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Cotton Mather Wonders Of The Invisible World Analysis

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Cotton Mather: Wonders of the Invisible World In this writing, Cotton Mather, a Puritan Theologian and a renowned reverend talks about his fears of the Christian religion being slowly obliterated from the country, which he believes is being taken over by the devil and his minions by the use of Witchcraft. In 1963 Cotton Mather was asked to create a literary piece, in defense of the persecutions, one year after the events of the Salem witch trials actually took place, where questionable events happened were depicted. This work was called the Invisible Wonders of the World. Throughout the writing, Mather is always depicting the devil as a real and tangible being (e.g. “invisible hands” and supernatural happenings).
Mather constantly reminds us of the importance of the Christian religion being under attack. He believes that the reason the devil is so upset and determined to destroy them is because of the settlers disturbed him when they claimed the land under the name of Jesus Christ.
“…New Englanders …show more content…

Another major impact was the rise of the importance of the changing status of women and their growing numbers. Women were starting to have more of a role in society because of the Puritanical beliefs. They were starting to realize that they were free to express themselves and to not conform to the traditional submissive housewife belief.
One of the many on trial and convicted, was Martha Carrier, whom Mather called a “rampant hag’, and the “Queen of Hell”. However, records from the Salem trials show that her original convicted crime was not witchcraft, but having an “independence of mind”, and being an “unsubmissive character”. She was “…indicted for the bewitching of certain persons” and blamed for a smallpox outbreak that she had ‘caused’ by

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