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7. Frizzled Like a Fritter
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Witches, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Fate and Perspective
Fear of Female Power
Trickery and Deceit
Trust and Belief
Love and Family
Summary
Analysis
Now that she’s silenced the naysayers, the Grand High Witch gets down to business. The boy listens as she tells the assembled witches that they must all go home, quit their jobs, and buy the nicest sweetshops they can find. She tells them that money is no object and that she’s brought trunkfuls of counterfeit cash to finance the project. An overexcited witch leaps to her feet, declaring her intent to buy the best sweetshop and to stuff its “sweets and chocs” with poison. Everyone freezes as the Grand High Witch turns on the overexcited witch, waiting for sparks to fly. But they don’t. Instead, the Grand High Witch says it’s no wonder there are still so many children left if this is the best plan an English witch can come up with. No, she says, witches work only with magic—never poison.
Once of the reasons the witches are terrifying is that they usually look like nice ladies. Another is that they form a sort of global conspiracy headed and directed by the Grand High Witch. Individual English witches might not be very clever—remember how easily the boy was able to escape from his first encounter—but they’re loyal to her orders and when she has a plan as nefarious as this one, chaos is sure to ensue.
Active
Themes
The Grand High Witch goes back to outlining her plan. Each witch will announce a grand new opening at their shop during which they will hand out free sweets laced with her brand-new Formula 86 Delayed Action Mouse-Maker potion. It won’t start working until the following day just before the beginning of the school day, at which point it will turn all of England’s children into mice. Cackling, the Grand High Witch describes the chaos that will ensure. Women teachers will jump on desks and scream. Custodians will rush to set out mousetraps. And these—not the witches directly—will kill the children. The teachers will wonder where all the children have gone, but by then it will be too late. The Grand High Witch is so pleased with herself that she breaks into a song version of her plan as she dances up and down the stage.
