They call us witches because we frighten them. After all, that’s the first thing you’re supposed to do when you’re afraid of something, isn’t it? Pin a name on it, make it different than yourself, and then it’s easy to pretend it’s less than human. So it is with us. It doesn’t matter that we look, breathe, live like they do. It doesn’t matter that we went to their churches or helped deliver their children. It doesn’t matter that we’re just trying to find some happiness in the same short lifetime that they are. No, we’re different, we’re witches, and so they make our lives hell. We always knew it would be hard. We knew there’d be harassment, but not on this level. Never on this level. We never sleep anymore. There’s always someone just outside the door, yelling, threatening, wailing. Once, we even woke to the sound of shattering glass and the reek of smoke. They were trying to burn our house down around us. But it’s not only during the night. Neither of us can go into town without someone pushing us to the dust. Even the children throw stones. The children. …show more content…
We’d gotten used to the screamed threats, and now the frost-tipped night seemed too quiet without them. Everything was silent, and then everything was madness. Our fragile door exploded inward. Phibe screamed. My arms reached for her. I wrapped my body around hers to be a shield, to protect her, and she clung to me in return. Time slowed. Men surrounded our bed and glared down at us. There was a collective breath. Then they reached for us. I tried to fight, but it only loosened my hold on Phibe, and she was ripped out of my arms like a doll from a child. My screams were probably heard all the way across the sea, in the old English town that I’d left for a better life. Phibe reached for me, her screams matching my own, but the man that held her snatched her arm back. There was a stomach-churning crack. Phibe screamed until her voice
Witchcraft, the use of magical faculties, most commonly for religious, divinatory or medicinal purposes, something that is supernatural. One would think something of the supernatural order would be null and void to the concepts of social norms and labeling. Well one would be wrong. From the start of this ordeal in Salem social order was one of the first things to be thrown down on the people of Salem. The first three women accused of practicing Witchcraft and being witches were Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba. These 3 women who lived in Salem during the Witch Craze of 1692 were seen as “rejects” and the “outcast” of the community. Sarah Good was no more than a homeless person, always begging for food and place to sleep. Sarah Osborne wasn’t a poor women like the lesser Sarah but she was a mean old lady who was confined to her bed most of the time due to her old age. Now Titbua, she wasn’t a fre...
. She claims that the proceeding force connected with lady as-witch in this combination creative ability handles the problem on the power that surpasses embellishment and design the particular discernment connected with witches and witchcraft throughout. Looking at these kind of queries could encourage selection that the mention of their imagination and prejudices attached to the particular "lady as-witch" idea that the current strain on females building in popularity can easily trigger anger these days. She slyly evaluates having less adequate traditional beliefs with regards to the part women performed inside creating our community, at a variety of instances.
Thus the very thought of a witch, someone who had infiltrated a virtuous community to carry out their own sinister agenda, struck fear into the hearts of every Puritan who actively subscribed to the religious teachings of the time. Again, in Salem, the antipodal perspectives between light and darkness, God and Lucifer, purity and corruption, are responsible for the extremity of the situation; the same desire to rid the community of a perpetrator, this time unbeknownst, in conjunction with the entire town’s apparent conformity constructed a recipe for the terror and hysteria that accompanied the trials. Miller expounds upon such an idea, relaying that “So now they and their church found it necessary to deny any other sect its freedom, lest their New Jerusalem be defiled and corrupted by wrong ways and deceitful ideas” (Miller 5). This comment directly reflects the xenophobia present in Salem at the time of the trials, as the community’s apparent desire to purge itself essentially echoes the onset of the foreign concepts of individuality and religious independence. Additionally, such foreign concepts are reflected by Paris’s conviction that “a wide opinion’s running in the parish that the Devil may be among us, and I would satisfy them that they are wrong” (Miller 27). Paris, sensing “the Devil”, acts as a perfect example of how the steady diversification of the
...ion. The Salem tragedy, which occurred in 1692, makes us feel sympathetic towards the innocent people that died. It almost brings tears to our eyes because these people gave in to death in order to maintain humanity on this Earth. Although the deaths of these people were very tragic, it clearly demonstrates that good deed will always over power evil. The people, who reinforced this statement, were people like John Proctor and Rebecca Nurse. These people uprooted the seeds for evil from the ground, to lay the seeds for goodness. Throughout history citizens have branded people as witches, and warlocks. Maybe, a person act's different than us, or they have strange habits, does this make them a witch? In the Massachusetts Bay Colony in January of 1692, you would be branded a witch for these odd doing's. Being accused of witchcraft had serious consequences (spark notes).
