Outsiders & blame

• 'Two twists of smoke' - Ch 1


  • rise in distance from the newcomers' makeshift camp & from the manor house
  • signal arrival of newcomers
• 'We mowed with scythes; he worked with brushes and with quills' - ch 1 


  • contrast between Quill & villagers
  • suspicious of Quill as a newcomer
  • whilst he is educated the villagers are not - they can't read, have never seen a map - have different experiences
• ‘We could not help but stare at him and wonder, without saying so, if those scratchings on his board might scratch us too, in some unwelcome way’ - ch 1 


  • fear & suspicion of the unknown & what is outside the boundaries of their village
  • perceive Quill as a threat
  • illustrates lack of trust - view anyone that is not from the village as very other from them & assume they bring some kind of danger
• 'No, the finger of suspicion points not at a villager - the very thought! - but at a stranger' - ch 1

  • use villagers as scapegoats, blaming them for the dovecote fire without any real evidence
  • villagers wouldn't dare steal master's doves to eat - turns to point at people that are liminal, having no known identity - easier to blame people unlike them that they don't know as responsible for their ills - question moral integrity - little sympathy for actions
• ‘We have tenancy to spare' - ch 2 


  • admission they could easily allow others to be welcomed yet they refuse because of their deep-rooted xenophobia
  • show no empathy and do not care about common humanity which implies they should show accept and take care of those with less
• '‘This dove had dark feathers, short bones and a yellow beak... the arsonists had disguised their plunder as a blackbird’ - ch 2 


  • so determined to justify their evidence that they would believe the newcomers disguised the dove as a blackbird
  • sense they are delusional & living a fantasy
  • not able to see real truth so seek Beldams as a convenient target
• 'Brooker Higgs was the first to raise his stick and strike the dwelling on its roof' - ch 2 


  • iniates violence against innocent newcomers - lead to collective action - mob violence
  • driven by fear of the other, and the moral compromises made in the name of preserving the land
• 'It is unjust but sensible, I think, to let the pillory alone' - ch 3 


  • villagers scapegoating Beldams
  • making collective wrong decision in allowing unjust punishment through their silence
  • more convenient to ignore it
  • Crace explores our human capacity to raise issues instead of ignoring them
• 'I decided then to find a flattish log for him to stand on when later I returned that way' - ch 3 


  • waiting to help him even though he is in 'evident discomfort'
  • doesn't have common human decency to help a suffering man
• ‘We only need to bring her to the light and crown her there and then, and all is well. Another dream.’ - ch 3 


  • mistress Beldam interrupts the Gleaning party
  • they are given a moment to undo their wrongs & let her in to acknowledge they were at fault - if they just ignore her nothing will change - but this doesn't happen - just 'another dream'
• ‘I’m not a product of these commons but just a visitor who’s stayed’ - ch 4 


  • Thirsk sees himself as an outsiders
  • doesn't feel fully accepted by villagers - hasn't been there as long as them
  • he understands outside world beyond boundaries of village
• 'This is a death that touches all of thus, though we still do not even know the fellow's name' - ch 5 


  • despite attempts to evade responsibility, there is a sense of communal guilt for murder of man in pillory
  • despite them depersonalising him & distancing themselves they cannot escape guilt
  • exposes tension between villagers' desire to place blame elsewhere & their deep-seated awareness that their actions are morally troubling
• ‘No one’s been hunting for ‘the sorceress’ despite their warnings’ - ch 9 


  • no one really believes she is a witch
  • no one follows through on seeking her out
  • feel need to name & warn against an outsider but don't really believe in threat
• 'that shaven, blacked-haired women is behind it all' - ch 9 


  • present her as sinister, almost supernatural force - echoes historical associations of women who defy norms with witchcraft
  • language is deliberately othering - visually distinct
  • misogyny works in hand with scapegoating - woman presents female autonomy & power that challenges patriarchal order - need to punish
• 'I was never a local tree, grown in this soil from seed, to die where I was planted' - ch 9 


  • at this point Thirsk is feeling increasingly excluded from the village - was always slightly apart but with the unmaking of the village, now that divide his deepening
  • also recognises he is likely to be sacrificed if Jordan is looking for a scapegoat - fear, instability & social pressure lead to targeting of those who don't fully belongpower & fear reshape not only communities, but the individuals within them
  • sense of identity crisis - doesn't know where loyalties lie 'I cannot serve each master and each friend with equal shares' - reflects impossibility of maintaining divided allegiances in a collapsing world
• 'I hear there is witchery about' - Mr Baynham (steward) - ch 10 


  • Jordan's false accusations & suspicions have spread throughout the village, infecting the minds of the villagers
  • fear mongering claims are accepted as fact
  • women easy target for scapegoating
• The villagers, fearful for their women, invent a story Quill & Thirsk of being 'part of some conspiracy' involving outsider, the 'dove-burners' and the 'Chart-maker' - ch 10

  • display same xenophobia that led to injustice against 3 newcomers in ch 1
  • Thirsk & Quill targeted as outsiders
  • John Carr warns Thirsk - 'Go back...'
  • Lizzie accuses Quill - 'He was the one who had 'made me Queen, and tried to put his hand on me' - saying what she has been influenced to say by attitude of rest of village - Quill helping her is twisted into something sinister - truth can be distorted under fear or manipulation
• 'Too bruised and exhausted to do anything but cooperate, screamed out half a dozen names' - ch 10 


  • Kitty & Anne betray their neighbours by accusing women they don't particularly like or get on with, in order to save themselves & lizzie carr
  • fear & desperation can drive people to turn on their own community - act evokes disgust & sympathy - we judge them, but also understand their survival instinct
  • under pressure humans target marginalised groups - proximity doesn't guarantee loyalty, especially when survival is at stake
• 'within a day or two they might have reached another line of bounds and someone else’s common ground where they can put up their hut' - ch 11 pg 177


  • ironic that the villagers, who once feared & condemned the Bedlams as threatening outsiders, now find themselves in same position
  • repeating language of early chapters emphasises cyclical structure of novel where villagers' harsh reactions to vagrants sets off chain of events that lead to their own exile & vagrancy