The First Witch of Boston

“It was her boldness that first caught his attention, some 17 years gone past.”

This line, spoken about Margaret by Thomas, helps to characterize their relationship. The two have markedly different personalities: Thomas is calm and quiet, while Margaret is loud and bold. Despite their differences, both are honest and treat each other with respect. Thomas might not care that his wife is more assertive than other women, but he appreciates her good character.

“Did she actually fear that he might dally with the pretty widow? Never had he any reason to be unfaithful before, and certainly he was not fool enough to be tempted. Maggie should know this.”

Thomas is attracted to Margaret’s fiery personality, but in other ways he is traditional in his personal ethics and sense of morality. He takes an early disliking to the Widow Hallett because she flirts obviously with him, a married man, and does not seem to share his sense of propriety. The quiet insistence with which he rebuffs her indecent behavior speaks to his traditional orientation toward sexuality and marriage.

“Poor Anne Hutchinson. Though they had arrived after her banishment, they had heard stories about her many times. A religiously zealous and outspoken midwife, Hutchinson had been deemed a threat to the order of things in Massachusetts Bay. The men in power could not abide a woman speaking her mind and gaining the admiration of others. And so she had been charged with blasphemy and banished to the wilds.”

Anne Hutchinson’s story is a moment of foreshadowing. Like Margaret, she has a body of knowledge (herbalism and midwifery) that is traditionally feminized, highlighting the theme of Women’s Knowledge as a Threat to Patriarchy. Women like Anne and Margaret were suspect both because they were women asserting themselves in a society in which men held all the power and because their remedies were seen as witchcraft-adjacent.