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Chapter 9
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Witch of Blackbird Pond, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Puritan Hypocrisy
Love, Values, and Attraction
Difference, Prejudice, and Discrimination
Home and Belonging
Sexism
Summary
Analysis
Kit tells Mercy and Rachel that she spoke to Mr. Kimberley, and that he changed his mind—Kit will have another chance at teaching. Mercy is impressed, and Kit says that she got her courage from the old woman who lives in the Meadows. She adds that Hannah Tupper isn’t a witch at all, but a wonderfully kind woman.
Kit’s discussion with Mr. Kimberley was successful—she and Mercy will be able to continue teaching. Kit gives Hannah credit for encouraging her to be persistent, which turns out to have been the right advice. Kit is eager to share the knowledge that the Puritans’ prejudices are wrong—Hannah isn’t a witch at all.
Themes
Mercy and Rachel look distressed. Rachel urges Kit to keep her conversation with Hannah Tupper secret. Hannah is a Quaker, one of a religious group whose beliefs differ from the Puritans. Rachel adds that “Quakers cause trouble wherever they go.” In some places, like Boston, Puritans hang Quakers. Hannah Tupper and her husband, Thomas, however, were branded and banned from Massachusetts. Rachel believes that they were grateful to be allowed to live in Wethersfield.
Mercy and Rachel hold on to their prejudices against Quakers, with Rachel saying that all Quakers “cause trouble.” But Kit knows that Hannah isn’t a troublemaker at all—she’s a very kind and caring woman. The Puritans’ terrible treatment of Quakers shows another aspect of Puritan hypocrisy. While they sought religious freedom for themselves when they migrated to the American colonies, they are very intolerant of other religions. As Rachel informs Kit, the Puritans in Massachusetts treated Hannah and her husband cruelly just because they had different religious beliefs.
Themes
Rachel tries to make Kit promise to never see Hannah again, but Kit refuses. She knows that Hannah is a kind woman, and not at all the dangerous threat that Rachel believes her to be. Plus, she quietly resolves to never give up going to the Meadows, “a place of freedom and clear sunlight and peace.”
Kit’s refusing to obey Rachel shows that she follows her intuition over obeying arbitrary rules. She doesn’t hesitate to stand up to authority when she knows that what she is being asked to do is wrong. She knows that Rachel’s prejudices are unfair, so Kit will continue to treat Hannah with kindness and humanity. Additionally, Kit doesn’t want to give up the Meadows, which feel like home to her—they are the only place in Connecticut where she feels “freedom and clear sunlight and peace,” all things that she associates with Barbados.
Themes
Kit wonders whether to tell William about Hannah, but she is sure that he would only be shocked—once again—at her behavior. She considers telling John, who frequently visits them now, but they never have any time alone. John is always with the whole family, unless Judith invites him to go on private walks. The family takes this to mean that John is courting Judith, who is clearly in love with him. Kit finds it a strange match. Judith is very spirited, whereas John seems to have no mind of his own—he just adopts Reverend Bulkeley’s opinions.
William and Kit value different things: while Kit wants to maintain her friendship with a lonely woman, William cares too much about maintaining his (and Kit’s) reputation among the other Puritans. This difference in values makes Kit feel uneasy about being truthful with William, which doesn’t bode well for their relationship. But Kit and William aren’t the only unlikely couple: Kit finds Judith and John to be a strange match. Judith is spirited and opinionated, whereas John is solemn and obedient.
Themes
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Two weeks later, after weeding with Judith, Kit goes to see Hannah Tupper again. She invites Judith to come along, but Judith refuses to join, scared of the house and of Matthew’s reaction.
Unlike Kit, Judith doesn’t want to risk getting in trouble, even if following the rules (avoiding Hannah because of prejudices against her) is unkind.
Themes
Kit arrives at Hannah’s house to find her spinning flax. Several families pay Hannah to spin their flax for them, and Hannah uses the money to pay the taxes on her land and the fines for not going to Meeting. Kit is shocked that Hannah has to pay these extra fines—wouldn’t it be better to just go to Meeting? But Hannah says no; not only would the Puritans bar her entry, but Quakers also have their own meetings. Curious, Kit asks how someone becomes a Quaker.
A fine for not going to Meeting (the Puritan religious service) is designed to penalize people like Hannah just for being non-Puritans, which shows another way that the Puritans exercise their intolerance of other religions. This discriminatory fine places an extra financial burden on Hannah that other Puritan townspeople don’t face. This outrages Kit, and she wonders whether Hannah should just assimilate to the Puritans’ religion in order to avoid the fine. But Hannah knows that the Puritans wouldn’t welcome her, and she also wants to stay true to her beliefs.
Themes
At that moment, a figure appears in the doorway: it’s Nat Eaton. He humorously says that he’s unsurprised Kit and Hannah have become friends. Hannah introduces him to Kit as her “seafaring friend,” but Nat informs her that he and Kit already know each other.
Nat is likely unsurprised that Kit and Hannah have become friends because both of them are outsiders in the Puritan town. In fact, it’s likely that this shared understanding helps Kit feel so at home with Hannah—they understand each other’s struggles.
Themes
Hannah eagerly tells Nat that she had told Thomas she was sure that he would come soon. Kit is surprised—Thomas is dead. She notes a sudden “vagueness” in Hannah’s eyes. Glancing at Nat to see if he saw it too, Kit watches him wordlessly take Hannah’s hand before changing the subject. The “vagueness” disappears.
Hannah’s “vagueness” suggests that her sense of reality is not solid—as in this case, she confuses the past with the present. This shocks Kit, perhaps because she hasn’t seen this “vagueness” before. Nat is clearly less concerned, which implies that he has seen this happen before, but it doesn’t change how he treats Hannah.
Themes
Leaning back, Nat asks how Kit and Hannah met. Hannah chuckles and tells him that she met Kit just how she met Nat—crying in the Meadows. When Nat was eight years old, he was upset that he would have to stay a winter in Saybrook instead of living on the Dolphin. Hannah found him and invited him back to eat blueberry cake, and she gave him a kitten.
The Meadows appear to have attracted Nat as well as Kit—he also sought comfort from the Meadows, and he found this comfort with Hannah. When Hannah first met Nat, she gave him a kitten to cheer him up and making him feel cared for. So, while the Puritan townspeople see Hannah’s cats as a sign that she’s a witch, the animals are actually a source of comfort for people who know her. The Puritans’ incorrect conclusions show how it is easy to misinterpret people or situations when one views them with prejudice.
Themes
Kit realizes that it’s time for her to go home, and Nat leaves with her. After teasing her that she must have had a rough beginning in Wethersfield if she ran crying to the Meadows, he confides that he is genuinely glad that she met Hannah. He asks Kit to “[k]eep an eye on her.”
Nat’s request that Kit watch over Hannah indicates that he’s dedicated to taking care of his friends. Nat and Kit have this in common—they’re both loyal to those they care about.
Themes
