Hour of the Witch

Puritan Boston is a world where a strict religious faith dominates every aspect of individual and communal life. Central to Puritan religious ideology is predestination or predetermination, which states that an elect group of people will go to Heaven despite the inherently sinful nature of mankind. The narrator notes this belief and says, “Though good works could not in themselves change a thing—original sin was no fiction, predestination no fable—they might be a sign. A good sign” (5). The concepts of original sin and predestination will be complicated throughout the novel by the theme of Predetermination Versus Self-Determination, with Mary’s efforts to escape her domestic crisis clashing with what is supposed to be her God-ordained role: that of a subservient wife.

Mary’s conflict in the novel centers upon Gender Roles and Violence Against Women, as her marriage to Thomas is cruelly abusive. Her situation reflects many elements common to abusive situations: Thomas promises it will never happen again only to resort once more to violence; Mary must lie about the source of her bruises and injuries; and she is hypervigilant, working to detect Thomas’s mood so she can either prepare for the abuse or attempt to protect herself. For example, Mary “stop[s] listening to the birds” to “focus on the noises above her” when Thomas wakes up in the morning (19). These elements of domestic violence work in Thomas’s favor, since he abuses her only in private: During Mary’s trial, her injuries will be discounted because any evidence becomes “he said/she said“ testimonies.

Mary debates if this abuse is the result of her own actions or nature, which marks the beginning of her exploration of Predetermination Versus Self-Determination. She questions whether it’s something “that was in him or—what might be worse—something that was in her” (40) that causes his violence against her. Mary’s internalization of the abuse, her own understanding of sin and God, and her will to survive the marriage confuse her as she attempts to find somewhere to place the blame and explain what she’s feeling, including whether it is linked to her apparent infertility.

In Mary’s Puritan society, barrenness is a cause of shame and anxiety, reflecting the unfair expectations placed upon women. Mary’s role in her community is to run her household as a wife and mother, and as a woman without children, her infertility can invite suspicion over her personal worth. Mary’s conduct attracts great scrutiny from other members of the community, such as when Beth Howland criticizes Mary after witnessing her interactions with Henry. Though Henry and Mary only exchange pleasantries at this point, with Mary even telling Henry of her husband, Beth tells Mary, “Thomas Deerfield [...] deserves more than that sort of behavior from his wife” (53, emphasis added). For devout Puritans like Beth, even speaking to another man is enough to mark Mary as suspect. While Thomas spends most of his evenings drunk at the tavern and beating Mary once he’s home, Mary is under much harsher scrutiny for her behavior in the public eye—a factor which later proves disastrous in her divorce trial.

The strict probity demanded of women also affects Mary when she explores her own pleasure at night. Mary receives no pleasure from her husband, so she attempts to pleasure herself. Feminine pleasure, however, does not fit into a Puritan framework that regards non-procreational sexuality as sinful. Mary therefore thinks that, if masturbation is not a gift from God, then it must be a sin and perhaps even linked to her infertility: “[H]er principal thought was her inability to decide whether this was a small gift from God because He had not given her a child, or vice offered by the Devil that was going to keep her from conceiving” (26, emphasis added). As Puritan society condemns women for lustful behavior, Mary feels torn between upholding the religious strictures of her community and engaging in the pleasure she desires.  

The whipping of the Quaker also reveals the hypocrisy of Mary’s Puritan society, as the Quaker is whipped for his religious beliefs. Despite the fact that many people came to the New World to escape religious persecution in England, persecution persists in Boston. Mary stands up against this persecution by reprimanding Beth Howland’s children when they throw stones at the Quaker. This scene is rife with foreshadowing: First, Mary’s actions convey her ability to step outside of communal ideologies, foreshadowing how Mary will eventually become an outcast herself for refusing to conform to societal expectations. Then, when Squire Hillard reprimands her, she herself is treated like a child for her actions, reinforcing Gender Roles and Violence Against Women by reminding her of the subservient status she will eventually rebel against.