The Witches 3. How to Recognise a Witch Summary & Analysis

The next night, after giving the boy a bath and helping him get ready for bed, Grandmamma puffs on a cigar and tells him how to spot a witch. A real witch will always be wearing gloves when you meet her, to disguise the fact that she has claws instead of fingernails. A real witch is always bald. She wears a top-quality wig, so it can be hard to tell, but she might be scratching, as wigs are dreadfully itchy on bald scalps. A real witch’s nostrils are slightly larger than a normal person’s, the better to sniff out little children. And little children stink dreadfully to witches, like fresh dog droppings. That’s part of why witches hate little children. It’s better, Grandmamma says, not to bathe too often, because a little layer of dirt and grime stops a child from emitting what witches call “stink-waves” quite so freely.

Despite the fact that baths are, according to Grandmamma, potentially dangerous because they make children easier for witches to sniff out, she still makes sure the boy has them occasionally. While it’s good to be prepared to protect oneself, this suggests, it’s not possible to avoid all pain, suffering, or danger in life—something the death of the boy’s parents has already demonstrated. By associating Grandmamma’s witch-spotting lessons with other mundane acts of caregiving (like supervising bathtime), the book suggests that witches are just another normal part of daily life, just as Grandmamma claims. This also shows how deeply she loves and wants to protect her grandson. In the first chapter, the boy explained that witches are hard to spot and now readers can understand why: they engage in various forms of costuming and trickery to hide themselves in plain sight.

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Grandmamma goes on to explain that the pupils of a real witch’s eyes spark with fire and ice. This strains the boy’s belief, but Grandmamma reminds him that witches aren’t real people. They’re demons in disguise as human beings. And their disguises have other cracks, too, like the fact that a real witch never has toes. This makes wearing dainty women’s shoes quite uncomfortable for witches. Finally, a real witch has blue spit.

Although Grandmamma insists that witches are demons and not real people, the fact remains that they look like real women to the untrained eye contributes to the book’s depiction of women as inherently (or at least potentially) dangerous—especially if they’re fashionable and pretty.

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Grandmamma admits that most of these signs aren’t very helpful, especially by themselves. Lots of ladies wear gloves, especially outside in the colder months, and unless a witch takes off her shoes, no one will see her feet. A slightly blueish cast to her teeth might be the only way to see the color of her teeth. But knowing the signs might be the difference between life and death.

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The boy asks Grandmamma if she’s ever encountered a witch herself. He has noticed that one of her hands is missing a thumb. Grandmamma’s hands start to shake slightly, but she shuts her mouth and refuses to answer. In fact, she freezes up entirely. The boy kisses her on the cheek and takes himself off to bed.

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The Witches: 3. How to Recognise a Witch Summary & Analysis