“ | Children are rrree-volting! Vee vill vipe them all avay! Vee vill scrrrub them off the face of the earth! Vee vill flush them down the drain! | „ |
~ The Grand High Witch to her followers at the secret witches convention |
The Grand High Witch of All the World, also known as Ms. Evangeline Ernst, is the main antagonist of Ronald Dahl’s 1983 children's book The Witches and their 1990 and 2020 film adaptations.
Although Dahl's books are mostly known for their bizarre and creative plots, the Grand High Witch manages to exceptionally stand out in comparison to most villains in children's literature as one of the most disturbing and scarier villains ever seen in a book for children, even by the standards of Dahl's books.
She was portrayed by Angelica Huston in the 1990 film and in the 2020 film, she was portrayed by Anne Hathaway.
What Makes Her Pure Evil?[]
- The Grand High Witch led all of her servants who killed and caused the horrible fates of innocent children. She held annual conferences for their respective countries to see plans and machinations on how to get rid of all children in the world. To cover up her true self, the Grand High Witch disguised as a human Norwegian baroness, named Evangeline Ernst in the film, who offered self-produced money to many charities.
- While all witches are evil (with a notable exception being a witch in the 1990 movie), they do not show interest in committing genocide against children, as they only target one child per week while she criticized them for not sharing her heinous standards.
- While giving her conference on a hotel at England, she got mad because one of her witches complained about the situation and fried her alive by shooting her with incinerating rays. According to the unnamed protagonist's grandmother, named Helga Evesheim in the film, it's common for the Grand High Witch to fry at least one of her servants during each one of her meetings to keep the others focused.
- During her conference and reveal of all times, she has the audacity to have a banner opposing child cruelty behind her.
- Though not in the book, the film implies that the Grand High Witch was the witch Helga encountered back during her childhood, likely being behind the reason for which Helga lost one of her thumbs.
- Planned to mass murder all English children by asking her witches to buy candy stores with self-made money from her so they could give candy with her Formula 86 Delayed-Action Mouse-Maker to the kids, slowly beginning a process which would transform them into mice by the next day once at school, resulting in the teachers killing them without knowing the truth. She had her witches sing a song about it and didn't care at all if any adult consumed the candy, unlike other witches.
- Tricked Bruno Jenkins into eating a chocolate bar with Formula 86 Delayed-Action Mouse-Maker under the pretext of giving him more if he came to her "Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children" meeting the next day, only to demonstrate the other witches how effective her formula was, asking for a mouse trap to dispose of Bruno, who fortunately ran away with his life.
- Though she seemed to be generous with the eldest witches to some degree by giving them the ingredients of her formula in gratitude of all her years of servitude after realizing they were too old to obtain them, she more than likely did this just because the eldest witches could still be useful for her plans.
- When a witch asks her about what would happen if an adult took the formula, she only shrugs it off as a minor inconvenience, showing how little she regards the lives of others.
- Force fed Luke with the Formula 86 Delayed-Action Mouse-Maker simply for witnessing her meeting, transforming him into a mouse immediately and allowing him to go away with his life, fully knowing that he and Bruno could get killed by the hotel's staff.
- After the protagonist entered into her hotel room to take a bottle of Formula 86 Delayed-Action Mouse-Maker so he can turn her and the other witches into mice to stop their plans and met with frogs under her bed, she came to the room and cruelly stated that the frogs could sleep there just that night because next day she was going to throw them off her balcony so they could be devoured by the seagulls. Regardless the frogs were once normal humans whom she transformed (which is more likely) or just simple frogs, this can be listed as animal cruelty.
- Many different actions from original movie, 2020 adaptation, and book (kicked away the pet mice of the unnamed protagonist, pushing a baby down a cliff, trying to rip Helga's heart out, turning Helga's childhood friend into a chicken, as well as trying to kill the protagonist, Bruno and Mary, who were once a human girl, after being turned into a rat).
- Her excuse for her actions is zero worth to justify anything, and anything in her character is unreasonable at all or petty, while they get bad smell from the cleanest children that tortures them, she could've tried another way to cure themselves rather than kill anything that exists. In fact, she outright goes beyond the norm for a witch by trying to kill off as many children as possible.
Trivia[]
- Her act of not incinerating the second idiot witch who gave an stupid suggestion during her conference unlike the one she fried previously looks like a disqualifying factor, but this is not the case, as it can be implied that the Grand High Witch just didn't kill her possibly because the witch could still be useful for her plans, she didn't consider her worth of killing or her incineration power takes time to recharge.
- Much more, she has a pet cat whose name means "Sweetheart" in French, meaning she might care for the cat as she pets, though this even for a prevention doesn't count for 2022 remake, as she calls him a stupid cat before getting killed.
- The Grand High Witch is, alongside Agatha Trunchbull and the 1989 film version of the Fleshlumpeater, one of the three Roald Dahl villains to be Pure Evil.
- The Grand High Witch is also, alongside Judge Doom and the Coachman, one of the three ImageMovers villains to be Pure Evil.
External Links[]
- Grand High Witch on the Villains Wiki
- Grand High Witch on the Roald Dahl Wiki
- Grand High Witch on the Wikipedia
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Pure Evils | ||
Animated Features Live-Action Features See Also |
Pure Evils | ||
Literature Animated Features Live-Action Films |