Themes
Gender and Institutional Power
The opening interaction between Abitha, Edward, and Wallace establishes the dynamics of institutionalized gendered oppression in Colonial America. When Wallace enters Edward’s and Abitha’s home to inform them that he’s selling their property, it is Abitha—not Edward—who initially pushes back. Both men object to Abitha’s assertiveness: Edward says that he is “appalled by her behavior” (16), and Wallace goes further, saying that he will be “placing charges on her tomorrow” (16). Their responses to Abitha not only indicate that women are expected to perform submissive, silenced roles in the household but also that deviation from these norms is punishable through institutional power. The “charges” that Wallace threatens would be lodged with the church which, in this society, also acts as the governing body. In this way, Abitha’s womanhood is policed both by the state and the church.
In this interaction, Wallace is also policing Edward’s masculinity. Edward is more inclined to be the passive member in his marriage, and he accepts Abitha’s more dominant role. By threatening Abitha, Wallace implicitly demands that Edward take on the more assertive role expected of him in order to protect his wife from the charges threatened. Though the institutional power of the religious state punishes women far more harshly for deviating from gender expectations than it does men, both men and women are expected to align with this society’s rigid, damaging norms.
