Hester

“Wanting brought pain, and women who desired and complained the least seemed the most contented.”

Isobel makes this observation during her youth in Scotland, as she tries to quell her desire for a better life. Despite her attempts to want less, her use of “seemed” reveals she knows many women only play at being content with their lives. 

“‘Hold still and it won’t hurt,’ Edward said. It was a lie. It hurt very much. I bit my lip and closed my eyes and felt my tenderness toward him break.”

Edward and Isobel’s wedding night frames his inattention to her pleasure as a form of violence. His lie about the pain and her resulting “break in tenderness” foreshadow the other ways in which Edward will prove an inadequate husband.

“Although I knew about Africans in bondage, this was the first time a picture arose in my mind of men, women, and children taken into chains and torn from one another, and the shadow of it stayed with me as we prepared to depart.”

For the first time, Isobel thinks critically about slavery as she crosses from Scotland to America. The novel centers slavery, as it was a prominent political issue in 19th century America as opposed to Europe. Isobel’s understanding of and empathy for those who suffer in ways she does not prove crucial when she meets Mercy in Salem.

“Long into the night young John Hathorne reads about the Devil and his minions: weak women easily led because they are alone or greedy; unbaptized savages seduced by Satan because they are ignorant of the Evil One’s wiles.”

Rather than enforcing religious goodness, John Hathorne indoctrinates himself in sexist and racist beliefs about the supposed moral inferiority of women and Indigenous peoples. Ironically, in attempting to prevent “evil,” John becomes enamored with the cruel, violent “work” of witch-hunting.

“Perhaps it is not natural for a Scottish woman and a Black woman to become friends, but I’d like it to be so.”

Isobel’s questioning of her and Mercy’s bond indicates a pervasive, racist attitude that there are essential differences between people of different races. As the novel continues and her friendship with Mercy grows, she must learn to disavow such attitudes.

“‘I’m a needlewoman and a dressmaker.’ If Edward is a doctor, then I’m a dressmaker.”

Isobel’s reinvention of herself as a dressmaker is her fully embracing the possibility of America, as well as her potential as a woman, who possesses her own desires and dreams. The assertion challenges the gendered injustices of America, which Isobel feels the weight of more than Scotland.

“‘And what is truly American’ I wonder aloud. Before we arrived, I thought the New World was made by and for new people. But here in Salem it seems there is a long requisite of what a person must do, say, and be, in order to be truly American.”

Isobel’s question challenges the anti-Scottish and anti-Irish sentiments in Salem. The implication that there is no such thing as “true” Americanness pushes back against the hierarchy created by the old families of Salem, which they use to prevent immigrants and Black people from attaining social status.

“‘I’ll admit the domestic arts have merit,’ [Nat] says. ‘But what secret struggles women have, I can only guess at.’”

Nat’s admission is framed as a compliment, but is clearly a patronization of Isobel’s work. His insistence that he can “only guess” women’s “secret struggles” reinforces his self-absorbed conviction that “truth” is a masculine pursuit, and that feminine voices do not provide anything of value. While subtler than Edward’s infantilization of Isobel, Nat’s framing of women as inherently mysterious is another form of objectification.

“Besides, I know about Salem seamen: they come and go and the women are left to make their way. My mother was one of those women, and she did not fare well. I would not like to see the same happen to you, not with so much skill as you have.”

Nat’s discussion of Salem seamen ironically foreshadows his own abandonment of a pregnant Isobel. His claim that he would not like Isobel to suffer such a fate because of her skill implies she is only valuable because of her skill, what she can provide him. This claim contrasts with Captain William Darling, a seaman who proves a loyal friend to her—and later, her lover.

“Eve picks an apple and gives it to Adam—this is the story the minister told to teach us that a woman cannot be trusted. But Eve merely offered the fruit to Adam, I wanted to shout from the back of the church. Adam could have said no. He could have tossed the apple deep into the Garden.”

The biblical story of Adam and Eve frames women as deceptive, but this echoes local reverend Arthur Dimmesdale and other men’s hypocrisy in The Scarlet Letter. In Hester, the Salem minister twists the story to suit his own investment in patriarchy, which Isobel recognizes and links to the demonization of witchcraft

“Man by the name of Kyle Fellowship. He called my grandma Circe and kept her in a room at the back of his house in Bristol. My mama was born in that room.”

Mercy discusses her grandmother’s assault by her enslaver, a story that reflects those of numerous enslaved women who suffered sexual violence and silencing. The name Circe is that of a sorceress from ancient Greek mythology, Kyle Fellowship’s choice of name reinforcing the novel’s exploration of the word “witch” as a way to target women whom men wish to subjugate.

