Jannet Brenan Croft points out that Tiffany Aching, a trainee witch in Terry Pratchett's Wintersmith, is surrounded and educated by ‘great witches who pride themselves on rarely using magic’ for excessive use ‘can scour away one’s ethical sense’. Croft’s commentary implies that the witches of Discworld view magical reliance as immoral, the singular trait that makes them potentially more dangerous to mortals they refuse to exercise extensively. Tiffany even declares that ‘witching was turning out to be mostly hard work and really short on magic’, at the beginning of the novel, confirming that Pratchett’s protagonist misses out on the magical education a Hogwarts student might receive. Instead, ‘the main part of Tiffany’s apprenticeship is not based on knowledge, but is moreover a kind of social education’, Tiffany’s magical training pertains more to community work as opposed to magical intellect. Pratchett’s witches are also hyperaware of the consequences surrounding an over usage of magic.
Croft goes on to describe Pratchett’s setting as a ‘funhouse mirror of our world’, proposing that the witches co-exist with other magical beings such as wizards in a similar fashion to mortals concurring with other mortals. The wizards of Discworld are educated at the Unseen University, their magic mostly environmental manipulation through sorcery; ‘all numbers and angles and edges and what the stars are doing’. In Wintersmith, Tiffany observes Annagramma’s fire balls which the latter claims can be used to eliminate enemies. Tiffany calls her magic ‘wizard magic, showy and dangerous. Witches would prefer to cut enemies dead with a look’ as ‘there was no sense in killing your enemy’. Pratchett’s witches are more morally conscious than his wizards, though they are able to civilly tolerate them and their differences. They mark their disapproval through sneers as opposed to harming those they disagree with; Lian Sinclair writes that ‘the witches’ power stems not from masculine bravado but from their psychological ingenuity’. Sinclair insinuates that witch magic is more focussed on learning and controlling abilities and identifying the instances they are actually needed. Witches are more innovative and careful compared to wizards.
Tiffany’s naivety surrounding witchcraft evokes more pathos than terror. Eileen Donaldson argues that, through Tiffany, Pratchett studies ‘anxieties to do with the transition from childhood to early adolescence: the struggle to define oneself and the fear of responsibility’. She proposes that Tiffany undergoes an inner turmoil at the face of her new duties, which is supported prior to her entanglement with the Wintersmith. She tells Miss Treason ‘you know I don’t wear black’ after her superior tells her she must, Pratchett’s use of italics emphasising the protagonist’s discomfort at traditional witch attire. Tiffany’s subsequent participation in the dance, I argue, is a result of an inner conflict with her developing identity. Despite Miss Treason’s instructions, Tiffany argues ‘how could Miss Treason understand? What could she know? When did she last dance?’. Pratchett’s repeated rhetorical questioning of Miss Treason’s knowledge despite her being ‘113 years old’ emphasises Tiffany’s young age and innocence. Her entanglement with the Wintersmith is an error on her part but her deeming of the experience as ‘wonderful’, Pratchett’s adjective suggesting the dance is pleasurable and liberating for her, highlights the pressures in her witch training. Sinclair writes, ‘Tiffany Aching faces her own internalized demons which only she can fight by finding her place in the world, despite the causality of gendered narratives.’ Tiffany’s insecurities and inexperience, which Sinclair identifies, led to her mistake. She is about as terrifying as Dahl’s witches, however, this is attributed to her youth and mishap.
Pratchett’s witches find solace with each other; Tiffany comments on how ‘witches visited other witches all the time’ and this was ‘partly for gossip, because witches love gossip’ but also ‘to keep an eye on one another’. Pratchett continues his motif of the witches harbouring similarities to mortals, such as a thirst for knowledge ‘more exciting than truthful’ and a wish to look out for each other. Miss Treason certainly has Tiffany’s best interests at heart; she warns the protagonist to ‘look only at the dancers’ at the morris dance and to ‘not move until the dance is finished’. Nonetheless, Tiffany participates in the dance and is mistaken, by the Wintersmith, for the Summer Lady. Her senior’s reaction is one of chagrin, for ‘Miss Treason hadn’t shouted, hadn’t even raised her voice’ but had ‘sighed and said, “Foolish child,” which was a whole lot worse’. Pratchett’s witches not only neglect physical punishment but fail to use magic in their disciplining altogether, continuing to have each other’s best interests at heart. However gruff, they are kind to each other.
The Boffo Novelty Carnival Company provides the option to ‘spend a lot of money with Mr Boffo and be (a witch) as soon as the postman arrived’ instead of spending years training . The advertisement is an exaggeration, Pratchett illustrating that there is more to a witch than ‘skulls’, ‘fake ears’ and ‘hilarious noses’. Miss Treason has a collection of skulls in order to ‘show people what they want to see’, such a desire to adhere to cultural expectations of witches a first among the witches I have discussed. They have no ‘reputation to keep up’, as Miss Treason argues she has. Tiffany labels ‘the skulls and rubber cobwebs’ as ‘silly party stuff’, implying despite her inexperience, she sees through the guise Miss Treason is attempting to create. Pratchett takes these traditional witch traits and undoes the association between witches and repulsiveness. Their most terror-inducing traits, unflattering appearances and homes, are ruses, attempts to conform to expectations.
