Charmed Life questions

[mairelon]

Hi everybody. I've just been rereading Charmed Life for about the dozenth time.  There's just one question I've never been able to figure out over the years.

Comments

[minutia_r]

Cat at first concluded that it was a trap spell left by Gwendolen, and later insincerely confessed to doing it in order to cover up Gwendolen's absence, but when he was able to accept the fact that he had turned her back, he also assumed it was he who had turned her into a frog in the first place, since he was the only one who was able to reverse the spell, and I think we are supposed to accept that reasoning as sound as well and conclude that is was Cat who (unknowingly and unintentionally) turned Euphemia into a frog. Other explanations are possible, though; since Gwendolen habitually used Cat's magic, it might be reasonable that he could reverse one of her spells when no one else could

[dropsofviolet]

I had always assumed that Gwendolen did it with Cat's magic, which is why he could turn her back again. It doesn't seem at all like something he'd do, even accidentally, and it's set up in the narrative as occurring right after Gwendolen's escape, so that makes sense to me.

Does anyone else think it was unfair of Mr Saunders to test Janet on geography the very next day? - I think they were trying to get Janet and Cat to confess that Gwendolen was gone, as one of Chrestomanci's little tests to see if he could figure out how involved Cat was in Gwendolen's bad behavior. They totally failed, sadly.

[adina_atl]

DWJ's adults are frequently unfair and generally far from perfect. I think it's one way that she deals with the question of why a kid or group of kids who get into trouble don't seek adult help. Most children's and YA book tend to take the "dead or absent parent" route, but DWJ seems to prefer to make her parents present but unhelpful--useless, deluded, or occasionally downright evil. I think Chrestomanci didn't know how to deal with children when he was one and never learned since. Neither he nor the Goddess had good role models for parents, after all. Being a good person and being a good parent aren't necessarily the same thing.

[rainbow_yarn]

I agree with drops of violet; I was always under the impression that Gwendolen had left the spell for Euphemia, since she's that spiteful, and since she had been using Cat's magic rather than her own, Cat was able to change Euphemia back. I think Cat's intelligent and intuitive but sometimes easily muddled, so that's why he thought he'd been the one to cast the frog spell.

As far as Ms. Saunders goes, I think rather than trying to get them to confess, he wanted to see how much Cat and Not-Gwendolen knew about what they were doing. At the end of the book, Chrestomanci and the other staff memebrs were all walking on eggshells while explaining things to Cat because they were unsure of his awareness of the situation and his own abilities. They didn't know enough about Cat or Gwendolen (and Not-Gwendolen) to trust them, so I think that's what the geography test was for. Not sure if that makes sense.

[mairelon]

Thanks for the replies. Mr. Saunders testing Janet and Cat makes perfect sense.