Frizzled Like a Fritter
- All the women are staring at the platform, where there stands a very short, pretty lady... with gloves, of course. She's pretty, that is, until she peels her face off. No joke. Then – without her mask – she's pretty much the most revolting thing on the planet. That's The Grand High Witch (the GHW, from here on out).
- On the GHW's orders, the other women take off their gloves, shoes, and wigs. It's not a pretty sight underneath their disguises.
- The narrator quickly realizes that they might be able to smell him out, but luckily he hasn't bathed in a while. If only we were all so lucky.
- Finally, the GHW begins to speak. She has a funny accent where she uses "v"s for "w"s and rolls her "r"s a lot. Sometimes she rhymes. If you're not reading along in your book, Shmoop thinks you should go check out some of her dialogue to see how Roald Dahl transcribes it – it's really funky.
- She screams and yells (lots of exclamation points ensue) about disgusting children, and even kills one of the other witches (with her eyes – and pretty violently) when that witch suggests that they can't possibly wipe out all the children in England in one year. Talking back in Witch School gets you more than a visit to the principal's office, apparently.