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Women witches in the 17th century
Women witches in the 17th century
A history of witchcraft around the world
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Witches have been in history for a long time. They appear in the bible and in Greek Mythology. The witches were able to be bewitch their enemies and have animals that did their bidding. Although, the idea of the witches didn’t really start until the early renaissance. At this time a painter started painting witches and giving them their shape. His name is Albrecht Dürer. He portrayed witches in different ways. They could be old, you, ugly, or hideous. Later the witch could be shouting spells and holding a broomstick. This is what we have we think of witches today. Old, evil, and holding a broomstick. The question is were did Albrecht Dürer get these ideas. Albrecht Dürer may have gotten his idea from the personification Envy that a Italian
The superstition of witchcraft started with the teaching of the Bible. The Puritans believed that Satan was present and active. The Salem Witch Trials were driven by the superstition of general paranoia. The fear of witchcraft dove the Puritans to hysteria, causing the Puritans to hang their own citizens.
Across all barriers, women have always brought pain, suffering, and aguish to the men as demonstrated in both Homer's Odyssey and the Bible. With their beauty and grace, temptresses like the Sirens and Delilah lure men into their grasps, only to later steer them to their ruin. Other times, they use their cunning abilities and deception, as Circe and Jezebel did, in order to entice men into doing things that they normally would never accede to do. Moreover, most tragedies, disasters, and misfortunes are essentially caused by women as demonstrated by Helen, who caused the Trojan War, and Eve, who caused the exile of all mankind from the Garden of Eden and is the mother of all sin. The women of the Odyssey and the women of the Bible, through astute manipulation and seduction, inflict many tribulations, which in due course cause the pains and destruction of mankind.
Witchcraft had always fascinated many people and been a very controversial topic in North America during (seventeenth) 17th century. Many People believe that witchcraft implies the ability to injure or using supernatural power to harm others. People believed that a witch represents dark side of female present and were more likely to embrace witchcraft than men. There are still real witches among us in the Utah whom believe that witchcraft is the oldest religion dealing with the occult. However the popular conception of a witch has not changed at least since the seventeenth century; they still caused panic, fear and variety of other emotions in people…………………….
Homer's great epic, "The Odyssey" was written several thousands of years ago, a time in human history when men played the dominant role in society. The entire structure of civilization was organized and controlled by men; It was an accepted fact that women held an inferior position in society. Society was constructed as if women were around only to serve the men. The involvement of women in any circumstance was almost completely dominated by what the men allowed. The women were valued in society, only they were not given important roles or any decision making power. It is as if they held no power in the ancient Greek society. This is why Homer's Odyssey is very unique, Homer put women into roles that were previously unheard of for women to possess. Unlike in The Iliad, where women served merely as an object to men; female characters of Odyssey are distinctive because they possess personality, and have intricate relationships with the male characters of the Odyssey. By characterizing the women in "The Odyssey", a reader may come to some conclusions about the role of women in this epic. Along with the belief that women played a secondary role to men in society, the female characters displayed certain traits that could not be exhibited by the men. Athena demonstrated the most intelligence and valor out of all the characters in "The Odyssey." The male characters play the most significant roles in this epic, but without the support of the females in "The Odyssey", Odysseus would not have made it through his journey.
In the January of 1692 two girls, Elizabeth Parris and her cousin Abigail, were throwing, screaming, and contorting or moving themselves into strange positions. Reverend Parris, Elizabeth's mom, called a doctor to check up on the two little girls. The doctor was believed to be Dr. William Griggs, examined the two girls and said there was nothing wrong with them and that they were bewitched. Paranoia spread and everybody was scared of the devil, and his “witches” he used to get to everybody. Christians accused people, and ended up closing some churches because even a priest was accused of being a witch, sentenced, and hung.
First of all, throughout many cultures, physical characteristics associated with witches ring strangely the same. Anthropologist Philip Mayer says that witches typically bear a physical stigma, like a red eye for example (Mayer 56). In the Brother's Grimm fairytale "Hansel and Gretel," the witch shares this same beastly characteristic. Also, people usually cast off as witches are typically always old women. In Slovakia, Milan Mramuch accused his elderly neighbor of witchcraft and allegedly beat the old woman to death (Whitmore). In "Hansel and Gretel" the witch who lives in the tempting, candy house is an old crippled woman and in the Brother's Grimm fairytale "Snow White," the witch who was an elegant queen, performs her craft disguised as an old peasant woman.
