Hex

Katherine van Wyler is the supernatural core of Black Spring, a figure who transcends the simple roles of antagonist or victim to become a living symbol of the town’s cyclical violence and repressed history. As the 17th-century Black Rock Witch, her physical presence is a constant, unnerving reminder of the curse born from the community’s past cruelty. Her most defining features, her sewn-shut eyes and mouth, function as the novel’s central symbol, representing silenced truth, suppressed power, and the town’s desperate, centuries-long effort to contain a horror of its own making.

Though physically passive for most of the narrative, Katherine is the primary catalyst for all action and conflict. Her mere presence dictates the town’s oppressive laws, its use of surveillance technology, and the deep-seated paranoia that governs the lives of its residents. However, Katherine’s power is not self-generated; rather, it is a mirror that reflects and amplifies the emotions and actions of the townspeople. When they treat her with detached pragmatism, she remains a manageable, albeit unsettling, feature of the landscape. However, when they direct fear, hatred, and violence toward her, as Jaydon Holst does, her dormant power manifests in destructive ways, turning the natural world malevolent and fraying the community’s social fabric.