The First Witch of Boston
56 pages • 1-hour read
Andrea CatalanoThe First Witch of Boston
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Themes
Content Warning: This section of the guide contains discussion of sexual assault, child death, death, and gender discrimination.
Hypocrisy and the Public Performance of Faith in Puritan Communities
The Massachusetts Bay Colony’s Puritan founders set out to create a society in which God takes center stage, and faith—not aristocratic birth as in England—is the primary form of social capital. Like many modern commentators on the Puritan worldview, the novel suggests that this project was doomed to fail from the outset. Any effort to mint social currency from the inherently private phenomenon of faith leads to performativity and hypocrisy. Several characters observe that what matters most in the community is not faith but the appearance of faith. Individuals who appear devout often have outsize social prominence and wield more power than their neighbors, even those who are, in reality, more ethical.
Thomas understands the distinction between public piety and private faith better than most because he was raised in a Catholic home. The Protestant Reformation’s stated goal was to create a new form of Christianity in which the problems of Catholicism—rigid clerical hierarchy, corruption, a too-cozy relationship between church and empire—would be addressed. Within Protestant communities, Catholicism was increasingly seen as suspect and even as a heretical misinterpretation of divine scripture. Thomas understands that within the Massachusetts Bay Colony in particular, rooting out hidden Catholic elements in society is one way for those in power to “create order in the wilderness,” and he realizes that if he is to practice his religion, he must do so clandestinely (30). Because Thomas is himself Catholic, he is able to spot signs of secret Catholicism in others. He observes one of his neighbors begin to make the sign of the cross before stopping himself and realizes that, like him, this man must have Catholic roots. Because Thomas sees so many of these small signs of Catholicism in other community members, he understands that the Puritans have not succeeded in ridding society of Catholic beliefs and practices. Catholicism is still practiced, but in secret. For Catholics and other non-Protestants in Puritan New England, survival depends on maintaining a disconnect between private belief and public appearance.
The Widow Hallett’s character is this novel’s most overt depiction of this disconnect. Publicly, she is a pious widow and later the wife of a clergyman. She is seen as a paragon of faith and a pillar of the community. Privately, she embodies all the stereotypes of feminine wickedness that attach themselves to Margaret. The pin-struck doll she creates of Margaret and the aphrodisiac she uses to drug Thomas are both considered witchcraft, and they are exactly the kind of practice that the townspeople accuse Margaret of. Margaret herself refuses to prescribe aphrodisiacs and never uses her knowledge to harm anyone. She is a healer, and as such she would never try to hurt one of her patients. Yet it is Margaret, not the Widow Hallett, who is accused of witchcraft. Margaret is vulnerable because she is too honest about her knowledge and beliefs. There is little difference between Margaret’s public persona and her private self, and for this reason she becomes a target.
The Widow Hallett is able to practice witchcraft in secret and even to influence the course of Margaret’s trial in part because she marries a pastor. Longfellow holds a privileged position within the community because he is a clergyman. Clergymen, as representatives of the church and of God, wield more power and influence in society than laypeople. The Widow Hallett is both intelligent and manipulative, and she realizes that the best way for a young, attractive widow to assume an air of respectability and silence any lingering rumors that may be circulating her is to marry someone who is above reproach. In a community in which the appearance of piety is paramount, few would think a pastor’s wife capable of anything untoward, and Goodwife Longfellow does her best after marrying to maintain an unassailable public image. She also makes a public scene during which she maligns Margaret’s good name, knowing as she does so that public sentiment will lie with her and not with Margaret. In this way, the widow helps the author to depict the importance of public image within Puritan society and also to show the hypocrisy of that society. Her witchery, manipulative nature, and duplicity contrast with Margaret’s personality, but she is the individual more highly regarded in the community.
Women’s Knowledge as a Threat to Patriarchy
The author depicts women’s knowledge as a threat to patriarchy principally through Margaret’s character. In a society in which men are seen as inherently more intelligent and rational than women, Margaret’s expertise threatens to expose male intellectual supremacy as a fiction. Margaret also becomes a threat to patriarchal power because of her outspokenness. She will not conform to gendered societal standards of humility and propriety, and she threatens to become an example to other women. Margaret’s witchcraft trial is the direct result of both her expertise and her assertive personality, a fact of which she is painfully aware.
Margaret is born into a markedly patriarchal society. Men are the heads of church, state, and family, and women are forced into subservient roles. The official rationale for this is that women are inherently more sinful and are ruled by emotion rather than reason. Margaret’s existence as a highly intelligent and highly educated woman poses a threat to this ideology. She possesses a wide body of knowledge about how to see women safely through pregnancy and childbirth and how to treat a wide range of health issues impacting both men and women. She is the best medical authority in her community. As such, Margaret threatens not only the patriarchal order of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, but also patriarchy itself: Margret has the power to outshine male experts in her community, and the very fact that a woman could be so knowledgeable calls into question the notion that men are inherently more intelligent than women and deserve all of the privilege and power within societies.
