Eastwick: an Introduction to the novel

Slow. That is how I would describe the first section of this novel. However, Updike, the author, does an exceptional job in his use of description. This might account for the slow pace. "The Coven", is really meant to set the scene and nothing more. This section introduces our three lovely witches. However, with the term "lovely", I do not mean overwhelmingly gorgeous or the current cultural connotation of the word. If so, the three witches would play their roles as fairly superficial characters. Instead Alexandra Spofford, Jane Smart, and Sukie Rougemont are all very real. They are real women and our author John Updike does an excellent job of portraying all of their flaws and insecurities. It is these flaws that make our three main characters more relatable and personally the flaws of these three women are what sparked my interest and curiosity to continue reading.

The events of this story unfold in a small New England town named Eastwick during the late 1960's. As the story unfolds, Alexandra one of our main characters describes Eastwick as having an air of empowered women. "Eastwick in its turn was at every moment kissed by the sea." (7) A description that I feel may help to lend to this air of freedom and strength. Like the Witches themselves, Eastwick shares some of their characteristics. The town, "settled by outcasts like the bewitching, soon to die Anne Hutchinson, holds manifold warps and wrinkles." Eastwick is portrayed as a separate entity a safe haven from the current cultural demands, especially in relation to women. Once one crosses the state line, " a subtle change occurs, a cheerful dishevelment, a contempt for appearances, a chimerical uncaring." It is this atmosphere that allows our three women to thrive. One of the most important examples of this change in characters is best described by Alexandra. While roaming along the beach prior to her conjurement of a storm, she relays to the reader that, "One's inner weather always bore a relation to the outer," it is simply a matter of reversing the current. According to Alexandra however, “so many of [her] remarkable powers had flowed from this mere re-appropriation of her assigned self." (14) She relays that it was not until midlife that she truly believed that she had a right to exist. Following this relation, is a religious allusion and a dismissal of the Christian faith. Alexandra describes herself now, not as "an afterthought and companion-- a bent rib, as the infamous Malleus Maleficarum had it-- but as the mainstay of continuing Creation."(14) It is this realization and acceptance of herself as a unique and powerful woman that makes me adore Alexandra as a character, along with the two other women in this novel.