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Chapter 4
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Witch of Blackbird Pond, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Puritan Hypocrisy
Love, Values, and Attraction
Difference, Prejudice, and Discrimination
Home and Belonging
Sexism
Summary
Analysis
It’s Sabbath morning, and Kit has already managed to upset Matthew twice. First, she declined to go to Meeting with them; she and her grandfather only ever went to Christmas Mass. Now that Matthew is forcing Kit to attend Meeting, he’s upset that she has only extravagant silk dresses to wear. Rachel manages to calm him, reminding him that everyone will know that Kit hasn’t had time to get simpler clothes. Kit notices that Judith is also furious, but out of envy, not piety.
Kit is still struggling to adapt to Puritan culture. She doesn’t want to go to Meeting, their religious service, because she grew up in a different religion (the Church of England). But Matthew doesn’t respect her different religious beliefs, and he forces her to come with the family to Meeting. This begins to suggest that the Puritans are generally intolerant of other religions. Although the Puritans migrated to the American colonies to have religious freedom (the Church of England was hostile toward them), most do not extend religious freedom to anyone else.
Active
Themes
As the family walks into town, Kit is dismayed at its bareness. They enter the Meeting House, where women sit on one side and men sit on the other. As Rachel leads the girls to their bench, Kit is aware of the disapproving silence that follows her and her luxurious outfit.
Kit continues to judge Wethersfield against her home country of Barbados. Because Wethersfield is less developed than where Kit is from, she thinks less of it. Meanwhile, many of the Puritans at the Meeting disapprove of Kit because she is dressed more elegantly than most of them. Like Matthew, they presumably think that Kit’s dress represents vanity.
Active
Themes
Kit finds the Puritan service boring; she spends her time looking around at the other churchgoers. While most of them are plainly dressed, there are a few elegantly dressed people as well. Kit also notices Black people whom she assumes are enslaved.
Active
Themes
After about two hours, the service—which Kit sees as a test of endurance—finally ends. Once outside the Meeting House, Reverend Bulkeley and two of the deacons greet her, all of them mentioning that she must be grateful for her relatives’ help. Kit realizes that they must all think Matthew is helping her out of charity—no wonder they are shocked at her dress.
Active
Themes
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Then, Kit sees Goodwife Cruff whispering to other hostile-looking women, all of whom glare at her. Kit takes a moment to wave at Prudence, who blushes with joy.
Active
Themes
John Holbrook at last walks over to greet Kit. He is very serious with her, and he comments that he found the sermon “uplifting” and “remarkable.” Kit, who found the sermon dull, is lost for words. Judith, meanwhile, gazes sweetly at John and agrees that the sermon was inspiring.
Active
Themes
When the Reverend Bulkeley joins John and the family, Rachel tells the Reverend that he must bring John to their house when he has dinner with them later this week. The Reverend agrees before leading John away. Rachel then introduces Kit to Mrs. Ashby and her son, William. William is speechless—he is clearly quite captivated by Kit.
Active
Themes
As they turn to leave, Judith asks Kit whether she has “set [her] cap” for John Holbrook, whom she finds handsome. Embarrassed, Kit denies Judith’s assertion. After a moment, Judith notes that William seemed impressed by her. She cruelly adds that he probably just liked her dress, as Kit isn’t especially pretty.
Kit changes the subject, asking if anyone lives in the small shacks that line the roadway to the Meeting House. Judith tells her no, those buildings are used by the families who live too far from the Meeting House to go home in between services. Realizing with horror that there’s a second service that afternoon, Kit asks herself why she ever came to Connecticut.
Active
Themes
