Hour of the Witch

The Devil’s tines operate in myriad ways in the novel to stoke fear, cause or indicate spiritual harm and, of course, cause actual harm through initiating The Dangers of Mass Hysteria. The tines are a symbol for excess, distrust, violence, evil, and hypocrisy. The tines first represent excess because of their connection to England, a place which New Englanders fled to live a more godly, simple life away from indulgence and greed. They then come to represent the Devil himself or, more broadly, evil. They are the weapon Thomas uses to stab Mary and Catherine’s weapon against Mary to accuse her of witchcraft, acting as the symbol for the evil that humanity inflicts upon itself.

They also symbolize the absurdity and hypocrisy of Puritan society toward women at this time, as when Mary looks in Caleb’s eyes and sees “in the lines of his deep brown irises a pair of three-tined forks” (244). The Devil’s tines even come to represent “a fork with three glorious tines” (477, emphasis added) once Mary is free and eating in England, thereby transforming from a symbol of her oppression into a symbol of her emancipation.