Kendall Osborne stared, standing ramrod straight, from the sitting room window at the two old bats glowering at her house, the witch’s house. That is what they called it: the witch’s house. Even before the Unveiling the people of San Francisco had called her home that. The women watching the house talked with their heads together as if they were whispering, but not so subtle in theiry gesturing to the pale blue house on the hill. Both were dressed dull apron-style day dress with tight bonnet and the flag shaped Ladies of the Standard pin on the callor. “How can they have any facial expression with bonnet that tight,” Kendall grumbled, but she knew she was just being grumpy because they lady’s league wants the city to take …show more content…
“Where can I reach you when I have it?” “I’m not sure. I was living with my miss but… I could stop by tomorrow.” “I would be surprised if I do not have it by then. I’ll see you tomorrow. My maid will see you out.” “But your payment.” Kendall had hoped to have snuck out without talking about money. Ms. Dow had just lost her employment Kendall but did not want to insult her. “I brought this,” Ms. Dow held out a worn change purse. Kendall took it and counted out the coins. “It’s a month’s wages.” Kendall shove the purse back. “I’m not taking a month’s wages for a day’s work.” Ms. Dow frown, flummoxed by the response. “But you’re a witch?” “Ladies of the Standard lies, and a few bad apples started rumors that all witches are money grubbers.” “The Ladies of the standard would hang all magically creatures if they could,” Betty spat. Kendal wondered by care of magic the woman had. She had to have some to be that …show more content…
There was a few lights burning inside and no one on the sidewalk: no gawker or newspaper men, more importantly no officers. The newsboy she had passed coming here shouted about more Morelocks in the east side dead. Dead magically night worker couldn’t hold a candle to a suicide of a stage star which means the news hadn’t gotten out. Kendall studied the house from across the street. People moved around her without noticing her so the glamour hid her well. Maybe the police have removed Genie and were gone. Yes her glamour was good well but trained observers, even without magic, could see through the haze of obscurity. Got it over with, Kendall said to herself. She touched Jade in her hair, and then galvanize, she crossed the street and walked up the path to the back door. It was unlocked with the window panel broken out, with glass on the steps. Odd. But Kendall set that aside the thought to focus on the job at hand. She conjured up the image in her mind and sent the image through the house and waited for the echo. Then waited for the echo. Kendall went further into house, wondering if the dairy was there. If it was in the city, she should have felt an echo. She felt out for the dairy with every other step and listened for the police with the
Schanzer, Rosalyn. Witches!: The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2011. Print.
witch is, an elderly widow woman, Ambla Bodish. This allegation is made by several townsmen
Kent, Deborah. Witchcraft Trials: Fear, Betrayal, and Death in Salem. Library ed. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow, 2009. Print.
“A WITCH! A WITCH!” (20) common knowledge may let people to believe that Salem was the only place where witch hunts took place, but as Godbeer explains in his book, Stamford and other towns also experienced cases of witchcraft. The author not only demonstrates that the locations may vary, but also the methods of prosecution. The ministers of Stanford tried to bring the case to justice using the proper procedures. Instead of using force or other alternative methods to make the witches confess, Goodbeer destroys the stereotypical witch hunt.
The book's depictions and dissects remained on their own as significant commitments as far as anyone is concerned of witch legend and the vague status of ladies in colonial New England. Karlsen's work is one of imposing educated force and a real commitment to the investigation of New England witchcraft. It puts the focal part of ladies as witches under the magnifying lens an extensive 300 years after the events transpired. Karlsen's novel is obliged perusing for the hobbyist, casual reader, or general spectator looking to comprehend and translate the wide picture of pioneer witchcraft in New England.
The first accusers of those on trial for witchcraft were group of teenage girls. The first girl, Betty Parris, began to have painful contortions, fever, and what were most likely hallucinations. These symptoms may have been the result of ergot poisoning, the result of eating bread made with moldy rye, but at the time, no one knew that was possible. The family’s slave, Tituba, had come from Barbados and was knowledgeable in stories of voodoo and black magic. She shared these stories with Betty and her friends. After seeing the attention Betty was getting because of her behavior, her friends began to exhibit the same behavior. Because the local doctor knew of no medical explanation, he suggested the cause was supernatural. Tituba, with her knowledge of magic became the first person accused. She thought she could save her life by confessing and naming other women as her conspirators. Tituba’s accusations were unreliable because she was trying to do anything she could to save her life. Others were also accused by the girls. These women were generally unpopular or strange in some way, so it was easy for them to be targets of the girls accusations. For these girls, who were at the center of the town’s attention and perhaps had no real understanding of the seriousness of their accusati...
The witch hunts in early modern Europe were extensive and far reaching. Christina Larner, a sociology professor at the University of Glasgow and an influential witchcraft historian provides valuable insight into the witch trials in early modern Europe in her article 'Was Witch-Hunting Woman-Hunting?'. Larner writes that witchcraft was not sex-specific, although it was sex-related (Larner, 2002). It cannot be denied that gender plays a tremendous role in the witch hunts in early modern Europe, with females accounting for an estimated 80 percent of those accused (Larner, 2002). However, it would be negligent to pay no heed to the remaining 20 percent, representing alleged male witches (Larner, 2002). The legal definition of a witch in this time, encompassed both females and males (Levack, 1987). This essay will explore the various fundamental reasons for this gender discrepancy and highlight particular cases of witchcraft allegations against both women and men. These reasons arise from several fundamental pieces of literature that depict the stereotypical witch as female. These works are misogynistic and display women as morally inferior to men and highly vulnerable to temptations from demons (Levack, 1987). This idea is blatantly outlined in the text of the 'Malleus Maleficarum' written by James Sprenger and Henry Kramer in the late fifteenth century. This book is used as the basis for many of the witch trials in early modern Europe (Levack, 1987). The text describes women as sexually submissive creatures and while remarking that all witchcraft is derived from intense sexual lust, a women is thus a prime candidate for witchcraft (Sprenger & Kramer, 1487). In this time period, men are seen as powerful and in control and thus rarely...
Melinda tipped her head. “I must be up front. Lucy-Lou is double the cost of Suzy.”
Witches were no longer simply people who used magical power to get what they wanted, but people used by the devil to do what he wanted. Witchcraft was thus not a question of what one did, but of what on was, and proving that a witch had committed maleficia was no longer necessary for conviction. (Wiesner 265)
Karlsen, Carol F. The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1987. Print.
Toivo, Raisa M. ‘Women at Stake. Interpretations of Women’s Role in Witchcraft and Witch-Hunts since the early 20th century to the present’ Australia: University of New South Wales, 2005.
Aronson, Marc. Witch-hunt: Mysteries of the Salem Witch Trials. New York: Atheneum for Young Readers, 2003. Print.
The books thesis is based on why a person was accused of being a witch and the relative circumstances thereof. Marital status, sex, community standing, wealth, and relationships with others all play an important part of a person chances of being accused of being a witch. Karlsen’s words make for a richly detailed portrait of the women who were prosecuted as witches. The witch hunting hysteria seized New England in the late seventeenth century. Why were those and other women likely witches? Why were certain people vulnerable to accusations of witchcraft and possession? These are the questions answered in this book.
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...
"The person said something bad occurred at Sally's, and I should hurry. I hope one of those—those malfunctions she’s always helping didn’t hurt her. You know how she is. Everyone’s tried to warn her, but she won't listen."