66 pages • 2 hours read
Sydney J. ShieldsThe Honey Witch
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2024A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Marigold Claude
Marigold Claude is the novel’s protagonist. At the beginning of the novel, she is 21 years old and feels like she does not belong in the high society of her home community of Bardshire. Marigold sees herself as one of the “wild women who run barefoot through the meadow” (9).
Marigold feels conflicted about settling for a life of marriage, but she knows there is much social pressure to do so as she quickly ages out of a socially- acceptable range for a woman to be unwed. Marigold equates the idea of romantic love with settling down as a dutiful wife and mother, leading to her decision to accept her role as the Honey Witch in Chapter 2. After her ritual is complete, Marigold explains, “I finally feel whole” (38), despite having given up her ability to find love to accept these powers.
Marigold learns to use her powers with the help of Althea and with knowledge from the grimoire that Althea leaves behind. Despite her satisfaction with her newfound career, Marigold finds herself plagued by loneliness after Althea passes. Although she tries to use spells to alleviate this loneliness, nothing can break the curse that forced her to forsake love for power. Marigold’s primary conflict comes with her second thoughts about giving up love forever, especially after meeting her love interest, Lottie Burke.
Marigold is initially attracted to Lottie and becomes determined to win Lottie over, both as a friend and as a believer in her magic. As Lottie opens up and shows more interest in Marigold, Marigold finds herself trapped between her feelings for Lottie and her curse. Once the women realize that Marigold’s curse is causing pain and illness in Lottie when they try to get close, they start to fear the curse is truly unbreakable. Marigold ultimately makes the selfless decision to cut Lottie off forever.
Marigold then focuses on her inherited conflict with Versa, who ravages the isle while Marigold is away and preoccupied with Lottie. In Marigold’s battle with Versa, Lottie agrees to perform the ritual to become a full Ash Witch in exchange for Marigold’s life, leading to the breaking of the curse. With Lottie’s help, Marigold recovers from the brink of death and defeats Versa. Marigold comes to understand the value of both love and power, as Marigold spends the rest of her days with her soulmate, Lottie.
Lottie Burke
Lottie Burke is the standoffish red-headed best friend of Marigold’s childhood friend, August. Lottie is Marigold’s love interest, but she is also Marigold’s foil, both through her attitude and through her blood as an Ash Witch. When Marigold first meets Lottie, Lottie seems disgusted by Marigold: “Marigold’s touch repulsed the woman” (109). Lottie proceeds to challenge Marigold both emotionally and spiritually, as she denies Marigold’s magic while pushing the bounds of Marigold’s curse.
When Lottie comes to Innisfree in Chapter 13, it is because August drags her there to prove to her that magic is real. Lottie is disdainful of magic because her mother believed in magic, but “[i]f magic was real, she would be alive” (169). Lottie feels magic failed to save her parents from the fire that killed them when she was very young. Lottie has few reminders of her childhood—a tattoo of an “arrow” that she recalls from her home, later revealed to be a protection rune; and a book of nursery rhymes, later revealed to be a book of Ash Witch magic. Lottie’s negative view of magic is at odds with her powerful links to the magic world, as revealed throughout the novel. It takes falling in love with Marigold for Lottie to accept that magic is real.
Despite Lottie’s standoffish nature, Lottie is attracted to Marigold. However, each time she wants to act on this attraction, she is punished by Marigold’s curse. At first, Lottie struggles to connect her feelings for Marigold to her nausea, headaches, and sudden bouts of illness, but eventually she theorizes that these things are related and tests this theory by kissing Marigold for the first time. When Marigold’s curse punishes Lottie violently, Lottie finally confesses that she believes in Marigold’s curse and magic as a whole. This admission is a turning point in their relationship, as the two women recognize the curse is coming between them and can now try to fight it.
In Part 4, Lottie comes to terms with her own witchy blood and accepts her full power to save Marigold from Versa, thus proving to Marigold that one can have power and love. Lottie’s powers grant her the strength and knowledge to aid Marigold and help in the final battle against Versa. Lottie and Marigold break the curse and become free to live their lives in love, together as opposite magical forces.
Althea Murr
Althea is Marigold’s 100-year-old grandmother who passes her duty as the Honey Witch of Innisfree on to Marigold in Part 1 of the novel. Althea is the first cursed Honey Witch in the family line as a result of her war with the Ash Witch, Versa. Versa’s curse was “an attempt to end [the family]” (31), but it was unsuccessful as Althea created Marigold’s mother without love. Althea functions as a mentor figure to Marigold throughout Part 1 until her peaceful death in Chapter 9.
Althea is characterized by her wisdom and sense of duty as the Honey Witch. She is driven to pursue this path by her fierce belief in everyone’s freedom to make their own life decisions. This is first illustrated in Chapter 2, when Althea stresses the importance of Marigold getting to choose her life path for herself. Althea provides Marigold not only with an answer to her lifelong feelings of being different, but the first freedom of choice to pursue those feelings that Marigold has ever had.
Althea reminds Marigold of the importance of people making their own decisions in Chapter 8, when Marigold judges a woman who relentlessly fawns over a man. Althea stresses, “What any woman wants for herself is not for you to decide” (85). Althea’s work as the Honey Witch reflects this belief, as she provides the women of Innisfree with spells and potions to help them pursue the lives they want to live.
Althea, on the other hand, did not get a choice in her life when the Ash Witch cursed her, causing her engagement and romantic relationship with her soulmate, Mr. Benny, to end abruptly. Althea dies believing the curse can never be broken, but she is reunited with Mr. Benny in the afterlife about a year later. In Chapter 42, Althea and Mr. Benny are together beyond the veil, experiencing the romantic love they never got to experience in life.
Throughout Part 1, Althea educates Marigold on the ways of the Honey Witch, passing on her wisdom and experience through demonstration and instruction. Althea is careful to inform Marigold of the risks, pitfalls, and fine details of her job as the Honey Witch. Althea’s wisdom stays with Marigold throughout the novel and informs Marigold through tough decisions regarding her work as a Honey Witch and her final battle with Versa.
August Owens
August is Marigold’s childhood friend from when she used to visit Althea, before the attack from Versa discontinued their visits. At the beginning of the novel, Marigold has fond memories of August, but the last time she saw him, he “disappeared from her side” during a storm that “consumed the sky and turned the world grey” (8). August first appears in Chapter 5, when Marigold returns to Innisfree for the first time, and the two friends have an emotional reunion. August’s most important role in the story is introducing Marigold to Lottie and mitigating the space between the two women as they get off to their tumultuous start.
August is described as “dangerously curious and ferociously bright” (8), characterized by his fearless pursuit of love and adventure. When August seeks Marigold’s help in Part 2, it is because he is brokenhearted and worries “that it will take [him] a lifetime to heal from losing Edmund” (115). August is so impressed with the effectiveness of Marigold’s magic that he returns to the isle with Lottie to show her the magic, and he soon asks for a soulmate spell. Despite the heartbreak he experienced, August believes that “[l]ove is worth the risk” (136). August’s positive attitude contributes to Marigold’s softening stance on love throughout Part 2.
August’s story ends in a happy place, as Marigold’s soulmate potion leads him to Frankie. The two men decide to pursue a life together, which includes a trip around the world. In Part 5, August and Frankie are still a strong couple, still pursuing life with one another as each other’s soulmate.
