Bloody Mary
I remember enacting an urban ritual with my friends back in middle school. Giggling and squealing, running in and out of the bathroom, not really believing but still terrified by the possibilities. It was less a story with a moral than it was just a sleepover prank. Needless to say I wasn’t surprised that when I asked a roommate to relate an urban legend to me over lunch one day that she chose that of “Bloody Mary."
The storyteller is a 20 year old woman studying psychology at the University. She transferred to school after one semester at another college. She is of French descent and her parents speak French at home. She has conservative to moderate political beliefs and is Lutheran, although does not regularly attend religious services while she is at school. She is in a long distance relationship with her boyfriend of two years who is in the Navy and stationed at Virginia Beach. When prompted for a story she was initially hesitant but finally responded with, “‘Bloody Mary’, I guess.”
You’re supposed to like, go into the bathroom in front of the mirror and turn around saying “Bloody Mary” three times. Then she’s supposed to come.
I asked what happened after that and she replied with a mouthful of food, “She kills you.” This story was told; it seemed, with the assumption that I should know the story. As if it was more a matter of public knowledge than a personal story. This was an accurate assumption on her part as not only had I heard the story many times before, but I also found frequent references to it online. The narrative from my storyteller differed slightly from others I read online, be it the number of times “Bloody Mary” was chanted or supplementary actions that were or were not included, each story had slightly different elements.
"Bloody Mary” is often confused with Mary I, the queen of England from 1553-1558 who restored Roman Catholicism to England, which resulted in many Protestants being burnt at the stake as heretics. While she was referred to as “Bloody Mary”, in very few variations is it the queen who appears in the bathroom mirror (Mikkelson & Mikkelson). Some stories identify Mary as a woman specific to the storyteller’s own community, such as a girl killed in a local car crash or other such tragic accident. In other cases Mary is just a woman of myth; an executed witch, a woman murdered on her wedding night, a mother who killed her children, some tragic or horrific figure that appears in a mirror upon being summoned (“Bloody Mary [person]”).
She knows of the story after hearing it from fellow students at the University of Washington, where she went for her undergraduate studies. The story was told during a regular hangout, by a girl from a town near Port Townsend. The person I heard the story from doesn't really pay the myth and "ghost story" idea any attention because of its common presence in that area. Washington state is a region known as the "Haunted North West." Capitol Hill has so many "ghosts" that companies offer ghost tours year round.
She was dubbed ‘Typhoid Mary’, a name she loathed, by various newspapers. “Typhoid Mary” is even defined in the dictionary as “a carrier or transmitter of anything undesirable, harmful, or catastrophic.” To make things worse, Mary was even told that she would never be allowed to cook again. She was not even allowed to prepare a glass of water for a guest that stopped by her house, for fear that she might spread Typhoid to another innocent bystander. The world took her passion away because they were afraid of her.
to a group of girls, that claim to see spirits of witches tormenting them. People around the area
The story of “Bloody Mary” was told to me by a twenty year old male. He is a current student at a University, studying accountancy. He has very conservative beliefs regarding politics. His father is an insurance broker and his mother stays at home. This story was collected on March 18, 2006, at his residence. This is the story as he told it to me:
Mystery is a literary genre that hooks the reader in with thrill and suspense. Mary Reilly is a 1990 parallel novel by American writer Valerie Martin inspired by Robert Louis Stevenson 's classic novel The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Faithfully weaving in details from Robert Louis Stevenson 's classic, Martin introduces an original and captivating character: Mary Reilly, a survivor who is scarred but still strong, familiar with evil but brimming with devotion and love. The novel Mary Reilly both compliments and complements Stevenson’s novel.
Mary Parson’s was one of the first cases of the witchcraft trial epidemic. It was an epidemic because it spread like wildfire. No one was truly immune, because there was no foundation for it. A grudge, an animal dying, or any other unfortunate event could have been attributed to witchcraft. Mary was lucky because her family’s wealth and influence benefitted her throughout both of her trials. Many women were not that lucky, and lost their lives with complete lack of sense and explanation.
One night Ann saw the shape of a coffin from the egg trick, that's where it all started. Soon after that happened Ann Putman, Abigail Williams, and Betty Parris started acting weirdly. They started babbling, convulsing, or simply staring blankly. Once they were identified as victims of witchcraft they were asked to point out their tormentors. Ann pointed to Sarah Good and Sarah Osbourne. She also testified against Tibuta and said that the woman had tortured her grievously by pricking and pinching her dreadfully."(Yanak, T.,and Pam Cornelison, ...
Young Mary headed into the Residential School full of faith and ambition to devote herself to God’s true beliefs. She taught the Native children religion and music in class, which they all seemed to greatly enjoy. Although, it did not make up for all
Mary was the daughter of King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, (Master) “Mary I Queen of England” states that Mary was “the only child born to Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon to survive childhood.” Mary grew up as the center of attention for many many years and had a very good childhood as the young princess. although her childhood was good, her parents did get a divorce declaring her as a bastard child, taking away her royal title as princess. That didn't stop her though, she did restore her title and became the first queen of inheritance ever. (Master) Protestant propaganda has slandered the name of Mary, giving her the terrifying and misleading nickname “Bloody Mary”.
“The only Mary story we talked about was the wedding story-the time she persuaded her son, practically against his will, to manufacture wine in the kitchen out of plain water.”
My teammate originally heard this story from her classmates during her junior year in high school. My teammate had no problems remembering the story; she was more worried that I would think she thought it was true. There were pauses in her story telling as I wrote down what she said. She related the story with little emotion or suspense. The laughter in the background also affected the impact of the legend because it is difficult to be scared when there is laughter all around. My teammate also did not make a significant effort to enhance the effect of the story through hand motions or vocal tone inflections.
Hester, Marianne. “Patriarchal Reconstruction and Witch Hunting.” Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe: Studies in Culture and Belief (1996): 288-306.
One of these urban legends deals with what happened to “two girls at some college.” A college student from University of Maryland, Baltimore County recites his tale about the murder of a young girl at an unnamed college. The storyteller is twenty, and currently lives in Rockville, Maryland. A Chinese-American student, he is majoring in the mechanical engineering field and “considers [himself] to be a normal guy.” Both his parents work in the restaurant industry. He told me the following story in a face-to-face interview:
In conclusion, Mary is clearly shown to have a very manipulative and sinister character because she was a cold blooded murderer who had no feelings for her husband when she killed him, and she made people believe her grieving stories to make them feel sorry for her. But, all she wanted at the end was to cover up all of the evidence so she does not get caught and go to jail.
Mary Magdalene was a woman who was a mystery to many people for centuries. She was mentioned only a handful of times in the New Testament. Even though she was only mentioned a few times she carried a lot of character. To this day there is not an extended amount of information to help support people’s thoughts and ideas about this woman.