Elizabeth Sawyer is old, poor, malformed, and ugly. She faces the scorn of many and the persecution of most. At her wit’s end, she engages in a deal with the devil who appears in the form of a black dog. The consequences of this pact with Lucifer is most tellingly a pestilence playing out upon the cattle of Old Banks and the rotting of his grain.
In response to this, the people attempt to burn down the absolute hovel she calls home, but the witch’s tongue proves too powerful for the weak-willed villagers. Until, that is, Elizabeth oversteps even the boundaries of the devil’s plaything. The spell she casts upon Ann Ratcliffe to drive her over the edge of insanity results in the poor woman smashing her own head in. This prove to be the final nail that the old woman nails into her own coffin and she executed after being tried and convicted of being a witch.
All of which pales in comparison—in terms of actual presentation on stage—to the “subplot” of Frank Thorney and his two wives. The story of Elizabeth Sawyer’s witchery plays as background material to the far more important narrative thread—again, in term of actual time spent telling it on stage—of Frank’s being lured into marrying Winnifride. Winnifride is actually the mistress (and, it should be noted, servant) of wealthy Sir Arthur Clarington. The problems for Frank being to accrue on account of his weak character: he is too terrified of his own father to admit that he went against the older Thornley’s desires and married Winnifride.
Under widespread the assumption that he is still a bachelor, Frank also enters into a state of matrimony with Susan Carter primarily for the purpose of avoiding being disinherited by his father. Frank’s main character flaw is weakness of character, but essentially he is a good person. He is actually stricken by a bad conscience at having married Susan and tries to make a good faith escape with Winnifride. Susan will not be so easily cast off, however, and in a singular moment of strength of will, he kills Susan. Back to his vacillating old self, he first tries to dump the blame upon others. Ultimately, he is executed on the same docket as the old witch, Elizabeth Sawyer when a superstitious symbol of guilt signs his death warrant: the bleeding of Susan’s corpse in the presence of her husband.
