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Witches and witchcraft in elizabethan times
Witches and witchcraft in elizabethan times
Witches and witchcraft in elizabethan times
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Revenge. Revenge caused them to be feared of people being witches. This is because some people might have had a conflict, and they maybe still do not like each other. Witches then were an excuse for people to blame their problems on. They think that the witches were causing these problems so in order to “get back” at them, they would blame everything on them.
Most of the people accused of witchcraft during the Salem Witchcraft Trials were women. While historian Carol F. Karlsen delves deeper into societal values that led so many women to be accused, in her book The Devil in the Shape of a Woman by focusing on social norms of the time, Elizabeth Reis, in her book Damned Women, focuses on the impact of gender in religion. They both discuss the importance of gender at the time, and the impact it made for the trials. There is not one clear reason why women were the main targets but each historian looks at a different aspect in 17th century American society where gender played a role. Both take a look at the way society functioned in the late 1600s and womens’ roles within the broader community.
Witch Trails Elizabethan Research Paper During the elizabethan era, there were people who suffered from mental illnesses; they had their own opinion on how to treat or diagnose it. People back then didn’t know much about diseases or what caused them. Doctors didn’t know much and there was hardly even medicine to treat anything.
Throughout the course of America’s history there are many events of injustice: the mistreatment of Native Americans, using African Americans as personal property, and accusing men and women in Salem, Massachusetts of witchcraft. The Salem witch trials occurred many years ago in 1692. In the Puritan community, religion was a huge part of life. It controlled most of people’s everyday activities and was a way to find hope in their difficult, unglamourous lives. According to History.com, “Puritans were portrayed by their enemies as hair splitters who slavishly followed their bibles as guides to daily life” (Delbanco).
The witch trials in Salem in the year 1692 was a scowling time in American history. The New York Post explains about The Crucible play that “... at a time when America was convulsed by a new epidemic of witchhunting, The Crucible brilliantly explores the threshold between individual guilt and mass hysteria, personal spite and collective evil.” In The Crucible, John Proctor and his wife are hit with many situations which burdens their relationship. While this is going on, many people were being accused as witches for little incidents which they thought would add up to witchcraft. During this time period, the grudges and personal rivalries between people makes these witch trials immoral and unethical.
“The Three Original Witches” and Their Impact on U.S. History Emily Wright Jason Thomason 6th Period DC U.S. History March 31, 2023 “The Three Original Witches” and Their Impact on U.S. History Many have heard of the Salem Witch Trials. However, few know of the original people accused, how it became infamous, and its full extent.
Women throughout history have contributed greatly to society, such as being a mother, taking care of the house or working in factories. Women have tried and succeeded in some ways to create gender equality. Some women living in Germany in the fifteenth century presented their power through witchcraft. Because of this men felt threatened, as these women did not conform to the feminine norms under a dominant male society. Men retaliated and restored what they believed to be their superior power through religious beliefs and misogynist methods.
Gender roles played a heavy role in colonial society, and the women who did not conform to these roles were easy targets for witchcraft accusations. Women who were post-menopausal, widowed, unmarried were not fulling their “duty” to society of bearing children and thus could come under fire (Lecture.) Those who were aggressive, out spoken, or did not do as another wished could also bring cries of “witch!” (Lecture.) This is highlighted in Cotton Mather’s Accounts of the Salem Witchcraft Trials, one of these accused women Susana Martin stands trial with many of the testifiers being men who had been wronged by Martin in some way or another.
Men and women also had different takes on sin. Women were more likely to read their sins as a pact with the devil no matter how severe the sin was whereas men paid close attention to the sin as an individual moment of weakness in which they would be able to return to their relationship with God. Believing that they could turn to the devil themselves, women were more likely to then accept that other women could be equally demonized.
Nonetheless, there are examples of contemporary literary works that reinforce the negative stereotype of the witch. Witches (1983) written by the British writer Roald Dahl is a story about a young orphaned boy and his Norwegian grandmother who find themselves in a hotel full of witches; it turns out that the evil creatures hate children and plan to destroy them. Unsurprisingly, the book has been targeted by feminists who claimed that it is misogynistic, sexist and shows “how boys learn to become men who hate women.” 2.3 Witches on the silver screen Perhaps the most prevalent image of a witch is that of an evil old woman stirring a mixture in a large kettle.
The people believed that the word of God was the only way of life and needed to be followed. They believed that the witches were trying to “breakdown God.” Any person who was accused of being a witch was first checked to see if they had the devils mark and if they did they would poke it with a needle and if they showed pain or drew blood then it wasn’t considered the devil’s mark. They were put on trial but no one ever wanted to stand up for the witches because if you did then you would then get interrogated and people then thought you were a witch also. Many people believe that things are good how they are but they don’t realize how much more needs to still be done.
There are many reasons that the people of Salem were convinced that there were witches among them. People have always believed in magic. Even today there are magicians and superstitious people. Some theories include mental illnesses, the church, and greed being at fault. The church is included simply because it was thought to not be holding the same control over the parishioners anymore.
The Salem witch trials were the prosecution of people accused of witchcraft in Massachusetts from June to September 1692 by the Court of Oyer and Terminer. Though the trials were held in Salem, the accused were brought in from the neighboring towns of Amesbury, Andover, Topsfield, Ipswich, and Gloucester as well. To this day the trials are considered the epitome of injustice, paranoia, scapegoating, mass hysteria, and mob justice. The results were almost 200 arrests, 19 executed “witches”, one man pressed to death, one man stoned to death, and two dogs killed because they were suspected to be familiars of their owners who were accused of being witches. (Familiars are evil spirits in the form of animals used by witches to cast spells and perform
We see it every time we turn on the news, the two major parties bashing each other constantly and put out false information to make people side with them over the other. The media is a person's daily source of new information and they believe what they see. "Whoever controls the media, controls the mind." - Jim Morrison. Media is a very powerful tool or weapon and can be manipulated to control a population.
In the book, The Witches: Salem 1692, the author Stacy Schiff attempts to condense a large volume of research into a cohesive narrative that tries to avoid to much speculation. There is some contention that the book does speculate into the motives of primary accusers that some reviewers have intimated are bordering on fiction. However, the author defends her arguments logically, and her inferences do seem to bridge the gaps effectively. One of the items that causes some confusion, to both the historically curious, and to the researcher is that the author has created a list of dramatis personae in which the historical figures are labeled as a cast of characters which might make the book seem fictional.