Margaret is also a threat to patriarchy because of her outspokenness. Gender roles in Puritan society are strictly delineated and enforced. For women, social acceptance is tied to humility, docility, and silence. Women are meant to be subservient to men and to keep their opinions to themselves, especially when those opinions threaten or contradict a man’s. Margaret, however, is both opinionated and outspoken. She is unwilling to keep quiet when she encounters ignorance or when she is mistreated, and because of this she earns the ire of many of her neighbors and the colony’s governors. The author observes: “What misfortune can befall skilled women when they anger the wrong people,” and indeed Margaret’s misfortunes are all ultimately tied not only to her skill as an apothecary, herbalist, and healer but also to her quick temper and sharp tongue (96).
Margaret clarifies at the end of the novel that she has not been accused of witchcraft because she is a witch but because she is a knowledgeable woman who speaks her mind. She notes: “When a woman caused too much trouble or spoke too plainly, it seemed, there were those who would take umbrage and use piety as an excuse and reason to take her in hand” (62). The charge of witchcraft, although false, is important because of the way that it restores societal order and reinstates patriarchy; women’s knowledge is seen as suspect within Puritan society because women are understood to be less intelligent. A learned woman like Margaret threatens that idea. Asserting that Margaret’s knowledge is the result of witchcraft and not intelligence allows the community to dismiss both her and the idea of women’s intelligence. Margaret’s skill is not the result of real intelligence but of devilry, and women are thus only capable of such skill through witchcraft. The charge of witchcraft, Margaret realizes, is just a way for the patriarchy to maintain its power.
Maintaining Relationships Under Public Scrutiny
The First Witch of Boston depicts the impact of the Massachusetts Bay Colony’s strict social rules and regulations on relationships in large part through its depiction of Margaret and Thomas’s marriage. Margaret’s friendship with former governor Bellingham further evidences the strain that public scrutiny places on relationships in their society, and the author also explores this theme through her depiction of Samuel and Alice Stratton.
Margaret and Thomas love each other deeply, and their relationship is grounded in respect, equality, and honesty. In this regard, their marriage sets them apart from many of their neighbors, whose marriages evidence the patriarchal social norms of their day. Thomas and Margaret seem to have an unshakeable bond, but as the narrative progresses, their marriage becomes strained under the weight of Margaret’s increasingly fraught position within their community. The church is the most important institution in Puritan society, and Margaret falls afoul of religious regulations when her work begins to be seen as witchcraft. Gender roles are also strictly governed and important, and Margaret does not conform to standards of politeness, decorum, and humility for women. Though Thomas admires Margaret for her outspokenness and courage, the threat of being charged with witchcraft, heresy, or indecency is real, and he begins to worry that her assertive nature will bring harm upon their family. Although Margaret initially does not concern herself much with what others think, Thomas does, entreating her: “I simply warned you last night. Sam says he and Alice hear talk in town, that many call you the Devil’s Hand. Do you want to bring this sort of trouble down on yourself” (96)? Although Thomas values Margaret’s individuality and does not want to become a controlling husband, he also does not want to suffer the consequences of Margaret’s actions. Because of this, the two begin to argue and have some serious, lasting disagreements over Margaret’s unwillingness to better conform to societal norms and standards.
Margaret also experiences strain in her few friendships. Governor Bellingham values Margaret’s skills and is much more willing than most men in her community to recognize a woman’s expertise. He consults her on more than one occasion, and the two strike up a friendship. Bellingham himself is interested in the sciences and hopes that he might learn from Margaret’s wide body of knowledge. Yet when Margaret is accused of witchcraft, he is unwilling to risk his own safety to help her. To openly support Margaret through public testimony would be to not only imperil his reputation but also to run the risk that he himself might be accused of witchcraft. Because rules and religiosity play such outsize roles in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Bellingham must abide by social and religious protocol and cannot be seen as Margaret’s benefactor. Again, Margaret’s fraught position within the community impacts her relationships.
Alice and Samuel form a kind of counter-example. They are not as religious as their neighbors—they enjoy consuming alcohol, and their attitudes toward sex do not align with those of the church. Nonetheless, they both understand that individuals and families in their community live under constant scrutiny. Appearances matter much more than reality, and if Samuel and Alice are seen as good Christians and upstanding citizens, they will be left alone. Alice is, like Margaret, intelligent and opinionated. In private, she is even outspoken. She keeps her views to herself, however, until the very end of the novel when Margaret is about to be executed. She understands that to live “freely” in Puritan society means giving up the freedom of speech. Unlike Governor Bellingham, however, she finds the courage to speak up in the end, placing a higher value on her friendship with Margaret than on her social standing, even at the risk of her own life.
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