Student Question

What is O. Henry trying to convey in the ending of "Witches’ Loaves"?

"She took off the blue-dotted silk waist and put on the old brown serge she used to wear. Then she poured the quince seed and borax mixture out of the window into the ash can."

Quick answer:

O. Henry conveys Miss Martha Meacham's resignation to reality and abandonment of romantic fantasies in the ending of "Witches' Loaves." By changing from a fancy blouse to her old work clothes and discarding the quince seed and borax mixture, she symbolically returns to her previous, unromantic life. This action underscores her realization that her imagined romance and the assumptions about the man's need for stale bread were misguided.

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In my opinion, what the author is showing here is that Miss Martha Meacham is giving up her hopes for romance. This is shown by her taking off her fancy clothes (the blue dotted silk waist, which means a blouse or shirt) and putting back on her plain clothes for working.

To me, this is mainly a story about a woman who lets her desire for romance push her into believing that this man needed her help. She built up this picture in her head of what he was and why he needed the stale bread. In doing so, she created a fantasy world where he was going to become her man.

At the end of the story, she has found out how wrong she was and she is going back to her previous life. This return to her normal state is symbolized by the change of clothing.

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