The Witch

How do the methods used to establish Caroline’s guilt in 1692 compare with the scientific techniques that Henry employs to investigate the past in the present day?

While Caroline views the bear-head knocker on Pemberton’s front door as a protective “guardian,” Julia remembers it as a terrifying monster. How do their contrasting reactions to the knocker reflect their character traits and relationships to the house?

Examine the different ways that Mick and Letty respond to their complicity in Celia Caine’s crimes. How do their actions and divided loyalties influence the eventual discovery of the truth?

In 1717, Jonas and Caroline commission a portrait of themselves as Archibald and Molly Eldridge to hang at Pemberton. How does this act reflect the novel’s wider exploration of the construction and concealment of identity?

In Chapter 25, Henry explains both the ergotism hypothesis and conversion disorder as competing explanations for the Salem Witch Trials. How does the novel engage with these two theories in its depiction of Woodhaven’s community panic?

How does the novel use Caroline’s first-person perspective in the 1692 timeline to shape the reader’s perceptions of Archie and Jonas?

Both the 1692 and the 20th-century storylines involve a secret backyard burial followed by the assumption of another person’s identity. Compare the circumstances, motives, and consequences of these two acts of reinvention.

Trace the presence of the coral-blue combs from their introduction in 1692 to their reappearance in the present day. What different meanings do the combs acquire as they pass between characters?