Tituba

Discussion Questions — Tituba by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

1. Close Reading | AQA AO2 / AP Close Reading: How does Longfellow's choice of a dramatic monologue form shape the way we receive Tituba's voice? What is gained or lost by letting Tituba speak entirely in the first person rather than being described by a narrator?

1. Structure & Tone | AQA AO2 / IB Guiding Question: The poem moves from a systematic catalogue of poisonous plants to a declaration of dark triumph. How does this structural progression mirror Tituba's psychological journey within the monologue, and how does the shift in tone between the opening and the closing affect the reader's experience?

1. Language & Symbol | AQA AO2 / AP Close Reading: The poisonous plants are described as possessing "secrets" that Tituba alone understands. In what ways does botanical knowledge function as a symbol of power in this poem, and why might this particular kind of knowledge be especially significant for a woman stripped of all outward status?

1. Theme: Power & Social Class | AQA AO3 / IB Guiding Question: Tituba enumerates the figures of colonial authority — the captain, merchant, scholar, minister, and magistrate — only to dismiss each one. What does this rhetorical strategy reveal about how the poem understands the relationship between institutional power and hidden power?

1. Theme: Identity & Reversal | AP Argument / IB Guiding Question: The closing lines use the word "slave" twice but with opposite meanings. How does this reversal reframe Tituba's entire identity as constructed by those around her, and what does it suggest about who truly holds power in the world of the poem?

1. Historical & Biographical Context | AQA AO3 / AP Context: Longfellow wrote this poem in the aftermath of the American Civil War, a period of national reckoning with slavery. How might that historical moment have shaped his portrayal of Tituba, and in what ways does the poem ask its audience to consider the Salem witch trials differently through that lens?

1. Symbol: The Evil Eye and Evil Hand | AQA AO2 / AP Close Reading: During the Salem trials, accusations of the "Evil Eye" and "Evil Hand" were used as evidence of guilt against Tituba. How does the poem transform these accusations into something else entirely, and what does that transformation indicate about the relationship between accusation, guilt, and power?

1. Theme: Knowledge & Gender | IB Guiding Question / AP Argument: The poem suggests that Tituba's most potent weapon is knowledge that cannot be seen, seized, or legislated away. How does the poem connect the themes of gender and education, and what argument does it seem to make about the kinds of power available to those excluded from formal authority?

1. Tone & Authorial Intent | AQA AO1 / AP Argument: The tone of Tituba has been described as both incantatory and chilling — precise rather than openly furious. Why might Longfellow have chosen controlled, spell-like delivery over open rage as the vehicle for Tituba's defiance, and how does that tonal choice affect our sympathy for or unease about her?

1. Theme: Freedom & Trauma | IB Guiding Question / AQA AO3: By the poem's conclusion, Tituba's only apparent freedom is the freedom that comes through fear. What does this suggest about the nature of freedom for those trapped within systems of oppression, and how does the poem both honour and complicate Tituba's act of resistance?