A Dicsovery of Witches 11-13-14 pages 96-166

1- Analyze the impact word choice has on the meaning or tone of a text.

2- Analyze how dialogue or specific incidents reveal information about characters. Make sure to include textual evidence.









Things are getting interesting. Things are getting extremely interesting. Mathew is also a bit less creepy than how I felt in the last blog but if anything I think it's just because of how his relationship with Diana is evolving. It's kind of cute.


Also so much world development. SO MUCH. As someone who writes stories where world building is needed because of how different it is from life now, I love to see how other writers do it.






Okay so Mathew is a scientist working with other creatures in a lab trying to find out Daemons,Vampires, and Witches are evolving by looking at Mitochondria and DNA. They can see entire family lines, and how they've adapted. The quote and explanation is a little bit lengthy, so to save space and time here's a link to a pdf file. Scroll down to page 77 and read The sixth line down where it says "These are DNA sequences...." to page 78. Stop at the end of paragraph 15 where it ends in "....Marcus insisted."



This entire occurrence in the book explains the genetics of the creatures and what makes them all different. It also reveals earlier that vampires are having trouble reproducing, which may be caused by some deformations made by immunizations to things like diseases. This sets a whole problem other than what could be in the Ashmole 782. The amount of research Deborah Harkness had to put into this series is ridiculous and amazing. It doesn't reveal things about specific characters as much as it does species' that the character's belong to, but this would be for 2.


The way the character's Diana and Mathew talk to one another really doesn't set the tone as much as their body language does. When a conversation goes from casual to more serious or downright worrying or frightening, it is normally conveyed through Mathew's sudden (slightly preditorial, being a vampire) actions.

"Mathew shot to his feet, his face white and furious. His napkin fell, unnoticed, to the floor. A vein in his forehead pulsed once before subsiding.

I had said something wrong."

They do talk like the adult scholars that they are, and though it isn't difficult to understand, it's a lot more sophisticated than say, diolague of two teenagers from a different book talking to one another.

"Mathew," I said slowly, watching him for any early warning signs of anger. "How old are you?"

His mouth hardened, but he kept his voice light. "I'm older than I look."

"I know that," I said, unable to curb my impatience.

"Why is my age importent?"

"I'm a historian. If somebody tells me he remembers when chocolate was introduced into France or a comet passing overhead in 1811, it's difficult not to be curious about the other events he might have lived through. You were alive in 1536—I've been to the house you had built. Did you know Machiavelli? Live through the Black Death? Attend the University of Paris when Abelard was teaching there?"

He remained silent. The hair on the back of my neck started to prickle.

"Your pilgrim's badge tells me you were once in Holy Land. Did you go on crusade? See Haley's comet pass over Normandy in 1066?"

Still nothing.

"Watch Charlemagne's coronation? Survive the fall of Carthage? Help Attila from reaching Rome?"

Mathew held up his right index finger. "Which fall of Carthage?"

"You tell me!"

They have a very entertaining relationship. I still don't exactly like Mathew, but I don't hate him either. He's... interesting. I would miss him as a character if something happened tough because then Diana would lack someone to bounce witty banter off of. He's definitely a main character.