For this past week, I read the book Aunt Maria by Diana Wynne Jones. I found the story disturbingly creepy but with a lot of personality coming from the characters’ actions which enriches the story. The character, Aunt Maria, may seem to appear as a rude bossy old lady, but in all actuality she happens to be a powerful manipulative witch; making her the main antagonist of the story. In my opinion, Aunt Maria’s rude, stubborn, bossy and cranky personality are just stereotypes of a grumpy old lady. Most of her behavior and outdated opinions mainly reflect the past experience of an old lady. Maria’s personality trait was influenced by her witch-like manipulative nature, where she kept using reverse psychology on the protagonist's mother to do all of the housework for her. Aunt Maria embodies the powerful stereotypical image of an old wicked witch. She uses her magic powers to influence and completely control the town she lives in.
I really find it interesting how the story revolves around a pair of siblings that must defeat the evil witch that threatens their family. This reminded me of the fairytale Hansel and Gretel with the content of two children having to confront a witch. In my opinion, I do not think that all witches are evil since it mainly depends on how they decide to use their power; either to help or get corrupted. A witch mainly refers to a female spellcaster, however a warlock is referred to as a male witch.
Our culture models women with power as independent, strong and intimidating. However, Aunt Maria is needy and dependent on the people around her. The only way she manages to get things done is by using her powers of magic without really questioning her actions and circumstances. This also plays around with the idea of hierarchy in our society today where people use or even abuse the power they have to manipulate or demand things from others in order to accomplish their goal.
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