Liz, Kelly. “Moving in the Shadows: Violence in the Lives of Minority Women and Children”
One day, the daughters of the priest started to act strange. Actually, they weren’t acting a little strange, they were throwing fits everywhere. They screamed, fell, twisted their body to uncomfortable positions, and they hurt themselves. In 1692, the only reasonable explanation was that specters were hurting them. Specters can be initiated by witches, and that means that there are witches in this village. Before long, more girls from the age of 6-20 were being attacked by specters. People were worried. At last, they concluded that there are witches in their society, and they were strong-willed to find the witches.
He just turned and left without a word. I touched Lennie’s grave. The rough touch of the wood deflecting to my fingers. I walked back to the ranch. Everyone was asleep. I wanted to run away tomorrow but I couldn’t let this chance pass up. It also prevented any chance of Candy following me. I tiptoed out of the room and went straight to the woods. I made sure to mix myself in with the shadows of the trees. I saw the river and It felt like I did it...until I felt something grab me by my neck. I quickly got flipped over and pushed to the ground.
The term witchcraft is defines as the practice of magic intended to influence nature. It is believed that only people associated with the devil can perform such acts. The Salem Witch Trials was much more than just America’s history, it’s also part of the history of women. The story of witchcraft is first and foremost the story of women. Especially in its western life, Karlsen (1989) noted that “witchcraft challenges us with ideas about women, with fears about women, with the place of women in society and with women themselves”. Witchcraft also confronts us too with violence against women. Even through some men were executed as witches during the witch hunts, the numbers were far less then women. Witches were generally thought to be women and most of those who were accused and executed for being witches were women. Why were women there so many women accused of witchcraft compared to men? Were woman accused of witchcraft because men thought it was a way to control these women? It all happened in 1692, in an era where women were expected to behave a certain way, and women were punished if they threatened what was considered the right way of life. The emphasis of this paper is the explanation of Salem proceedings in view of the role and the position of women in Colonial America.
When someone thinks of a witch, usually he or she thinks about Halloween or the movie The Wizard of Oz. However, during the 16th and 17th century, witches were feared by many. The accusations of witches during this time is the highest reported, more than 500,000 people were tried and more than 100,000 were executed. Many people of the modern era know and believe that witches are not real. This was not the case in the beginning of the 16th century to the end of the 17th century. Individuals were prosecuted as witches because people wanted money and to clean up their community, they were women, and the communities needed a scapegoat for their misfortune.
...they don’t understand. Reactions of witch-hunts were based on misconceived panic and anxiety of anything outside of the common religious beliefs. Because of poor record keeping, the exact numbers of men and women persecuted on the account of being witches may never be accurate enough to decide if it was an issue of misogyny.
The witch hangs out at the gas station outside of town, dropping thick clouds of smoke from a red-eyed cigarette. She leans against the building, one army boot planted upon asphalt, one angled back upon brick, watching through mirrored aviators and over-bleached bangs as travellers swipe cards, pump gas, and peel out onto the highway. She ignores the town kids slamming down bikes on the sidewalk beside her, eager for evening slushies. They are not here for her, though their eyes snag on her as they tepidly round her corner perch.
Character: Concerned citizen of Salem just before the hanging of Rebecca Nurse and John Proctor
What do you think when someone calls someone a witch? What comes to mind? Do you think of the movie, ‘Hocus Pocus’ or do you think of the black pointed hats and the long black, slit ended dresses? What about witchcraft? Does the term “Devil worshiper” ever cross your mind? Do you think of potions and spells? For many, many generations, we have underestimated what the true meaning of a witch and what witchcraft really is. What is the history that hides behind it? Witches and witchcraft have been in our history since the ancient times. There is a little bit more than the ghost stories told on Halloween, the movies shown on TV and dressing up on Halloween.
Real and Fake Witches: How Witches Portrayed in Media and Real Life Movies, shows about witches and witchcraft were not a foreign subject for everyone, there are endless titles of stories that are based of the little ancient idea of witchcraft. What most people don’t know of is the fact that there is a portion of the population of this planet still believes in witches and and torture the so-called witch sometimes to death. The violence and cruelty of the torture is like something that came out of a very bloody horror movie scene, which is a pretty contrast between the movies about witches that mostly shows how the amazing lives of being a witch and less torturing witches. Although witches is very familiar to children to adult stories, there
The witch is both vulnerable and a powerful figure. The resulting tension between power and powerlessness as a response to laws created by those in power, rather institutionalised power: men, can be seen as expressed through such binary metaphors as that of physical strength and beauty versus weakness and ugliness, kn...