Year of Wonders Themes

Year of Wonders depicts a tiny community that is both isolated and under tremendous pressure. The advent of the plague is a catastrophe no one is prepared or qualified to face, and the voluntary quarantine completely separates the village of Eyam from the stabilizing presence of a wider society. Because of these two factors, the people of Eyam gradually begin to abandon social conventions, both practices that are unnecessarily restrictive and principles that uphold order…

Like all of England at the time, the village of Eyam is an intensely patriarchal community. The values and customs of the community and the men who are in charge of it restrict women’s personal agency and their ability to participate in public life independently of male family members. Female sexuality is particularly frightening and taboo, and social punishments for women deemed sexually transgressive are high. However, despite social restrictions, important female characters like Anna…

In Anna’s world, scientific knowledge is almost non-existent and most people believe that supernatural forces, both benevolent and malign, are active in everyday life. Christian institutions affirm God’s presence in every human event, and characters like Aphra assert the existence of a whole host of spirits, fairies, and demons, some of which might help cure an illness or attract a lover, but some of whom are working for the Devil. Meanwhile, most people are suspicious…

An uneventful town with few inhabitants, Eyam has very few governmental structures in place. Law and order are safeguarded by the vicar and the landed gentry. However, when plague arrives, the Bradfords abandon the town and Mompellion becomes much too preoccupied with tending the victims to handle affairs of justice. Meanwhile, the town must decide how to adjudicate crimes and transgressions it hasn’t faced before. Throughout the novel, two methods of administering justice are at…