Rachel Wood
is a good and compassionate woman, but she appears to be diminished by the dour dominance of her
husband Matthew. Rachel is the sister of Kit's mother, and Kit has always heard that she was
very beautiful, and always laughing (Chapter 2). Kit is quite surprised, then, to discover that
Rachel is now "a thin, gray-haired woman" whom she had at first mistaken for a
servant. The hard life of a Puritan wife and mother in the American wilderness has taken its
toll, but Kit can still see that "once, a long time ago, (Rachel) must have been very
beautiful".
Aunt Rachel receives Kit kindly and graciously, even though
the family is somewhat taken aback when they discover that the young girl has come to stay.
Rachel's husband Matthew is a good man, but "fierce (and) silent", and when she thinks
that Kit is being intimidated by his sternness when he questions her about why she did not write
before coming, Rachel "protests...(albeit) timidly, "Matthew...what is there to
ponder? We are the only family she has" (Chapter 3).
Rachel is caring
but usually passive in the presence of her husband. She is more aware of what is going on than
she lets on, however, as she shows later in the book when she gives Kit a tart to take to Hannah
Tupper, the Quaker woman who is the reputed witch of Blackbird Pond.
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