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Psychological aspects of salem witch trials
Psychology of the salem witch trials
How was cotton mather perspective of the witch trials
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Cotton Mather’s letter is addressed to John Foster where he voices his worries about insufficient evidence to convict someone against witchcraft. His main point is that the devil himself is the source of the illness. The devil generally causes mayhem against those who are innocent. Due to the fact, that the devil is the source of the illness, those accused of witchcraft aren’t liable as they are being possessed by him. He believes that God is leaning more into the colony’s favor by having judges that understand that the devil is the source of the suffering.
Richard Godbeer presented an excellent picture on how puritan life was structured, how it functioned, and how they perceived the super natural in this novel. Reading "Escaping Salem," I was thrown several different scenarios displaying how witchcraft was addressed in early puritan society and how they reacted towards it. The supposedly bewitching of Katherine Branch showed the reader how the people of Stamford and the court system handled the act of witchcraft. After reading this novel, I can say that I do believe the accused in the Stamford witchcraft trial received a fair trial.
“Mary Walcott,Anns step cousin ,named an astonishing 69 witches”(page 56) how in the world would 69 witches/apparitions haunt you without killing you in a matter of hours. the main points of the essay are that if you lie about something very big you might have it turn out bad,such as the hangings or torturing and the people in trial who pricked thereselves for evidence that the witch was a witch. Another main point is that you need to think before you act because it might get someone or yourself in trouble or harmed. The significance of the trials were very low. There was not but a little
Giles Corey tries to present evidence to Judge Danforth to save his wife who was accused of witchcraft, but Danforth responds to him in anger. ¨
“Mary Warren, very faintly: No, sir. Hathorne, with a gleam of victory: And yet, when people accused of witchery confronted you in court, you would faint, saying their spirits came out of their bodies and choked you - Mary Warren: That were pretense, sir. Danforth: I cannot hear you. Mary Warren:
In Salem, Massachusetts, Puritans were strong believers in the Bible. The Bible states, “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” The Puritans beliefs led to them accusing 20 innocent people of being a witch, this resulted in their deaths in 1692. Even though the Puritans couldn’t see it at the time, their accusations were really based off jealousy, lies, and Salem being divided into two parts. One cause of the Salem witch trial hysteria was jealousy.
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.
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
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.
“Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you,” (Act I, 160). She was the first person in the play to accuse a person of seeing people summon spirits of the Devil. This caused a massive, wide-scale witch hunt to take place; families torn apart, mothers, fathers, and even children murdered for what was considered to be the greater good. Now, others began to accuse people of witchcraft and people who had been lifelong friends to each other now had no choice other than to point fingers at each other or be put to death. Widespread panic and unreasonable action was sweeping through everyone in Salem, all because of a little lie by
She was able to blame her outburst on the devil by confessing to witchcraft and accusing others of participating in witchcraft. This shows that those that were previously marginalized and powerless were now in a position of power and those that were once powerful and respected were now at the hands of those that were previously disregarded and powerless. Therefore, the social order of Salem was completely inverted during the brief period of the trials and the hysteria that accompanied
"The story of witchcraft is primarily the story of women . . . ." Karlsen argues for the relevance and importance of women’s roles in the panic of witchcraft fear in 17th Century American society. She subtly contests that specific interests were at work in the shaping of witchcraft accusations; book elaborates that a specific type of woman risked accusation based on her demographic representation in society. Karlsen further elaborates on her theme with,
Danforth explains his inability to free the accused people because, “twelve are already hanged for the same crime. It is not just,” (Miller 129). In saying this he admits that a person can only avoid a hanging by confessing to witchcraft even if their statement contains no truth. Combining this notion with the one he declared earlier displays the hypocritical nature of Danforth when put in this hysterical
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
The novel displays many decisions made by the people, in which, they are aware that one must be with the court or they are against it. Members of the community know they cannot sneak by interrogations without fully believing in the court or else they will be hanged for witchcraft. Putnam states, "there is a murdering witch among us, bound to keep herself in the dark" (Miller 16), but perhaps the real murderers are right in front of the people the whole time, calling themselves a
