stay undercover and covert to take down the witches. While the main action revolves around the boy, Grandmamma’s support is essential. She comes up with the idea to lower the boy into the Grand High Witch’s room in the sock, and she brings him with her into the dining room and releases him into the kitchen. The role of sidekick connects to the caretaker role. She bandages his tail after it’s cut in the kitchen.

The grandma doesn’t follow gender norms. The boy says: “My grandmother was the only grandmother I ever met who smoked cigars” (17). In Western culture, cigars are often linked with powerful male figures—mob bosses like Tony Soprano or Tony Montana. Men don’t intimidate Grandmamma. She puts the manager in his place and keeps her cool with the peevish Mr. Jenkins. She bends gender norms when pretending to be a man on the phone with the police chief. She boasts: “I am very good at imitating a man’s voice” (210).

Grandmamma isn’t perfect. She makes mistakes. When she tells the boy about the five kids who disappeared, the boy reminds her that not all of the children vanished. Later, she overestimates the number of witches in England. The grandma is also mysterious. It’s not clear what happened to her thumb or her brother. The narrative doesn’t explain why she knows so much about witches. Perhaps the grandma is a witch who turned good.

The witches are the antagonists, the villains. They hate children and want to extinguish every single child in England. As the boy is a child in England, his life is in danger. The Grand High Witch is the leader, and is the primary antagonist. Grandmamma describes the Grand High Witch as “the ruler of them all. She is all-powerful. She is without mercy. All other witches are petrified of her” (40). The Grand High Witch is a tyrant. She expects unthinking devotion from the other witches. She has no tolerance for debate or questions. All she wants is praise, and that’s what she gets. About her plan, the witches exclaim: “Brilliant! Sensational! Marvellous! You are a genius, O Brainy One! It is a thrilling invention, this Delayed Action Mouse-Maker! It is a winner!” (95).

After one witch questions the plan, the Grand High Witch demonstrates her pitiless, violent, and authoritarian nature by incinerating the doubting witch. The Grand High Witch then reminds her followers: “A vitch who dares to say I’m wrrrong / Vill not be vith us very long!” (80).

The questioning of the unnamed witch suggests that not all of the witches are as evil as the Grand High Witch. Some witches have consciences. This doesn’t mean that the witches represent good, but it makes it feasible that they all don’t represent extreme evil. Even the Grand High Witch possesses a few laudable traits. The witches are a community—they’re like a family—and the Grand High Witch can harm them, but she also helps them. She doesn’t discriminate against older witches, but includes them in her plan by giving them formulas. She says: “You ancient vuns have served me vell over many years, and I do not vish to deny you the pleasure of bumping off a few thousand children each just because you have become old and feeble” (114). Though it’s for an evil purpose, the Grand High Witch shows sympathy and understanding for her own kind.

Mystery surrounds the Grand High Witch. Her accent makes it seem like she’s from Germany, but that’s conjecture, not explicit, and the boy and his grandma don’t know where she lives until the end. As the witches engage in wicked behavior, they have to shroud themselves in secrecy. They pretend to be women and are deceptive. The grandma tells the boy that the witches aren’t women. She explains: “[T]hey are totally different animals. They are demons in human shape” (32). The witches embrace malleable identities, evoking the theme of Appearances and the Fluidity of Identity.