When the Wintersmith returns he ‘grabbed Tiffany’s wrist hard’, the lure Donaldson describes evident, ‘much harder than a ghostly hand should be able to do'. The protagonist evidently underestimates his power and expresses her fear; ‘”Don’t come near me! Don’t touch me!”’. Tiffany’s exclamative dialogue that she ‘screamed’ emphasises Tiffany’s fear and inexperience. Granny Weatherwax is forced to resolve the situation, angrily reminding an ignorant Tiffany that the Wintersmith is ‘an it, not a he!’. Nanny Ogg more kindly serves Tiffany knowledge, gently informing her that ‘(the Wintersmith) is in a bit of a tizzy because he’s never been in love with a human before’. Whilst an influence over the creator of winter seems powerful, Nanny Ogg informs Tiffany that ‘he’s an elemental, and they’re simple’ but ‘he’s trying to be human. And that’s complicated’. Tiffany’s ignorance surrounding what her participation in the dance would entail, her underestimation of the Wintersmith’s strength and her unfamiliarity with the consequences accentuates her unworldliness in witchcraft. Tiffany has interfered with winter himself and found the encounter a ‘wonderful, endless, golden, spinning moment’, Pratchett’s adjectives suggesting a delightful and life-changing experience that juxtaposes the imbalance caused. Tiffany is not a simply terrifying witch; she is an amateur prone to making mistakes.
Wintersmith, one of five novels that chronicles Tiffany’s witch training, is considered a coming-of-age story by some scholars. Whilst the same can be argued for the Harry Potter series, the titular character for Rowling’s saga is a wizard and he comes to harm at the hands of a witch in the series’ fifth instalment. Mary Jeanette Moran states that throughout the Tiffany Aching series, the protagonist encounters ‘significant threats to her selfhood’ almost ‘losing a sense of self’ to the Wintersmith in particular. Moran argues that the Wintersmith’s pursuit of Tiffany nearly leads to identity loss for the witch. Towards the end of his stalking, Tiffany reasons ‘(the Wintersmith) has found her’ and in doing so, ‘her mind went cold, but crystal wheels of thought spun fast’. Tiffany has been overpowered, her thinking charged by the Wintersmith’s immensity. The snowflakes, which are now ‘little icy Tiffanies’, a symbol of winter altered with Tiffany’s face, emphasises the intensity of Tiffany’s identify loss – the Wintersmith continues ‘bringing winter into (Tiffany’s) heart’. The personified season cannot exist without her, and she not without him. Neither Umbridge nor The Grand High Witch undergo such an identity struggle, whilst Tiffany ‘felt (the Wintersmith’s) shock’ after she ‘reached down and pulled out the silver horse’, her being becoming merged with the elemental. Her inability to prevent this earlier and the lessons she learns with overcoming the integration sets her apart from the other witches I have discussed; Wintersmith serves as a self-discovery arc Pratchett writes for Tiffany.
Apart of coming-of-age is learning to accept and handle mistakes. Prior to her death, Miss Treason tells Tiffany that ‘a witch takes responsibility!’ when the latter meekly tells her she ‘didn’t mean to’ participate in the dance. Pratchett creates a motif regarding witches owning up to their misjudgements; Granny Weatherwax later tells Miss Tick that she ‘made mistakes’ but ‘didn’t make excuses’ when the latter questions her of her teenage behaviour. The lesson Pratchett is connoting is the responsibility to commit to duties and to not avoid blame when they aren’t met. Donaldson identifies both Pratchett’s motif as well as Tiffany’s relatability, citing that ‘(readers) develop the resilience necessary to navigate the postmodern world they inhabit’, Tiffany’s newfound courage an applicable trait to readers.Her defeat of the Wintersmith is a pinnacle point in the novel, ‘she shut her eyes and kissed the Wintersmith’ and ‘drew down the sun’, Pratchett’s alliterative language emphasising Tiffany’s strength and the destruction of the elemental. Pratchett’s parataxis also is to be noted; he states it is ‘time to thaw’ prior to the kiss and then writes ‘frost to fire’ afterwards, giving equal weight to Tiffany deciding to kiss the Wintersmith and its subsequent impact. His alliterative phrases both insinuate and emphasise the dismantling of personified winter, at the hands of a protagonist who has remedied an imbalance she caused.
Happy Sunday everyone!
The above write-up is actually a modified chapter of my dissertation. As I mentioned in my birthday blog post, the blog is taking a backseat, but I didn't want to leave you hanging. This seemed fitting to post with it being Spooky Season.
I hope you're having an amazing weekend!
Karisma
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