When one thinks of witchcraft they typically think of a woman who is ugly, old and grotesque. Someone that perhaps brews potions with unearthly matter in a cauldron or someone that shoots out spells with a wand. The media shows us that these witches can talk to animals, most specifically cats and wolves. They also portray them as evildoers that consort with the Devil, steal children, and kill others. Although having such beings that could create such feats of magic would be astonishing, they are largely false rumors created by the Catholic Church to promote Christianity and punish those who held on those beliefs that did not align with the church. The history of witchcraft, the implausible and impossible feats that were associated with witches, and the modern day practices of witchcraft reflect a lie that caused tremendous tragedy, which destroyed thousands upon thousands of lives worldwide due to a silly hoax.
...is high position in society drove the pandemonium around the witch craze. The Protestant and Catholic religions were major influences on the everyday life of people in Europe during the 16th century, and all believed in persecuted witches. During the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment, people began to realize that their superstition surrounding witches was ridiculous and when they used their reason over belief it didn’t make sense for witches to be a threat.
...em Witchcraft Hysteria is that the women were trying to stand out and tried to prove social equality because of social and attention seeking. So basically, they wanted to be noticed. I feel the search for power is a common aspect of the human nature because everyone wants more than others and that is what brings dissatisfaction of what we have. Also, coming from my cultures point of view which is highly and greatly superstitious a culture, we know that every evil has consequences so therefore, I take it to be that the girls knew that witches would face several consequences. Moving further, the counter point in Laurie Winn Carlson's article has no substantial evidence to support her theory. Furthermore, they wanted to seek the power and respect they never had the opportunity of having and wanted to benefit from it. This argument supported by sociologist Dodd Bogart.
Women have given birth to new generations for centuries and have the common stereotype of being caring and gentle. But in the creation myth, women were given to man as a punishment. In the book of collected Greek tales, " Mythology Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes", by Edith Hamilton, women take up important roles that shape each story. Although women are usually characterized as being helpful and motherly, Greek mythology, on the other hand, portrays them to cause distress, fear, and anxiety to numerous men. Women’s actions are shown to be influenced with jealousy and vengeance which gives them an evil nature.
It is human nature to become superstitious and fearful upon witnessing something they cannot explain or when they make a seemingly flawless observation that links one thing to another. It is often for the human mind to attempt the path of least resistance and instead leap to a conclusion rather than to pursue a more complicated answer. Such uneducated thinking took lead and from it arouse the prospect of witchcraft. The simple idea that if your neighbor were acting peculiarly or children, particularly female children, were misbehaving in some way that they must be a witch allowed an easy scapegoat for the minds of continental Americans and became a widespread accusation. The acts of the “witches” often varied, though they were commonly blamed
The women in The Odyssey are a fair representation of women in ancient Greek culture. In his work, Homer brings forth women of different prestige. First there are the goddesses, then Penelope, and lastly the servant girls. Each of the three factions forms an important part of The Odyssey and helps us look into what women were like in ancient Greece.
In this paper I will look to discuss Greek myths and how they are significant to Death in Venice and how these myths are used as metaphors within the novella. Myths and legends act as a form of moral regulation within society (Morford et al. 2013). They pose an extreme situation followed by what is deemed the “wrong choice” that is followed by extreme consequences to the character’s choice. Within Mann’s Death in Venice there are several instances of Greek mythology being used as metaphors that foreshadow various aspects in the book, such as Aschenbach’s impending death. The novella also makes comparisons between prominent Greek Gods and Myths, the Greek ideal to characters and situations in the novella.
...ches and witchcraft have been passed down through generations to generations. From way back to the 1200’s to today in the present times, that is how long witches have been around. As of the history of witches and witchcraft, stories were used to keep the history alive inside the stories written in ancient mythology to Walt Disney’s movies. Check your family history. What and who were they. Were they witch hunters or were they a witch? There’s more to the story of Halloween or All Hallows Eve than meets the eye. What story or legend will come next?
If we are to explore the significance of these witches, we must do so by treating them as vital poetic symbols in the play, essential manifestations of the moral atmosphere of Macbeth's world. & nbsp; The most obvious interpretation of the witches is to see them as manifestations of evil in the world. They exist to tempt and torment people, to challenge their faith in themselves and their society.