The Widow Hallett’s black-haired poppet of Margaret, stuck with pins, and the aphrodisiac with which she drugs Thomas represent her unethical character and malign intentions toward Thomas and Margaret, but they also help the author to explore Hypocrisy and the Public Performance of Faith in Puritan Religious Communities. In the theocratic society in which Margaret, Thomas, and the Widow Hallett live, community members can be tried for heresy and witchcraft, and anything less than extreme devotion to Calvinist doctrine is seen as suspect and cause for mistrust. Appearances have more sway than reality in this environment, as ethical people like Thomas and Margaret are stigmatized while deeply unethical people such as the Widow Hallett are able to gain power within the community.

Power and privilege are also intrinsically tied to wealth and to religion in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Although Puritan settlers left England to found a society in which religion matters more than wealth, settlers who come from the landed gentry retain their influence in the colony. The Widow Hallett is wealthy both because of her own ancestry—she is related to Lady Wembly—and because of her late husband’s fortune. As an affluent woman, she holds a position of privilege among the townspeople. She gains further influence through her second marriage: She chooses Goodman Longfellow as a husband because he is a pastor, and clergymen wield a tremendous amount of power in the community. As the wealthy wife of a prominent pastor, her word will hold more sway among the community members, and she uses that influence to help convict Margaret of witchcraft. Because she occupies a powerful position in society and artfully conceals her true nature, pretending in public to be devout, no one other than Mary, Margaret, and Thomas are aware that she actually does practice witchcraft. The poppet with pins stuck into the stomach is meant to curse Margaret’s womb and drive Thomas toward a new partner, the Widow Hallett herself, who can bear him children. The aphrodisiac, a kind of medicine that Margaret herself will not prescribe because it is considered witchcraft, is meant to seduce Thomas. She hopes that having sex with her once will lure him away from Margaret. This irony—that the woman accused of witchcraft in this novel will not dabble in the “devilish arts,” while the pastor’s wife will—is meant to expose the hypocrisy of a society in which religious extremism shapes social norms, but appearances matter more than reality.