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Chapter 15
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
The next day, Matthew bitterly announces that Governor Andros has cancelled Thanksgiving, already taking away Connecticut’s authority. Judith is upset—they had planned fun festivities for the holiday. Matthew adds that some rivermen caused mischief the night before, which happened to be All Hallows Eve. When Rachel reminisces about how the holiday was celebrated in England, Matthew cuts her off, saying that “All Saints’ Day is a papist feast.”
Governor Andros is already exercising his power by cancelling the colonists’ holiday. When Rachel brings up another holiday, All Hallows Eve, Matthew scolds her for talking about a holiday that is Catholic, not Puritan (All Saints’ Day is the day after All Hallows Eve). Matthew’s scolding again captures his intolerance for non-Puritan cultures and religions.
Themes
Matthew goes on to say that the rivermen made jack-o-lanterns and put them in the windows of William’s house. As punishment, the men will be put in the stocks (located in front of the Meeting House) during Thursday Lecture. Kit is sure she knows who the culprits are.
Given the way Nat reacted to the news that Kit and William are getting married, it is likely that Nat is one of the pranksters. This would be additional evidence that Nat sees William as a rival for Kit’s heart.
Themes
On Thursday, Kit goes to the Meeting House on her own, feeling anxious. Sure enough, Kit approaches the Meeting House to see Nat along with two other men from the Dolphin crew. The prisoners are wittily replying to the onlookers’ jeers when Kit nears the stocks. Not wanting to upset a lady, much of the crowd disperses. Tearfully, Kit tells Nat that she can’t stand to see him treated so horribly.
Kit’s distress at seeing Nat in the stocks speaks to her empathy, particularly for friends or loved ones who are in pain or in trouble. Even though Nat recently hurt Kit’s feelings, she still goes to see him in the stocks, which shows her loyalty—a trait she shares with Nat.
Themes
But Nat doesn’t want Kit’s pity. He would extend his punishment, he tells her, if he could see the outrage on William’s face when he saw the jack-o-lanterns. Upset, Kit turns from him and marches up to the Meeting House door, only to see that a notice is posted there, saying that the culprits will be banned from Wethersfield. Not wanting to hear the sentence read aloud during Thursday Lecture, Kit turns races back home.
Nat doesn’t regret his prank because he enjoyed getting petty vengeance on William, whom he sees as a rival for Kit’s heart. Nat’s lack of regret also shows that he doesn’t care about maintaining a good reputation among the Puritans—he chooses to follow his own intuition over the Puritans’ rules. Kit has this in common with Nat, as they both risk the townspeople’s disapproval for being friends with Hannah.
Themes
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But as soon as Kit gets home, she decides to visit Hannah instead—she needs to talk to someone. Once with Hannah, Kit regretfully tells her that Nat is now banished. But Hannah isn’t concerned in the least, making Kit realize that Nat has always been sneaky about his visits. Calmed, Kit notes that “things seem[] to look much less desperate” at Hannah’s.
Kit wants to talk through her feelings, so she visits the person she feels most comfortable and at home with: Hannah. Hannah is able to successfully calm Kit and make her feel better about the situation.
Themes
Once Hannah hears the reason behind Nat’s punishment, she asks Kit about William, whom Nat never talked about. Kit hesitatingly explains that William is courting her. Hannah wants to know if Kit loves him, but Kit dodges the question, declaring that marrying William is the only way she can escape living with the Woods’. Hannah reminds her that she “has never escaped at all if love is not there.”
The fact that Kit never told Hannah, her greatest confidant, about William is a good indicator that she does not love him. Not only does Kit dislike trying to speak with him, but she avoids talking about him, as though she doesn’t want to have to think about him. At this point in the book, she still insists that she will marry William because he is her option out of the Woods’ house. She is right that, as a woman in 17th-century New England, her options for independence from her family are almost entirely limited to marriage. But Hannah points out that Kit won’t be escaping the unhappiness she feels with the Woods if she marries a man she doesn’t love. If Kit wants to escape her unhappy environment, Hannah explains, Kit must escape to one where she will feel at home and happy.
Themes
Prudence arrives and informs Hannah that Nat won’t be able to visit—as soon as he was released from the stocks, he was marched onto the Dolphin. In response to Kit’s surprise—how does Prudence know Nat?—Prudence explains that Nat often visited while she was with Hannah. Kit feels a pang of jealousy.
Kit feels like she is missing out on time with her favorite people. She feels most at home when she is with Hannah, Prudence, and Nat, so she is jealous to hear that they have spent time together without her.
Themes
As Kit and Prudence start on a reading lesson, Kit contemplates how much Prudence has blossomed since experiencing Kit and Hannah’s kindness. But Kit also worries about what would happen if Goodwife Cruff found out about the lessons; Prudence’s safety could be compromised.
Prudence’s growth represents how kindness and friendship can transform a person, and how overcoming one’s prejudices is good for oneself. Since Prudence got to know Hannah, she set aside her prejudices against the elderly Quaker woman, and Prudence herself has benefited from doing so. Kit’s lessons have also helped Prudence, whose confidence has grown since learning to read. Nonetheless, Kit worries for Prudence’s safety, as she knows that Goodwife Cruff is a harsh and prejudiced woman who would punish her daughter severely for befriending a supposed witch.
Themes
Nonetheless, Kit begins to teach Prudence how to write. On a copybook, Kit writes Prudence’s name and instructs her to copy it, which she does. As Kit listens to the scratching quill, she soaks in the calm of the house and finds herself wishing that Nat were there. Shaking herself from her daydream, Kit realizes that it’s time to leave.
Kit’s feelings for Nat continue to grow stronger. While she feels at home in Hannah’s peaceful cottage, she can’t help but feel that things would feel more complete with Nat present. This again suggests that home isn’t an unchanging place—a person feels at home with those they’re closest to. Kit loves Nat, so she doesn’t feel at home without him.
Themes
Kit and Prudence leave. As they walk down the road, Kit thinks about Hannah’s words regarding the upcoming engagement to William. She doesn’t know that that afternoon will be the last one that she, Hannah, and Prudence will ever enjoy together in that house.
Kit’s uncertainty regarding her potential marriage to William is only stronger since Hannah reminded her that she needs to look for love in order to escape her current unhappiness. Meanwhile, the book foreshadows that something dire will happen to either Hannah, Prudence, or Kit, jeopardizing their friendship and the loving home they have created with each other.
Themes
When Kit arrives, she is surprised to find Judith crying—John is leaving Wethersfield to join a northern militia. Rachel suspects this is John’s way of cutting ties with Reverend Bulkeley, whose Royalist ideas he could never agree with, especially not now that he is actively promoting Governor Andros. While Rachel and Mercy commend John’s decision to be true to himself, Judith resents it.
While Rachel and Mercy respect John for staying true to his values and political beliefs by cutting ties with Governor Andros, Judith resents him. She thinks only of herself and her potential marriage, overlooking the fact that John is doing what he feels is morally right. Judith may not understand John’s sense of morality, but Mercy and Rachel do. Throughout the book, Mercy strives to do what she thinks is morally right, and so she understands John’s motivations better than Judith does.
Themes
