My research focuses on representations of the controversial and culturally loaded figure of the witch and the way in which she has been represented in fiction. Through an exploration of two very different representations of witches, the 1621 play The Witch of Edmonton and the twenty-first century fantasy All Souls trilogy, this thesis unpacks the longstanding negative associations of the witch. The historical witch stereotyped as evil, old, deviant, and socially marginalised, compared to the way in which contemporary depictions of the witch have refashioned the figure into an autonomous heroine capable of balancing her powers with work, romance, and social responsibility. Throughout, my focus is on the gendered nature of the witch. The play The Witch of Edmonton (1621) by William Rowley, Thomas Dekker, and John Ford draws on the historical record and the pamphlet Wonderfull Discoverie of Elizabeth Sawyer, a Witch (1621) by Henry Goodcole. The historical Elizabeth Sawyer was tried and executed as a witch and Goodcole’s pamphlet is representative of the attitudes of the day which vilified the witch as a figure of demonic power and social disruption. The play both endorses the stereotype of Sawyer as a crone who makes a pact with the devil to enact harm on her neighbours and challenges these tropes by insisting that she is a marginalised, poverty- stricken figure who only turns to witchcraft after society labels her as such. In contrast, the All Souls trilogy by Deborah Harkness (2012-2014) reframes the witch as a young, beautiful heroine whose powers are capable of bringing about salvation rather than destruction. By juxtaposing these very different literary witches, this thesis seeks to understand both the social and literary factors that led to the patriarchal vilification of the witch and the cultural shifts that have resulted in the recent reframing of the witch as a figure of feminist power.