Tituba

Essay Questions

1. How does Longfellow use the dramatic monologue form to transform Tituba from a figure of historical victimhood into one of subversive power in "Tituba"? Consider how the choice of first-person voice, the incantatory tone, and the poem's structural progression contribute to this transformation. (AQA AO1/AO2; AP Lit Q1 poetry analysis; IB guiding concept: Identity)

1. To what extent does the catalogue of poisonous plants function as the poem's central symbol of resistance in "Tituba"? Explore how Longfellow uses the enumeration of toxic herbs — and the precise knowledge attached to each — to redefine what constitutes power for an enslaved woman stripped of all outward status. (AQA AO1/AO2; AP Lit Q1 poetry analysis; IB guiding concept: Power)

1. How does Longfellow's dismantling of colonial authority — through the sequential listing of captain, merchant, scholar, minister, and magistrate — expose the fragility of Puritan power structures in "Tituba"? Argue how this rhetorical strategy works alongside the poem's themes of social class, inequality, and secret knowledge to challenge the legitimacy of those who claim dominance over Tituba. (AQA AO1/AO2/AO3; IB guiding concept: Power; AP Lit Q1 poetry analysis)

1. In "Tituba," Longfellow reclaims the language of the Salem witch trials — particularly the accusations of the Evil Eye and Evil Hand — as instruments of defiance rather than guilt. To what extent is this reversal the poem's most politically charged gesture? Consider how this inversion connects to the poem's broader themes of trauma, gender and power, and revenge. (AQA AO1/AO2; AP Lit Q1 poetry analysis; IB guiding concept: Transformation)

1. How does the closing couplet of "Tituba" function as both the logical conclusion and the emotional climax of the entire poem? Analyse how Longfellow's double use of the word "slave" — carrying opposite meanings in each instance — encapsulates the poem's argument about identity, freedom, and the inversion of the master-slave dynamic. (AQA AO1/AO2; AP Lit Q1 poetry analysis)

1. Compare the ways in which secret or forbidden knowledge is used as a source of power for a marginalised speaker in "Tituba" and one other poem of your choice. In your response, consider how each poet uses voice, symbol, and structure to argue that knowledge withheld can be more potent than knowledge openly declared. (AQA AO1/AO2/AO3 comparative; IB guiding concept: Identity and Power)

1. To what extent does the historical context of post-Civil War America shape the meaning and significance of "Tituba" beyond its seventeenth-century setting? Discuss how Longfellow's decision to dramatise the voice of an enslaved Indigenous woman in 1868 invites readers to view the poem simultaneously as a commentary on Salem and on the unresolved moral failures of his own era. (AQA AO1/AO3; IB guiding concept: Context; AP Lit Q1 poetry analysis)

1. How does Longfellow construct a sense of dark triumph in "Tituba" through the poem's tone, symbolic imagery, and thematic arc from oppression to revenge? Evaluate whether the poem ultimately presents Tituba's power as genuinely liberating or as a freedom constrained entirely by fear and invisibility. (AQA AO1/AO2; AP Lit Q1 poetry analysis; IB guiding concepts: Freedom and Identity)