Defiance against power

• 'her phlegm reached Willowjack and left a rosary of pearls across her flank' - ch 2 


  • mistress Beldam spits at Willowjack - symbol of Kent's power - explicit challenge to Kent's power
  • done in response to unjust punishment - act of transgression done to gain some kind of justice - Crace celebrates defiance against authority
  • spit described as rosary - turns seemingly vulgar act into something sacred & precious - emphasise righteousness in her rebellion
• 'she was righteous in a way' - ch 7

  • killing willow jack is an implied protest against Kent's misused power
  • using violence as protest against Kent's actions - responding to systemic injustice when all other means have failed
  • actions justified by injustice of Kent's actions
  • refuses to be complicit in system Kent upholds - disrupts status quo
• 'a hundred, wispy fists' 'the sudden show of blood' - ch 10

  • grooms outsider status & cruel joke about Lizzie Carr burning 'nicely' triggers attack
  • act of collective violence - villagers, previously passive, suddenly become a unified force
  • one man escalates violence leading to 'sudden show of blood'
  • villagers realise they have gone too far by harming someone tied to Jordan, not a vagrant - outside formal justice will intervene - the villagers world is now vulnerable to punishment & retribution
  • precipitates mass desertion of village - become vagrants - ironic as they become what they once feared & condemned
  • desperate & misguided form of resistance - violence is emotional & chaotic, ultimately becoming self-destructive - desire to reclaim control fails & they remain powerless in face of Jordan's authority - in new world their misdirected resistance only serves to deepen powerlessness
• 'I have to put the earth to plough' - ch 13 


  • act of symbolic rebellion - will not actually prevent Jordan's but will hinder him
  • by ploughing, thirsk restores traditional rhythms of village life & honours those who once worked the land - gesture of defiance on behalf of the voiceless & displaced
  • appreciate emotional & moral weight of action but may question if it is too little too late - village is already emptied, Jordan's plans are underway, Thirsk's resistance cannot reverse the damage
  • yet, still holds value as a final resistance - even amid loss, meaning & dignity can still be claimed, rather than surrendering to complete passive defeat & acceptance
• 'What starts with fire will end with fire' - ch 16 


  • In final rebellion against those who oppressed & excluded them, Mistress Beldam sets fire to cottages while her husband cuts down pillory with an 'axe'
  • burning cottages attacks villagers sense of security that allowed them to deny her shelter & stand by as she suffered
  • destruction of pillory, symbol of public punishment & control, dismantles system that humiliated & brutalised mr b
  • together, they reclaim power by destroying structures that upheld injustice, asserting agency in a world that denied them any
  • violence triggers further violence - but here it is tied to a form of retributive justice - a final defiant act through destruction
• Thirsk burns Manor House with 'titles, muniments and deeds' - ch 16

  • burns Manor House using legal documents that represent ownership & control
  • symbolic protest - cleansing fire aimed at destroying the very place where injustice, abuse & power were concentrated
  • completes Beldam's act of burning shelter by burning manor to dismantle the power that enabled such cruelty
  • by burning deeds, thirsk strips Jordan of symbols that legitimised his control - may have actually made a difference in this act of resistance that confronts the power he long enabled through his silence
• Thirsk's isolation at end of novel - repeated use of 'I' on final page

  • resistance often leaves individuals isolated & communities divided & disempowered
  • sense of loneliness in standing against larger, oppressive forces
  • protest ambiguous - no guarantee of success or liberation