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The Role Of Witches In Renaissance Literature

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There are three significant pieces of literature that came out during the Renaissance period that highlight what it was like to be a citizen during all these witch trials and witch hunts. Both of the documents describe what a witch is and present to audience of aristocratic and peasantry, things to note when hunting for witches. The first piece of literature as mentioned previously is a book called, The Malleus Maleficarum. This is the ultimate guide to what witches were like during the Renaissance. Hammer of Witches as translated in English details the witch trials of Germany. It is a treatise on the prosecution of witches, written in 1486 by Heinrich Kramer, a German Catholic clergyman and James Sprenger. The document itself also attacked those individuals who did not believe in the existence of witchcraft. It was also the main hand book filled with instructional magistrates on how to identify, interrogate and convict witches. …show more content…

They stated, “Let us consider another property of hers, the voice. For as she is a liar by nature, so in her speech she stings while she delights us. Wherefore her voice is like the song of the Sirens, who with their sweet melody entice the passers-by and kill them.” This quotation is important because one never considered the voice as something associated with witches. From this passage, one assume that a witches voice was a powerful tool that enticed many people, especially men. Furthermore, the quotation also goes on to explain that though their voices, women also lied to kill passer - by, making their voice in Kramer and Sprenger’s opinion a very significant trait of female

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As Whitney mentioned, the witch hunts occurred in the 17th century were due to the fears of women becoming “economically and psychological” independent, and threatening the male control of property and social order. Those women were viewed as “discontent” meaning the refusal of accepting their predetermined social status (Whitney 85). In contrast, men who had high authority and social status like the Putmans and Parris could purposely manipulate women and instigated the public resentment to falsely accuse, and cruelly eliminate their enemies such as Rebecca and other accused witches. Certainly, the girls and women in the Putman and Parris’s families who made the false accusations of witches and witchcraft were wielded by

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The book by Rosalyn Schanzers Witches! The absolutely true tale of disaster in salem gives information about the salem witch trials. The surroundings of the trials(such as weather)changed from winter all the way through spring 1692.They also were very paranoid of a lot of things. Such as witches and the devil. The main theories i will state are Reasons for the witch hunts.

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Like being gay, being a witch was considered a major crime. People thought that if you were a witch you were unholy and you needed to be saved by Christ. People still had the same sort of problem in the rebellion. The stonewall and the Human Rights Society for human rights was shut down by the police. In salem if you did not confess to being a witch you were shut down also by execution.

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In the reading “The Devil in the Shape of a Women, Witchcraft in Colonial New England,” by Carol F. Karlsen reveals the social constructions the people from New England had about witchcraft during the seventeenth century and the gender relationship amongst its people. Karlsen address the Salem Witch Trials and the large number of “witchcraft cases” that arose due to such beliefs. She focuses on the females who were accused of being witches in colonial New England and discusses the role and the position of women in the Puritan society. During the seventeenth century, sex was seen as an act of impureness, even among married couples sex was seen as an illicit behavior.

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The Salem Witch Trials were a series of trials against witches in Salem. As idiotic as that sounds that is as simple a definition as one can give it. Between February of Sixteen Ninety two and May of Sixteen Ninety three, twenty people were executed on the accusations of “Witchcraft.” The accused would be rushed through a trial and publicly executed before the public. After they were executed vigilantes would generally go after their families as well due to them being satanic for “housing witches”.

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After that many more people were accused because more and more people kept having fits. They all complained about biting and pinching feelings. Many people died some guilty and some innocent. It was starting to get out of hand because guilty people were accusing innocent people and since they would have no proof they would be sentenced to death. In the book, “Witches!

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In Document B, Demos presents that most of the accusers of witches were single females in their younger years of age. In the late 1600s, women were extremely dependent upon men for their financial stability, overall safety, and mental/emotional well being. In an interpretation of this document, it can be assumed that these younger female women were seeking family ties and protection in a harsher time period. On the same hand, Document C, a most likely extremely biased account, recounts the “bewitched actions” of Bridget Bishop, a witch, upon the afflicted. Samuel Parris, the examiner of Bishop, seems to shed a negative light on Bishop.

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The Witches were able to project themselves as innocent beings before attack an unsuspecting victim. Of course, the only sources Mather’s had to back up his arguments were his spiritual faith, the Bible, and court

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Nearly anyone from the New England has heard of the famous Salem Witch Trials. A year of persecution, leading to the accusation of nearly 200 citizens of all ages. No one was safe; men, women, children, even pets stood trial and 20 were hung for the supposed crime of witchcraft (Blumberg). 1692 was a year of witch hunting. Most today blame the trials on hysteria, or perhaps a bad case of paranoia.

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None other. Now we cannot hope the witch will accuse herself; granted? Therefore, we must rely upon her victims—and they do testify, the children certainly do testify. As for the witches, none will deny that we are most eager for all their confessions. Therefore, what is left for a lawyer to bring out?

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A group of young girls began to behave strangely, complaining of physical maladies, visions, and trembling, and babbling uncontrollably. They blamed their behavior on three village women who, the girls believed, practiced witchcraft upon them. (“Salem Witch Trials” Gale). Women who were accused of witch crafted were imprisoned, then hanged, drowned and stoned (Karlsen). Throughout 1692, 156 women were accused of witchcraft, and 20 of them were sentenced to death (Karlsen).

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The book malleus maleficarum was a notable warning concerning situations when intolerance took over a societal setting. The Malleus was used as a judicial case book used to detect, persecute people that are suspected to be possessed with witchcrafts, it specifies rules of evidence and the laws that are connected with or allowed by the Christian Church by which suspected witches were being tortured and put to death. According to the words of Innocent VIII, the bishop emphasized that it is possible for anyone accused of being

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