Practical Magic

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains descriptions of sexual and domestic assault.

The women of the Owens family have always been scapegoats in the Massachusetts town where they have lived for over two centuries. Neighbors convinced themselves it was dangerous to even walk by their house. After their parents die in a fire, sisters Sally and Gillian move into the Owens house with their aunts, Frances and Bridget. Sally, the older of the sisters by 13 months, is quiet and responsible, while Gillian is carefree and selfish. From an early age, Sally learns to do the cooking and cleaning to take care of herself and her sister. Despite their differences, they remain close because no one else wants to be friends with them. Other children play pranks on them in school. Once, someone leaves a dead mouse in Sally’s desk. One day, all the aunts’ cats follow Sally to school and refuse to leave. When a boy sets one of the cats’ tails on fire, Sally berates him just before a piece of the ceiling falls on his head. From that point forward, all the children and even the teachers are too scared to do anything but avoid them.

Many of the women in town visit the aunts on occasion, in secret, seeking love spells. These women are desperate and sick with love. When very serious cases come, the aunts send the girls away, but Sally and Gillian watch secretly from the stairs. One day, a woman who works at the local drugstore comes because she’s in love with someone else’s husband. The aunts show compassion for the woman’s distress and give her a dove’s heart, instructing her to stab it with pins in ritual. For the next two weeks, Sally and Gillian spy on the woman to see what happens, hoping to confirm or deny their aunts’ abilities. A week later, they see their school principal visit the woman at night. Soon after, the woman returns to the aunts looking for a stronger charm that will make him leave his wife. Sally and Gillian watch secretly and see the aunts brutally kill a dove, traumatizing Sally. The woman and the principal do marry, but the woman becomes stifled by his overbearing love. Eventually, she returns to the Owens house to demand that the aunts undo the spell. When Sally refuses to call the aunts, the woman slaps her. The aunts, watching from the window, curse the woman so that she can’t speak.

When Sally and Gillian grow into teenagers, Gillian becomes so beautiful that she causes car accidents by walking down the street. Everyone who meets her falls in love with her, while Sally becomes more responsible and keeps to herself. At 18, Gillian runs away to get married but leaves her new husband shortly after. Sally is convinced she’ll never find love, until she meets Michael at the hardware store. He eventually moves into the Owens house, and soon Sally gives birth to their daughter, Antonia. Three years later, a second daughter, Kylie, is born. Antonia becomes intensely jealous, but she also becomes the favored sister of the aunts. However, the family is happy together, and Sally feels she has found the life she wanted. She often writes to Gillian asking her to visit, but Gillian refuses to go back to her childhood hometown. One day, the aunts start noticing omens around Michael, portending his death. At first, Sally doesn’t believe them, until she sees it herself and begs the aunts to help her. However, there is nothing they can do to stop fate, and soon after, a drunk driver kills Michael. Sally falls into a deep, silent depression for a year while the aunts look after Antonia and Kylie. Gillian phones once a week, and though Sally never speaks, she appreciates hearing Gillian’s voice.

After a year, Sally begins to see beauty in the world again. She goes to the park where the aunts are watching Kylie and Antonia; Sally sees a boy push Antonia and she yells at him, her first words since Michael’s death. At that point, she realizes they need to leave too. Sally, Antonia, and Kylie move to New York. Antonia, whom the aunts have spoiled, is enraged at the move. They arrive at their new house and begin their new life, free from the superstitions of their neighbors. They return home to visit the aunts each summer, where Antonia and Kylie get to do whatever they want. Sally appreciates how the aunts’ house is the only place where her daughters are united; at home, Antonia is uncaring and cruel toward her sister. However, each year Sally feels herself drawn back home to New York and away from her childhood house.