Witches, Mothers, and Administrators: Evil Women in C.S. Lewis, Philip Pullman, and J.K. Rowling
Class
Article
Graduation Year
2017
College
College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Department
English Department
Faculty Mentor
Christine Cooper-Rompato
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Abstract
Fantasy literature is full of evil women, and these women range from the stiletto-knife-heel wearing Esme Squalor in The Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket to the Wicked Witch of the West and her flying monkeys in L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz. My fifteen-minute presentation focuses on three notorious female characters: the White Witch from C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Mrs. Coulter from Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass, and Dolores Umbridge from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Each of these women are evil in their own ways, but studying their similarities reveals what makes a woman evil in fantasy literature. All of these women are power hungry, deceitful, and full of hate, but those are not the only characteristics that make them evil. These women are evil because their desire for power leads them to oppose stereotypically female roles, human nature, and the natural world. By creating evil women who go against conventional femininity, Lewis, Pullman, and Rowling endorse women who possess traditionally feminine characteristics.
Location
Room 101
Start Date
4-13-2017 9:00 AM
End Date
4-13-2017 10:15 AM
Witches, Mothers, and Administrators: Evil Women in C.S. Lewis, Philip Pullman, and J.K. Rowling
Room 101
Fantasy literature is full of evil women, and these women range from the stiletto-knife-heel wearing Esme Squalor in The Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket to the Wicked Witch of the West and her flying monkeys in L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz. My fifteen-minute presentation focuses on three notorious female characters: the White Witch from C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Mrs. Coulter from Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass, and Dolores Umbridge from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Each of these women are evil in their own ways, but studying their similarities reveals what makes a woman evil in fantasy literature. All of these women are power hungry, deceitful, and full of hate, but those are not the only characteristics that make them evil. These women are evil because their desire for power leads them to oppose stereotypically female roles, human nature, and the natural world. By creating evil women who go against conventional femininity, Lewis, Pullman, and Rowling endorse women who possess traditionally feminine characteristics.