Hour of the Witch

The catalyst for the main conflict in the novel, the Devil’s tines (See: Symbols & Motifs), now figure heavily in the lives of Catherine, Thomas, and Mary—and soon, the lives of everyone who resides in Boston. Thomas’s brutal treatment of Mary with the Devil’s tines, and Catherine’s accusation of witchcraft when she sees Mary with them, show that the tines themselves aren’t evil, but the ways in which people use them are. The Devil’s tines are a symbol of The Dangers of Mass Hysteria and the oppressive violence that permeates the novel, as they will set in motion the events that will lead to Mary’s witchcraft trial. Thomas uses the Devil’s tines to inflict a permanent injury upon Mary, demonstrating his hunger for power and domination and pushing her to finally seek a divorce. The tines also become a different kind of weapon when Catherine uses them to condemn Mary as a witch. In this way, even an innocent object can be misused or misrepresented to inflict harm, embodying the latent tensions festering just below the surface of the community’s social dynamics. 

Mary’s wound—her only evidence of Thomas’s violence—loses its power as proof quite quickly, reflecting Gender Roles and Violence Against Women. The marks from the prongs are “lost in the gelatinous, fragile poultice her body was forming atop the wound” only the morning after (80). Thomas looks at the wound and uses it to his advantage, saying to Mary, “it was the gooseneck on the teakettle” (101)—in other words, he immediately comes up with an alternative explanation for her injury that disguises his abuse once again. Thomas’s reactions hint at how far he will go to prevent Mary from exposing him to the community as an abuser, and he knows that, as a man in a patriarchal society, his word and good reputation will carry more weight than hers. Mary’s fight for a divorce will therefore be not just against Thomas, but against the very norms and assumptions her community embraces.

Richard Wilder acknowledges this inherent power imbalance between genders when Mary and her father visit him for counsel. He says that, like her parents, “thy husband is also a man of good standing and reputation. He, too, is deemed a saint” (93, emphasis added). Though Thomas has an alcohol addiction, his first wife died, and his second wife is constantly injured, his “good standing and reputation” precede him and those factors alone will make Mary’s claims hard to prove. Thomas can use the community’s religious beliefs about women’s roles and their supposed inferiority to bolster his own case while leaning on his “reputation”—he can suggest that the problem is Mary, his wayward wife, and not his own conduct, and expect to be believed.  

Mary’s encounters with both Constance and Henry show Mary where her allies lie and bolster her confidence in her decision to leave Thomas. However, both relationships are also dangerous for her to maintain. In drawing too close to Henry, Mary risks raising questions about her own conduct and motives in the divorce, as other community members could begin noticing and judging. When Constance offers her support to Mary and then asks if she would like to walk in the same direction as her, Mary reflects, “Here was one of those inescapable moments when pragmatism and cruelty were yoked” (119), and chooses to decline. Although Mary recognizes Constance’s kindness, she determines that she must avoid spending time with her so she is not further accused of witchcraft. Constance’s own stance as an outsider also invokes The Dangers of Mass Hysteria, as she raises suspicions as a single, independent woman operating apart from the community’s norms. Mary’s awareness of the danger she faces from witchcraft accusations foreshadows the drama that will shortly unfold in her community.