The Witches of Eastwick by John Updike

First published: 1984

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Satire and fantasy

Time of plot: Late 1960’s

Locale: Eastwick, Rhode Island

Principal characters

• Jane Smart, one of three witches who are friends and coven-mates, a cellist
• Suzanne “Sukie” Rougemont, another of the witches, a newspaper reporter
• Alexandra “Lexa” Spofford, the third witch, a sculptor
• Joe Marino, a plumber, Alexandra’s married lover
• Ozzie Spofford, Alexandra’s former husband
• Marcy, ,
• Ben, and
• Eric, Alexandra’s children
• Raymond Neff, a high school music teacher, Jane’s sometime lover
• Greta Neff, his wife
• Darryl Van Horne, an eccentric, supposedly wealthy inventor who has just moved to Eastwick; possibly the devil
• Ed Parsley, the Unitarian minister, Sukie’s sometime lover
• Brenda Parsley, the minister’s wife, who assumes his duties after he runs off with his lover
• Monty Rougemont, Sukie’s former husband
• Clyde Gabriel, newspaper editor, Sukie’s employer and sometime lover
• Felicia Gabriel, Clyde’s wife, a social activist
• Fidel, Darryl’s manservant
• Dawn Polanski, the young woman Ed Parsley leaves his wife and job for, a political radical
• Jennifer “Jenny” Gabriel, Clyde’s daughter, a medical technician, who returns upon her parents’ death and marries Darryl
• Christopher “Chris” Gabriel, Clyde’s son, who returns upon his parents’ death and leaves town with Darryl after his sister’s death

The Story:

Jane Smart, Alexandra Spofford, and Sukie Rougemont are divorced single mothers in a small town in Rhode Island. They are also witches. One day in September, Jane tells Alexandra that a new man has moved to town, a New Yorker. Alexandra begins to reflect on her past as she returns to putting away the jars of spaghetti sauce she has made from her summer tomato crop. She continues these reflections as she walks her dog Coal on the beach.

Alexandra is an artist; she sculpts small clay figurines of women and sells them locally. Jane is a cellist and teaches piano. Sukie writes a gossip column for the local newspaper. They meet every Thursday for drinks and talk. At their next meeting, they discuss Greta, the awful wife of Raymond Neff, with whom Jane plays music. They also talk about Darryl Van Horne, the town’s newest resident.

On Sunday night, Jane and Neff play in a concert at the Unitarian church. Van Horne attends. He talks to Alexandra about her sculptures, and she decides that she hates him. Jane meets him, and he critiques her performance and makes suggestions about her playing. Ed Parsley, the minister, joins them, as does Sukie. Van Horne reveals that he is attempting to invent some sort of protective coating that generates electricity.

Sukie is the first to visit Van Horne, and she publishes a newspaper story about him. She tells Alexandra that Van Horne wants to get to know all of them. Alexandra reflects on her life and her struggles with depression. She is waiting for something to happen. Sukie is attracted to her editor, Clyde; she talks about his wife Felicia’s obsession with causes. Jane is practicing pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach at Van Horne’s suggestion. The women think about visiting the newcomer.

Alexandra takes Coal for a walk on the beach near the Lenox mansion, the house Van Horne has bought. He happens upon her and persuades her to come into his house. When she notices the smells of sulfur, he explains that there is a laboratory in the house. Van Horne encourages Alexandra to try sculpting larger pieces, and he tells her that he knows of a gallery where she might be able to sell them.

The three witches visit Van Horne together, and soon a tennis match on his new court is in progress. Sukie and Van Horne play against Jane and Alexandra. Afterward, Sukie leaves, but the two remaining women bathe with Van Horne in a huge teak tub he has had custom built for a room with a skylight. This will be the first of many such baths. They smoke a joint and discuss men and women and the history of withchcraft. Sukie returns and joins them, having checked on her children. The women caress one another, listen to Janis Joplin, and, when they all leave the bath, bring the naked Van Horne to orgasm. They will become a subject of town gossip that winter.

Ed Parsley runs off with a local teenager named Dawn. Alexandra and Jane talk on the phone about the minister and about Sukie’s attraction to Clyde. They think that Felicia is awful. Meanwhile, Clyde and Felicia are also discussing Ed’s defection. As she speaks, Felicia begins to find small bits of various things, such as feathers, in her mouth. Removing the items, she admits to Clyde that this has been happening to her lately. Clyde has been unhappy with his wife for a long time.

