From the time of Tituba’s black magic in The Crucible to that of Madison Montgomery and her coven’s seven wonders in American Horror Story(AHS): Coven, the portrayal of witches has changed significantly. Generalized forms of witches exist on televised entertainment, such as wearing flowing dresses or flying around on broomsticks doing all sorts of evil. Exploring the many types will help to dispel any kind of stereotype whether positive or negative. The portrayal of witches differ from culture to time period on the way they dress, the type of magic they are shown performing, and the physical characteristics of their face or body.
Black, white, and red. These are some of the colors that are associated with the long, flowing dresses that witches …show more content…
In all seven of the books and eight movie adaptations of Harry Potter, wands are waved about in patterns to cast spells and mixes of herbs, roots, and parts of animals to create potions for significant uses are the common types of magic that is performed. Only the creation of potions somewhat portray what actual witches would do; new and modern magic is used as a remedy to help aide medicine as a natural supplement with different mixes of herbs similar to Harry Potter. Another common theme of magic in entertainment is transfiguration, which is the transformation of an object or human to alter its form, such as a human transforming into a cat. This is shown in Harry Potter when Professor McGonagall transforms into a cat during class, Sabrina the Teenage Witch when Salem Saberhagen was punished and made to spend his an indeterminate time as a cat since he was formerly a man, and in AHS: Coven as Marie Laveau turned her love into half ox- half …show more content…
In the movie adaption of the book, The Wizard of Oz, a contrasting view of witches is given and Dorothy shows the misconception of witches being evil by saying “I thought all witches were wicked” to which the Witch of the North, also known as Glinda, “retorts ‘Oh, no, that is a great mistake (Baum 1900: 17–18)” (89). Glinda the Good Witch is the beautiful version of the witch stereotype while her sister, The Wicked Witch of the West, is green-faced with a wart on her chin and a crooked nose to represent the ugly side of witches. Moseley states in her book about “glamorous witchcraft” that portrayal of “the sparkle or twinkle (like the cute twitch of the nose in Bewitched and Tabitha [US, tx 1977-78J) is the recurrent audiovisual motif in films and television programmes about witches … making the link between magic, femininity and cosmetics explicit” (408). Both are highly dramatized as time passes and stereotypes snowball into more imaginative
Black, white, and red. These are some of the colors that are associated with the long, flowing dresses that witches …show more content…
In all seven of the books and eight movie adaptations of Harry Potter, wands are waved about in patterns to cast spells and mixes of herbs, roots, and parts of animals to create potions for significant uses are the common types of magic that is performed. Only the creation of potions somewhat portray what actual witches would do; new and modern magic is used as a remedy to help aide medicine as a natural supplement with different mixes of herbs similar to Harry Potter. Another common theme of magic in entertainment is transfiguration, which is the transformation of an object or human to alter its form, such as a human transforming into a cat. This is shown in Harry Potter when Professor McGonagall transforms into a cat during class, Sabrina the Teenage Witch when Salem Saberhagen was punished and made to spend his an indeterminate time as a cat since he was formerly a man, and in AHS: Coven as Marie Laveau turned her love into half ox- half …show more content…
In the movie adaption of the book, The Wizard of Oz, a contrasting view of witches is given and Dorothy shows the misconception of witches being evil by saying “I thought all witches were wicked” to which the Witch of the North, also known as Glinda, “retorts ‘Oh, no, that is a great mistake (Baum 1900: 17–18)” (89). Glinda the Good Witch is the beautiful version of the witch stereotype while her sister, The Wicked Witch of the West, is green-faced with a wart on her chin and a crooked nose to represent the ugly side of witches. Moseley states in her book about “glamorous witchcraft” that portrayal of “the sparkle or twinkle (like the cute twitch of the nose in Bewitched and Tabitha [US, tx 1977-78J) is the recurrent audiovisual motif in films and television programmes about witches … making the link between magic, femininity and cosmetics explicit” (408). Both are highly dramatized as time passes and stereotypes snowball into more imaginative