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Who is Goodwife Cruff in The Witch of Blackbird Pond?

Goodwife Cruff is a woman who lives in Wethersfield, Connecticut. Kit first meets Goodwife Cruff, along with her husband and daughter, on the ship from Saybrook to Wethersfield. Goodwife Cruff is a cold, impatient, and opinionated woman. She is serious, and Kit describes her as having a "hard thin mouth" (Chapter 11).


Kit describes Goodman Cruff as Goodwife Cruff's "cowed shadow of a husband," and Prudence as a "miserable little wraith of a child" (Chapter 2). Goodwife Cruff does not hide that she dislikes Kit. Kit later sees her gossiping in town with several other ladies.


Goodwife Cruff refuses to let Prudence go to the dame school like other children. Goodman Cruff wants Prudence to go, but his wife says Prudence is stupid. Later, Goodwife Cruff is one of Kit's accusers. She also points out that Nat is in the town even though he has been banished.

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