History Literature / TheWitchOfBlackbirdPond

* BigShutUp: [[spoiler: When Goody Cruff tries to break her husband back down after he stands up to her, he delivers one to her and orders her home, speechless.]]

---> '''Kit:''' Isn't there anything I can do to help? Are you hungry?
---> '''Nat:''' You can stop trying to be a lady of mercy.

* AbortedDeclarationOfLove: [[spoiler: When John comes to ask for permission to marry Mercy, Judith mistakenly thinks he's come to ask for ''her'' hand.]] When he realizes what has happened, he keeps quiet for sake of not embarrassing everyone involved.

* MayDecemberRomance: Kit leaves Barbados because one of her grandfather's creditors is trying to push her into marriage. {{Squick:She's sixteen and he's fifty}}. ''Ew''!

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Matthew turns out to be one.

* WidowWitch: Hannah.

* AbortedDeclarationOfLove: [[spoiler: When John comes to ask for permission to marry Mercy, Judith mistakenly thinks he's come to ask for ''her'' hand.]] When he realizes what has happened, he keeps quiet for sake of embarrassing everyone involved.

* IllGirl: Mercy's poor health and lame leg are the result of a fever she caught as a small child, likely ''Polio'' since it was ''common'' in children and normally caused ''paralysis'' in ''survivors''.

* AdultFear: When Mercy and Judith become terribly ill. Mercy starts crying when Kit orders her to go to bed, and none of the doctor's regular remedies are working. It's the reverend giving Mercy an onion poultice that saves her life.

* MayDecemberRomance: Kit leaves Barbados because one of her grandfather's creditors is trying to push her into marriage. She's sixteen and he's fifty.

* IllGirl: Mercy's poor health and lame leg are the result of a fever she caught as a small child.

* ExactEavesdropping: Kit hears Matthew and Margaret saying it would be easier to take in Kit if she were a boy. She lets it slip to Mercy the next day that even if she's not a boy, she's determined to be useful. Mercy, after crying for a bit, explains that her two older brothers died, so it's nothing personal.

* RealityEnsues: Kit runs out into the night to rescue Hannah from an angry mob. She manages to place Hannah on Nat's ship, and Nat promises to take care of her. The mob finds Kit's things in Hannah's cottage, and the Cruffs feel obliged to press charges against her because Goodwife Cruff is spiteful.

* RealityEnsues:

* PairTheSpares: [[spoiler:After Kit dumps William Ashby and John Holbrook confesses his love for Mercy, William and Judith happily marry as if neither of them had been engaged to anyone else.]]

* HenpeckedHusband: Goodman Adam Cruff is very much under the thumb of his wife, so far as he doesn't dare speak against her abuse of their daughter.

* ShutUpHannibal: When Goodwife Cruff tries to force her husband into submission once he believes the good guys in court, he gives out a well-deserved "[[BigShutUp Hold your tongue, woman]]!"

* BigShutUp: [[spoiler: When Goody Cruff tries to break her husband back down after he stands up to her, he delivers one to her and orders her home, speechless.]]

* ShutUpHannibal: When Goodwife Cruff tries to force her husband into submission once he believes the good guys in court, he gives out a well-deserved "Hold your tongue, woman!" Again, see BigShutUp.

!!Provides Examples Of:

