46 pages • 1 hour read
Maryse CondéI, Tituba: Black Witch of Salem
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1992A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 1, Chapters 9-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1, Chapter 9 Summary
Everything about the village of Salem—the new house, the Puritan pilgrims, the Puritan children, and the news of the two previous ministers’ wives who died there—is dark and unwelcoming. Tituba enjoys Salem’s cats, having learned from Judah that they are spirits greeting her, and muses: “How childish white folks are to choose the cat as a manifestation of their powers […] We others, we prefer […] a nobler breed” (58).
Chapter 9 introduces many pilgrims with documented counterparts in Salem history: Sergeant Thomas Putnam, his wife, Anne, and his daughter, Anne Putnam, Jr.; John and Elizabeth Proctor; Mercy Lewis; Sarah Good; Sarah Osborne; and Elizabeth Booth. In hindsight, Tituba notes that while moving to Salem gave them relief, it would be fleeting.
Tituba, comforted only by her love-making encounters with John Indian, is plagued by inexplicable fear and yearns for Barbados. Samuel Parris behaves despicably; John Indian remains oblivious. Betsey becomes nervous, crying or staring into space, and Tituba tries to soothe her.
Mercy Lewis and Anne Putnam, Jr., befriend Abigail instantly, and their circle grows. Tituba dislikes the girls, sensing their violent hatred. They plague and taunt Tituba with questions about the devil, witchcraft, and who in Salem is in league with Satan. They contemptuously recite what they learn from Betsey: “Tituba can do anything. Tituba knows everything. Tituba sees everything” (61). Disturbed by their teasing accusations, Tituba explodes: “Do you know what a witch really is?” (61).
Despite her growing apprehensions, when Betsey becomes mortally ill, Tituba decides to perform a magic bath ritual to save her life.
Part 1, Chapter 10 Summary
Tituba reflects on the growing madness that the Puritan religion is inciting: “men and women oppressed by the presence of Satan and seeking to hunt him down in all his manifestations” (65).
Tituba is openly considered a messenger of Satan for her skin color, and villagers approach her seeking magical means to harm enemies, while others stand aghast upon seeing her. Even a slave girl names Sarah seeks Tituba’s help to kill her slave owner. When Tituba reminds Sarah that she was taught to heal and not to do evil, the child’s menacing response echoes in Tituba’s mind: “Knowledge must adapt itself to society. You are no longer in Barbados among our unfortunate brothers and sisters. You are among monsters who are set on destroying us” (68).
Chapter 10 introduces more villagers whose namesakes are part of the historical records as victims of this rabid speculation—Bridget Bishop, Giles Cory, and Rebecca Nurse.
Betsey begins spending time with Abigail and the circle of girls, who are now playing games with tarot cards. Betsey suddenly becomes ill and falls to the ground, writhing and screaming with her eyes bulging. She screams and recoils from Tituba; Elizabeth Parris pulls the child away.
Now the enemy, Tituba elicits screaming whenever Betsey spots her. Abigail quickly adopts the game, screaming and falling to the floor when Tituba appears. Elizabeth Parris blames Tituba and her spells for their affliction, admitting to her husband that she allowed Tituba to use her powers when they had fallen ill. Tituba realizes that she must protect herself.
Part 1, Chapter 11 Summary
The opening lines of Chapter 11 are Tituba’s husband’s advice to his troubled wife: “You don’t understand this white man’s world […] You believe that some […] can respect and love us. How mistaken you are! You must hate without distinction” (74). Tituba retorts that he is a puppet in the white people’s hands. John Indian defends his behavior, saying it’s just a mask. His words fail to comfort Tituba, who remains confused that the family she cares for has turned on her.
The investigation for the cause of the girls’ affliction commences with the introduction of another character named after his counterpart in the Salem records: Dr. William Griggs, who diagnosed the afflicted during the Salem witch hunts. Samuel Parris warns Tituba that if Dr. Griggs finds evidence of Satan, she will be hanged. The two girls continue their fits of hysteria, prompting Tituba to scold them that all she ever did was for their good.
In hindsight, Tituba explains that she was naïve: “I was convinced that even a race of villains […] could produce some good” (76). She tries to reason with Betsey, whose response brings Tituba to tears: “You’re a Negress, Tituba! You can only do evil. You are evil itself” (77). Tituba longs for Barbados.
Part 1, Chapter 12 Summary
When Dr. Griggs arrives to examine the girls, Tituba is again naïvely confident because she has assisted him in healing efforts and finds no malice in her abilities. His conclusions prove otherwise: “I can see no physical cause […] the evil hand of Satan is upon them” (81). Soon, the fervor of Puritan insanity grows, and the other girls begin having dramatic seizures and visions of hell. When the villagers turn on Tituba, only Elizabeth Proctor tries to remind them that they have not yet proven they cause is witchcraft.
At this point, sensing the presence of Mama Yaya bringing her hope and Abena extending her tenderness is not enough for Tituba. She steals a sheep from her neighbors and takes it into the forest. Anointing herself with its blood, she offers its body to her spirits, then awaits their arrival. Mama Yaya speaks first: “There is no need to be afraid […] Misfortune […] is our constant companion […] you’ll be the only one to survive” (85). Abena only utters “her usual quota of sighs” (85) and disappears.
As Tituba walks home, the neighbor who owns the stolen, and now dead, sheep stops her and asks her to punish the thieves. Armed with the “fleeting arrogance infused in [her] by Mama Yaya and Abena” (86), Tituba retorts that “the most awesome are those that go unmentioned” (86). Part 1 of Tituba’s pilgrimage ends with her reminding herself of Mama Yaya’s reassurance that she will be the only survivor.
Part 1, Chapters 9-12 Analysis
The juxtaposition of historical persons and facts with fantastical and hyperbolic elements is a key characteristic of the five chapters covering Tituba’s time in the Proctors’ Salem household. Tituba’s amusement with the childish ways of white people’s witchcraft seems awkward next to the menacing behavior of Mercy Lewis and the circle of girls questioning Tituba on matters of the occult. The investigation and the affected image of these girls twitching and writhing would be entirely comical if not for the fact that the adult Puritan fanatics believe in the ludicrous.
The fact that the scathing conclusions about white people that open Chapter 11 comes from John Indian, a caricature of a man who is difficult to take seriously, suggests that such comments reflect the author’s active and intentional presence in the text—she is the one writing the story into existence and bringing these indictments of American society to the forefront.
Juxtaposed with mortally dangerous fanaticism, the scenes involving the spirit trio and the animal sacrifice scene seem ridiculous. However, as Condé explains in comments included in the American edition of the novel, the parody is intentional:
I repeat that the element of parody is very important if you wish to fully comprehend Tituba […] in any female epic, some elements must be present, and I included them. If one misses the parody in Tituba […] one will not understand why she meets Hester Prynne in jail and why they discuss feminism in modern terms. Similarly, the presence of the invisible (the conversations with the mother and Mama Yaya) is deliberately overdrawn. Do not take Tituba too seriously, please (212).
The ongoing suggestion in bringing the artifice to the forefront is that doing so elucidates the failure of “real” history to tell the truth, and as such, the experience of Tituba having to rewrite herself into history validates itself as a true story for women and people of color.
