Sabrina the Teenage Witch is a sitcom about a teenager witch that lives with her two aunts. She lives the life as a normal teenager and nobody would be able to tell that she's a witch by looking at her. This is quite different than what Palmer described witches to be in the early modern period. She's not old and ugly. She doesn't have satanic motives and has much more purpose than to cause misery for others. Witches in today's society are even often seen as superior to regular humans. They are the same except they can perform magic, whether it is for good or bad, it is something everyone has dreamed of being able to do. Due to the way our society views witches, we are able to have shows like Sabrina that rely on comedy and family values. They aren't these creatures that are out to get everyone anymore.
Similar to witches in the early modern period, Sabrina often has to deal with feeling like an outsider. While the viewers may love her, this isn't always the case in the show. While people aren't going after her wanting her killed, they're a little wary of her, because of the powers she holds. If she doesn't like them, she has the ability to do some terrible things. No matter how accepting society is of witches, there will always be a little tension between them due to the harm they can do with a point of a finger. We never see Sabrina do anything too terrible though. For the most part she uses magic to help her in her everyday life and it rarely affects those around her.
Sabrina the Teenage Witch is a great example of how witches have changed over the years. Often times contemporary witches are not hideous beings that can be spotted in a crowd due to warts on abnormally large noses, or a tall pointed black hat and a broom. They appear as normal people and can only be unmasked if they reveal their powers. Today’s witches, like Sabrina, generally use their powers in order to be helpful, and usually have good intentions. I also agree that contemporary witches and early witches share the aspect of being outcast from society. Their powers can be seen as a threat and they are thought to be “weird” and “different”. However, I am not sure that they are thought of as superior. I think young adults and viewers outside of the show (watching it in the real world) might dream of being able to perform magic like Sabrina, but I think those inside the storyline (her peer characters in the show) simply think of her and her powers as strange or dangerous. Of course there are always exceptions to this.
ReplyDeleteAdding to the above post and comments, we can see that Sabrina is definitely a great example of the gradual shift on witch's outlooks. If you take a look at a contemporary look on witches, they definitely don't look hideous old or ugly as Candice and Kevin states. If one were to look objectively, one could say she is one of the better looking people given she is a fairly young actress. You can imply she may provide a sense of eroticism that witches were could be defined for if you wish to stretch it out.
ReplyDeleteThough we can also say that contemporary witches such as Sabrina do live in hiding but they may also represent a secret side to those that we do not know well. There may be more to others than we may notice first hand due to first appearances. This says that we (like olden times) may still have assumptions on others based on appearances alone. We can imagine that the witch’s roles have changed though via the introduction of new problems that were certainly not one of the main concerns of older versions of the witch.