* AbortedDeclarationOfLove - [[spoiler: When John comes to ask for permission to marry Mercy, Judith mistakenly thinks he's come to ask for ''her'' hand.]] When he realizes what has happened, he keeps quiet for sake of embarrassing everyone involved.
* AbusiveParents - Goodwife Cruff is this to Prudence, while Goodman Cruff is too much of a HenpeckedHusband to stand up for their daughter [[spoiler: until towards the end of the book]].
* AsTheGoodBookSays - As the book is set in Puritan New England, many characters quote and read from the Bible at length.
* BrokenBird - Nat fears that this will become Kit's fate in the harsh social environment of Wethersfield. He even compares her to a bird he once wanted to buy on a tropical island, but his father explained to him that it would die if he brought it to New England.
* CanNotSpitItOut - The unspoken love between [[spoiler:Mercy and John]] is in serious jeopardy due to their inability to spit it out. When [[spoiler:John's confession of love is mistaken to be aimed at ''Judith'']], Kit is screaming inside for him to spit it out, but he still can't manage it.
* CityMouse - Kit is a formerly rich city mouse from Barbados who comes to live with her aunt and uncle in the small Puritan colony. She has incredible difficulty adjusting to a homely life where a silk dress is considered frippery by her uncle when she was raised with slaves and finery as a plantation master's granddaughter.
* CloudCuckoolander - Hannah is an isolated old woman, nearly blind with age, who practices an outcast religion, has been accused as a witch and heretic more than once, and often forgets her husband is no longer among the living.
* BigShutUp - [[spoiler: When Goody Cruff tries to break her husband back down after he stands up to her, he delivers one to her and orders her home, speechless.]]
* [[CuteKitten Everything's Cuter With Kittens]] Hannah's cure for sad children is blueberry cake and a kitten. It never fails.
* [[FirstGirlWins First Boy Wins]] - [[spoiler: The first character we're introduced to other than Kit is Nat. He finally comes clean about his feelings in the final chapter.]]
* FishOutOfWater - Kit, the aforementioned CityMouse, transplanted from Barbados to Puritan New England.
* GenerationXerox - Judith and Kit look exactly like their mothers Rachel and Margaret respectively. Kit's resemblance to her mother is so startling to her aunt that she nearly falls over on seeing her the first time.
* HenpeckedHusband - Goodman Adam Cruff is very much under the thumb of his wife, so far as he doesn't dare speak against her abuse of their daughter.
* TheHeretic - Hannah is described as a heretic and witch because she refuses to attend Sunday Meetings. Several of Kit's free-willed acts are called heretical.
* IllGirl - Mercy's poor health and lame leg are the result of a fever she caught as a small child.
* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy - Mercy refuses to speak a word of her love of [[spoiler:John Holbrook]] to anyone. Even if it means watching him marry someone else.
* LapPillow - [[spoiler:Upon his return from the militia, John Holbrook (who was believed dead) comes straight to the Wood household. Everyone is shocked to see him alive, but all he can bring himself to do is wordlessly stumble across the room to drop to his knees and put his head in Mercy's lap.]]
* LoveDodecahedron [[spoiler: Judith has a crush on William who falls in love at first sight with Kit. Judith abandons her plans for William when she meets John but her sister Mercy is desperately and secretly in love with him. John loves Mercy as well, but becomes engaged to Judith in a horrible misunderstanding. William courts Kit for a while, but she realizes she could never be married to him and breaks it off. John goes missing and is presumed dead and Judith is comforted by William. John returns and confesses his love for Mercy. William and Judith have fallen in love as well and they plan to hold a double wedding. Kit runs off with a sailor.]] Whew!
* LoveEpiphany - [[spoiler:In the final chapters, Kit realizes that her hopes and dreams aren't truly about going back to Barbados, they are about sailing by Nat's side again.]] She's shocked to realize she loves him, and spends the rest of the winter anxiously awaiting his return.
* MayDecemberRomance - Kit leaves Barbados because one of her grandfather's creditors is trying to push her into marriage. She's sixteen and he's fifty.

* MistakenDeclarationOfLove - John comes to the Wood house to ask for [[spoiler:Mercy's]] hand in marriage. When he says he wants to ask Mathew about something, [[spoiler:Judith]] takes it as a proposal to her and jumps happily on it.
* OneHeadTaller - Nat is described as having his shoulders level with the top of Kit's head.
* PairTheSpares - [[spoiler:After Kit dumps William Ashby and John Holbrook confesses his love for Mercy, William and Judith happily marry as if neither of them had been engaged to anyone else.]]
* SettleForSibling - [[spoiler: After Kit dumps William, he turns his attention to her cousin Judith.]]

* ThinkHappyThoughts - Kit gets through the winter by clinging to the memory of a dream she had of standing on the prow of a boat bound for her home, Barbados.
* TorchesAndPitchforks - Several of the townspeople who mob together to bring Hannah Tupper to [[WitchHunt "justice"]] sport torches.
* WeddingsForEveryone - [[spoiler: The novel closes with a double wedding being planned for Mercy and Judith and Nat finally proposing to Kit.]]
* WhenSheSmiles - Kit is unaware of her dazzling smile, and confused by the romantic overtures it invites.
* WitchHunt - When a serious illness sweeps the town, angry residents begin looking for someone to blame as children start dying. They immediately go to fetch Hannah Tupper, whom the town has always whispered about being a witch. [[spoiler: When Kit helps her escape, their anger and accusations turn on her.]]