Sukie receives letters from Ed describing his and Dawn’s escape to the underground, where they are learning to make bombs. She is with Van Horne and resists telling him that she and Jane are responsible for Felicia’s torment, having cast a spell on her. Sukie and Van Horne have lunch and talk about her attraction to Clyde and Van Horne’s scientific projects. Sukie and Clyde finally make love, after which Clyde and Felicia have a confrontation: She continues to spit out garbage, and he kills her with the fireplace poker. Clyde then hangs himself.

Sukie talks to Jane and Alexandra, revealing that she feels some responsibility for Clyde’s death. The Gabriel children come to town to arrange their parents’ funeral and dispose of their estate. Sukie invites the oldest child, Jennifer, a laboratory technician from Chicago, to Van Horne’s mansion. The others are upset at the invitation; they see Jennifer’s presence as an intrusion. Soon, however, the women feel an instinct to mother Jennifer, enjoying her innocence and pristine beauty as she joins them in their rites of the tub. When Jennifer moves in with Van Horne to become his lab assistant, their maternal instincts turn to jealousy.

Ed is blown up by a bomb he was constructing. There is no evidence of Dawn’s body at the site of the explosion, and it is unknown whether she was also killed or whether she escaped. Jennifer and Van Horne get married. The witches decide to dispense with the young new wife. They conjure a spell which results in her contracting cancer. Jennifer deals bravely with her slow and agonizing death: She bears her condition with strength and good humor, and she innocently fails to blame the witches for her disease.

Jennifer and Van Horne begin attending church, where Ed Parsley’s wife, Brenda, has become a growing force by preaching in his stead. The town admires both Jennifer and Brenda, much to the witches’ chagrin. They exhibit some signs of remorse. Alexandra and Sukie seek out the wax figure upon which they cast the spell in the bog where Alexandra tossed it. Ultimately, the witches lose Van Horne despite their efforts. After delivering a eulogy for his wife, he escapes his creditors and Eastwick with Jennifer’s brother Christopher, who turns out to be his lover.

The witches attempt to deal with their role in Jennifer’s death. Sukie wonders if they were not fulfilling Van Horne’s will by killing his wife, clearing the way for him to run off with her brother. Sukie claims that Jennifer was not so sorry to die because she knew about the relationship between her husband and brother.

It is fall again, the seasons have come full circle, and the witches must get on with their lives. Alexandra builds her ideal husband and enrolls part-time in the Rhode Island School of Design, where she meets him, a ceramicist from Taos. The two eventually marry, and Jim takes Alexandra and her children out West. Jane, still teaching piano, likewise creates a husband from the remains of her precious, smashed cello; he is a small man in a tuxedo who is quite well-to-do. Sukie, who has become editor of the town newspaper, also conjures up a husband, a sandy-haired man from Connecticut. At the end of the novel, the witches are all gone.

Bibliography

Atwood, Margaret. “Wondering What It’s Like to Be a Woman: The Witches of Eastwick, by John Updike.” In Moving Targets: Writing with Intent, 1982-2004. Toronto, Ont.: Anansi, 2005. This lengthy and positive review of the novel is often cited and includes detailed analysis as well as summary. It is especially useful in its discussion of Updike, of his portrayal of women, and of the relationship between women and power in the novel.

Bloom, Harold. Introduction to John Updike, edited by Bloom. New York: Chelsea House, 1987. Refers to Updike as “a minor novelist with a major style”; discusses The Witches of Eastwick, arguing that it is Updike’s most successful novel.

Loudermilk, Kim A. Fictional Feminism: How American Bestsellers Affect the Movement for Women’s Equality. New York: Routledge, 2004. This study of representations of feminism in mainstream fiction includes a chapter on The Witches of Eastwick.

Plath, James. “Giving the Devil His Due: Leeching and Edification of Spirit in The Scarlet Letter and The Witches of Eastwick.” In John Updike and Religion: The Sense of the Sacred and the Motions of Grace, edited by James Yerkes. Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans, 1999. Contends that a comparison of these two novels is productive though the novels might seem dissimilar initially. Topics include: comparison of Hester Prynne and the three witches in relation to adultery, sexual freedom, and guilt; Chillingworth and Van Horne; the “election sermons” of both novels; and women and nature.