51 pages • 1 hour read
Harper L. WoodsThe Coven
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Tension Between Duty and Desire
Willow’s father has indoctrinated her with the conviction that when she is old enough to attend Hollow’s Grove University, she must fulfill her “destiny” of exacting revenge on his and Loralei’s behalf. Rather than develop a loving and warm relationship with his daughter, Samuel Hecate has been “molding [her] into the perfect instrument for revenge through whatever means necessary” (11). Although Willow is not particularly enthused about her role in his plan, she recognizes that his plan will avenge the death of his sister, Loralei, who protected him from the Coven by hiding him away so that he might preserve his magic. Willow initially complies with her “duty” in part because she understands Loralei’s choice; Willow cares just as deeply about her own half-brother, Ash, and she has always helped their mother to protect him. She knows that Ash isn’t safe and is aware that her father’s revenge plot will help her to keep the Coven’s focus on her rather than on Ash. However, once she meets Gray, her ambivalent commitment to Samuel’s plan pales in comparison to her own growing desire for the headmaster.
Willow has always known that seducing the headmaster is part of Samuel’s plan, but her unexpected attraction to him considerably reduces her commitment to her “duty.” When reflecting upon the possibility of Gray’s demise, she admits, “[T]he thought of it made my heart hurt in a way I refused to acknowledge. He was my enemy, and when I found the bones, I would send his soul back to Hell where it belonged” (215). She has to remind herself that Gray is her “enemy” because, in many ways, she doesn’t feel like he is. Gray is her father’s enemy, not hers. Willow is therefore conflicted about the plan to return Gray’s soul to Hell and wishes that he simply didn’t exist so that she might be spared the choice; however, even this idea causes her pain.
Later, when Gray reveals that that he has been in possession of Loralei’s bones throughout Willow’s time at Hollow’s Grove, Willow realizes that she doesn’t want the bones at all. As she explains, “I’d wanted the bones, thought they were the key to completing my destiny. Now I couldn’t wait to get away from them” (259). She admits that although she initially planned to use the bones to “Unmake” Gray and the other Vessels, she no longer wants to do this. Yet when she is forced to acquire the bones, the first thing she does is to unmake Kairos, after which she tries to unmake Gray. Thus, the conflict that Willow feels between her filial duty and her desire to continue a relationship with Gray remains central to her characterization and to the dynamics that drive the plot of the novel.
The Balance of Opposites
Of all the characters in the novel, Willow most aptly demonstrates the dynamics of this particular theme, for as a Green and a Black witch, she has full access to the various forms of magic associated with life and with death. She can channel the power of nature and its teeming life as easily as she can invoke the power of her ancestors’ bones. Compared to other Green witches, even those of her own house, Willow’s powers are more potent due to her dual Madizza and Hecate bloodlines. The power that she exhibits as a witch associated with both life and death is stronger than any that Gray has ever seen. Even the Coven’s policies reflect their understanding of the balance of opposites, for they have worked hard to ensure that no witch could descend from two families. Willow’s combination of these magics makes her more powerful because they exist in balance with one another. As Kairos says, “She’s life, but she’s also death” (239). Since one concept cannot exist without the other, the combination is especially heady.
For his part, Gray also reflects a crucial balance of opposites, and his portrait depicting the fallen Lucifer therefore becomes an apt symbol of his own duality. He claims to keep the portrait as a reminder “[t]hat no matter how pretty the shell may be, we are all capable of great and terrible things” (122). Lucifer’s beautiful features are nonetheless full of rage, and the fallen angel’s capacity to deceive and manipulate goes unchecked by any other authority. Although Willow notes Gray’s own ethereal and near-angelic beauty, she nonetheless fails to realize just how deep his capacity is to do “great and terrible things.” Ultimately, both Willow and Gray’s hidden duality shows that every person contains opposing qualities that can war for control—or coexist peacefully, if a harmonious balance can be achieved.
The Cycle of Revenge
Willow’s experience with revenge shows that this motivation rarely leads to a satisfying resolution and more often initiates a cycle of resentment that leads to yet more revenge. Willow was raised by her father, Samuel, to become a “perfect instrument for revenge” (11) against the Vessels and the Coven alike. In theory, that revenge would settle the anger created by the death of his sister, Loralei, 50 years earlier, but instead, Samuel’s actions merely fuel new cycles of hatred and vengeance.
Above all else, Samuel’s single-minded focus on revenge damages Willow personally even as his actions create a broader situation in which others will resolve to take revenge on him. Willow is deeply traumatized by her father’s abusive punishments over the years and by the secrecy that she is forced to maintain so that her mother, Flora, never learns precisely what happens during Willow’s time with her father. Willow is embittered to have been raised to “do […] one thing” (19) rather than being allowed to develop her own desires; she also regrets the absence of a loving, affectionate relationship with a well-adjusted father, envying the healthier connection that Ash has with his. Because Samuel habitually shut the young Willow into a coffin as a form of punishment, she now holds an abject terror of similar scenarios, and this past trauma contributes to her palpable fear on the night of the Reaping. When Gray observes her terror, he vows to learn its source—while ironically disregarding the fact that his own actions bring her an even greater degree of trauma.
The cycle of revenge gains new heights when both Gray and Charlotte Hecate avenge Samuel’s treatment of Willow and Ash in the novel’s conclusion. When Samuel enters the Tribunal room with a knife to Ash’s throat—his attempt to make sure that Willow complies with his wishes—Gray tells Willow, “Do what you’re told, and I’ll let you kill him and raise him as many times as it takes for you to work out that anger” (272). He understands that Samuel’s obsession with revenge has created a situation in which Willow is justified for wanting her own form of revenge. Charlotte’s actions further emphasize the dynamics of revenge when she opens a pit under the floor and casts Samuel into it, telling him, “Only the worst kind of man would harm his own daughter” (276). By burying him alive, she forces him to experience the real version of what he made Willow feel, theoretically invoking the same form of visceral terror in Samuel that he once inflicted upon his daughter. Thus, the novel’s entire structure suggests that revenge does not satisfy justice or end conflict; instead, it only leads to more resentment and anger and fuels the further potential for revenge in the future.
