Daughters of Eve

For our last class session, we read about and discussed the portrayals of witches in film. The “Witches on Screen” reading focused partially on the Wizard of Oz and the two witch archetypes presented by the movie. While reading this, and again while discussing the stark difference between Glinda the good witch and the ugly Wicked Witch of the West, I couldn’t help but think of the Virgin Mary and Eve. 

Since at least the Middle Ages, when the patriarchal Christian Church took a firm hold of society and everyday life, Mary and Eve have been some of the largest symbols of womanhood. The Virgin Mary represents the ideal woman in a time when virgins and mothers were the best things a female could be; Mary was both. On the other hand, Eve represents the downfall of women. This early woman, who fell prey to Satan’s temptation, caused the fall of humanity because she was weak to resist evil (this sounds similar to stories of witches who also fall to the will of the devil). With these two contrasting ideas of womanhood, women simply must belong to one category or the other. Therefore, all women who can not meet the standards set by the virgin mother (and let’s face it- those standards are pretty unattainable), become “daughters of Eve”– women susceptible to evil. 

I find it likely that the women convicted of witchcraft during the Salem trials and other witch trials throughout history didn’t measure up to the standards set by Mother Mary and the patriarchal church. Some of these standards might include motherhood or virginity (women seen as seductive frequently fell victim to accusations of witchcraft), but I think anything that clashes with the ideal picture of femininity- meek, quiet, obedient, pure, nurturing- warranted suspicion. For example, the text we looked at features this description of Oz’s Wicked Witch of the West: “In her earthly form she resembles the most negative recent depictions of New England witches. Angry, aggressive, contentious, and vindictive, she is given to unreasonable provocation of the decent folk who live around her, even innocent children, and shows callous indifference to the most basic human values” (260). These characteristics may not be the norm, especially for pleasant women, but they certainly aren’t supernatural. Nevertheless, women in Salem were put on trial based on these very things (along with stories likely made up by those who didn’t appreciate their social defiance). 

I find it possible that these real-life standards of womanhood play a role in the depiction of witches in popular media, especially in The Wizard of Oz. At the same time, these depictions also shape our reality in a cyclical manner. The polar opposite images of the ugly evil witch and beautiful good witch reproduce and emphasize the antiquated idea that straying from feminine perfection as determined by men makes someone a bad woman, a bad person, with no room for anything in between.