Gender Politics in Roald Dahl's the Witches
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Knut Erik Stauri Gender politics in Roald Dahl's The Witches An analysis of the book to movie adaptation based on feminist theory Bachelor’s project in Lektorutdanning i språkfag for trinn 8–13 Bachelor’s project Supervisor: Eli Løfaldli June 2020 NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology ENG2900 Candidate number 10008 Spring 2020 Abstract The purpose of the thesis is to compare aspects of the novel and the movie The Witches by Roald Dahl. More specifically, I am investigating the gender politics in both the movie and the movie, seeking to spot differences in the portrayal of females and women as witches in these works. Dahl explains the phenomenon of witches early in this children’s book, emphasizing the great distinction between women and witches. He explains that witches are not human beings, but demons disguised as women. Despite this clear and intelligible explanation, the novel was met with mixed reception. Several libraries around the world considered the book to cause misogyny, due to its presentation of women as horrifying witches seeking to put an end to the existence of children. Did Roald Dahl’s portrayal of witches bring implications to society’s perception of women and gender equality? Is The Witches an arena for acquiring basic misconceptions of women at a young age? These questions have formed the basis of the thesis, leading to the development of a thesis statement. By using critical feminist theory, I sought to discuss and compare the gender politics in the novel and the movie. I found that it is challenging to conclude the gender politics in The Witches. There are some differences in the portrayal of women in the novel and the movie, and one may argue that aspects of them could cause misogyny, while other aspects could be supporting feminism. 1 ENG2900 Candidate number 10008 Spring 2020 Table of contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................................ 1 1.0 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 3 2.0 Plot summary of The Witches....................................................................................................... 4 3.0 Theory ......................................................................................................................................... 4 3.1 Feminist Theory ....................................................................................................................... 4 4.0 Methodology ............................................................................................................................... 6 5.0 Discussion .................................................................................................................................... 7 5.1 The novels perspective on gender ............................................................................................ 7 5.2 The movie’s perspective on gender .......................................................................................... 9 5.3 A comparison between the book and the movie .................................................................... 10 6.0 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 13 Works cited ..................................................................................................................................... 14 2 ENG2900 Candidate number 10008 Spring 2020 1.0 Introduction Since I was a young child, Roald Dahl’s books and novels always fascinated me. The characters were always energic, frivolous and distinctive, triggering a special desire to read about them. The main characters were often magical, having exceptional features and abilities that were unknown for normal human beings. I believe Dahl had a unique way of describing the grotesque, and perhaps not child friendly themes, in a child friendly way. Not all of his stories ended well, like we normally were taught in fairytales and children’s books. This made his works rather unpredictable and thrilling, as you could never know if the good people would triumph in the end. As a result of my enthusiasm for Dahl, I was tempted to write about one of his well-known novels “The Witches”, which horrified me as a child, but most importantly helped me reading for pleasure. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the gender politics in the book to movie adaptation “The Witches” from 1983 and 1990. This is because the novel received criticism and powerful reactions for causing misogyny by portraying women as abhorrent and awful witches (Bird 119). Consequently, it is interesting to compare the book with the movie and investigate the differences between them, and how the movie might have adapted and responded to the criticism and accusations of misogyny. There are seven years between their release, and considering that the criticism led to a ban of the novel in many libraries (Curtis 167), one can perhaps expect a more merciful and lenient portrayal of women and witches in the movie. To get a broader understanding of why the The Witches received criticism for causing and promoting misogyny and sexism, it is important to have some knowledge about what these accusations are based on. “Feminist theory” highlights the idea on how women have been systematically devalued and oppressed in different types of society (Coakley and Pike 45). By the use of this theory, and through a review and comparison between the book and the movie I will seek to discuss and answer the following thesis statement: What are the gender politics in The Witches by Roald Dahl, and what are the differences in gender politics between the book and the movie? 3 ENG2900 Candidate number 10008 Spring 2020 2.0 Plot summary of The Witches When a boy loses his parents in a car crash, he must move to Norway to live with his grandmother. She tells him that real witches exist, and that they are evil creatures seeking to kill all children on earth. The grandmother gets sick, and on the spur of the moment she must move to a hotel on the coast of England to get better, unaware that the annual meeting of the witches is held at this hotel. The witches catch the boy and turn him into a mouse. As a mouse, the boy and his grandmother must find the witches’ formula and put it into their soup. They succeed, and end up killing all the witches, but the boy lives the rest of his life as a mouse, with an estimated nine years left to live. 3.0 Theory 3.1 Feminist Theory Feminist Theory is based on the assumption that the perception about social life requires an understanding of gender and society’s relation to gender (Coakley and Pike 45). In the perspective of feminist theory, we must be aware of the sharp contrast between men and women in society, and the assumption that gender is connected to different characteristics and skills. It has developed from a common notion and dissatisfaction with intellectual traditions and views of women, and surmises that the values, experiences, and insights of women have not been taken seriously (Coakley and Pike 45). Feminist theory seeks to explain in which ways women have been systematically devalued and oppressed in different types of society. The theory emphasizes the importance of women’s rights, and that movements towards gender equality is an absolute necessity for a society to develop in the right direction (Coakley and Pike 45). Traditionally, the sport industry is perhaps one of the most common societies that advocates and promotes sexism. One example of this could be in the sport of boxing, where strong men fight each other and show domination, conquest and male superiority (Coakley and Pike 45), while women are holding up signs in between the rounds, barely wearing any clothes. According to Coakley and Pike, this does not only represent women as sexual objects, intended to please the male audience (45). It also gives an assumption that men should express brutality, power and strength, while women should appear as either objects to please the eyes of a man, or show a rather innocent and defensive personality, showing care (Toftegaard 268). 4 ENG2900 Candidate number 10008 Spring 2020 There are several forms of feminist theory, but most of them are well suited and used to ask questions about issues of power, and the dynamics of gender relations in social life in general (Coakley and Pike 45). The theories seek to discover the gender relations that privilege men over women, and men over men, but also their origin and the consequences of them. Also, discovering what may contribute in creating ideas of masculinity and femininity, as well as how they are reproduced and changed in society is also important in feminist theory (Coakley and Pike 45). 5 ENG2900 Candidate number 10008 Spring 2020 4.0 Methodology The methodology of the thesis is a “systematic literature review”. This could be defined as a discussion or an answer to a well formulated thesis statement, by identifying and critically analyzing relevant research on the chosen thesis (Forsberg & Wengström 27). My thesis statement involves discussing and comparing a novel to a movie. I believe that utilizing peer- reviewed articles on feminist theory and research on The Witches can bring relevant ideas, as well as strengthen my credibility by having reliable research available to support my discussion. I have collected data from two peer-reviewed