“That’s right—and they think the Scots are about as low-down as us Black folk. Maybe better than Indians but not by much.”

Mercy articulates the racist hierarchy in American society to convince Isobel that she cannot rely on Salem for aid or kinship. She urges Isobel to instead access nontraditional forms of power, which Isobel gradually does. 

“Any man who owns or sells another man is cruel, Isobel. Can you imagine it otherwise?”

Abigail’s framing challenges Isobel’s attempts to rationalize the Silases’ part in the slave trade, which she wishes to disregard due to her affection for Charlotte Silas. This framing shames her, though it takes time for her to realize this cruelty affects her, as a Scottish woman, as well as Black people like Mercy’s family.

“I’m a witch and he’s a sorcerer. Or perhaps he’s the sorcerer and I’m the cauldron.”

Isobel’s description of sex with Nat frames both parties as possessing magic, placing them on equal footing, which combats the sexist use of the word “witch.” Her correction, in which Nat alone has magic, foreshadows her cauldron-like stomach, her pregnancy by him.

“He puts his lips to my ear. The world beneath the blindfold is white and shadowed.

‘Look past nothing. See what’s visible beneath the mask.’”

Nat’s talk of whiteness alludes to Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, in which protagonist Ahab, articulating his vengeance against the titular whale, equates his quest with a search for truth: “All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks […] If man will strike, strike through the mask! How can the prisoner reach outside except by thrusting through the wall?” (Melville, Herman, Moby Dick, Signet Classics, 2013, 179-180). However, Ahab dies in his attempt to kill Moby Dick, implying Nat’s search for truth will also fail to fulfill him. 

“Or maybe you don’t understand that literature is meant to reveal deeper truths about men. Intuition and colors are fine delights, but in pursuit of my craft I have to look beyond them.”

Nat again dismisses Isobel’s work, as he assumes criticism of his own work is her lacking understanding. His claim that literature reveals deeper truths “about men” further implies he does not consider women’s voices valuable to literature. This sentiment remains relevant in modern day, as modern romance, overwhelmingly written by women for women, is often criticized for lacking literary merit.

“Slavery is the South’s problem, not mine—let’s not talk of it on such a lovely day when we have so little time left.”

Nat’s dismissal of slavery indicates a willful misunderstanding of the reach and repercussions of chattel slavery, especially given the presence of a slave catcher in Salem. This is a common criticism of the real Nathaniel Hawthorne, whose work indicates a tolerance for slavery.

“I wish Mercy were a witch. I wish I were a witch. Because if we were witches, we would be stronger.”

During Isobel’s unsuccessful attempt to induce an abortion, she reclaims the label “witch” she long feared, seeing it as a symbol of feminine power rather than an evil condemned by men. This moment also alludes to the historical connection between witches and women who administer medicinal aid, especially herbal and reproductive aid.

“I put a protective hand across my abdomen and hope I will never have to say a sorrowful goodbye to my child, for I have grown accustomed to her—yes, I believe it is a girl—and love her already, just as Mercy loves her own.”

This quote plays with a common abolitionist argument in the 19th century, which insisted that Black mothers loved their children as much as white mothers. By saying she cares for her daughter as much as Mercy does her children, Isobel centers the experience of a Black mother.

“Judges and ministers delight in punishing a fallen woman.”

Abigail highlights how men in power often delight in exercising their power against those who lack it. This claim frames patriarchal authority as something that will be endlessly craved by those who possess it; judges and ministers are not satisfied with their power, as they must continually reinforce it by harming others.

“‘There’s no justice for a slave,’ Mercy says. ‘Slave escapes to the North, she’s free. Slave catcher finds her and gets a judge to sign a paper, he can put her in chains and bring her back down south. Ida was born a slave so her children were still slaves, and if the judge signed a paper, any man could’ve brought them back to MacGreggor.’”

Mercy alludes to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793. Her argument challenges the notion of Massachusetts as a free state—or any state being truly free while slavery remains federally legal—and rejects the self-important view of people like Nat who see slavery as a problem in the South alone.

“I feel that I’m no longer the woman who came across the ocean in red and walked into one of Nat’s stories. I’m the woman Mercy saw, the woman who saw Mercy and the words barely visible in her work.”

Isobel’s changes reframe her as a woman who is truly seen by another woman instead of a man, someone who sees another woman in return. This change is presented as a mutual building of self and community.

“It’s not that we are witches or faeries or that we deny God. It is that we are more beautiful and strong together than apart.”

Isobel comes to understand why the label of “witch” prevents women from coming together for mutual aid: fear mongering. However, she frames women’s power as something that does not come from harming others, but rather from including those ostracized by society.