Pagan Elements in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf

(4.1.25). After the witches adds the ingredients they chant the song “Black Spirits” together. At this time Macbeth enters and calls out, “how now, you secret, black, and midnight hags” (4.1.48). Macbeth calls the witches hags because they are black and evil. The witches even show Macbeth his future when they chant, “Show his eyes and grieve his heart./Come like shadows; so depart” (4.1.110-111).

(88-89) In his book, On the Design of Shakespearean Tragedy, H. S. Wilson explains the stand taken by Macbeth in his relationship with fate: He pits himself no merely against the threat of hell but also against the enmity of "Fate" (as represented in the prophecies of the Weird Sisters): come, Fate, into the list, And champion me to th' utterance. He brags to his wife: But let the frame of tings disjoint, both the worlds suffer, Ere we will eat our meal in fear [. . .]. (70-71) In Everybody's Shakespeare: Reflections Chiefly on the Tragedies, Maynard Mack explains that the witches are associated with fate: Except in one phrase (I.3.6) and in the stage directions, the play always refers to the witches as weyard - or weyward - sisters.

Romantic poetry looked to celebrate both the supernatural and elevate the commonplace.” (Henriksen) Poe’s imagination prevails in this lyric poem. The speaker of the poem experiences an internal conflict while mourning the death of a loved one. The relationship of the speaker to his surroundings is introduced into the main narrative in the opening of the poem, and is specific to when this occurrence is taking place, “At midnight, in the month of June”. June is the month in which the summer solstice takes place, in the Pagan culture of this time “Midsummer was thought to be a time of magic, when evil spirits were said to appear. The pagans often wore protective garlands of herbs and flowers.” (chiff.com) Today this concoction is used by modern herbalists as a mood stabilizer.

In this case, she does so by enchanting them: she transforms her stepdaughter into an ugly woman and casts a spell on her stepson which forces him to challenge men who cross his way to a duel or to solve his riddle (cf. Child 289): “'[a]nd bring me word what thing it is / That a woman [will] most desire; / This shalbe thy ransome, Arthur,' he sayes, / 'For Ile haue noe other hier. '” (“Sir Gawain” ll. 13-16). The appearance of an evil stepmother possibly represents the threat of being at the mercy of the father's new wife who the children must be subordinate to.

The witches meet again in scene three of act one. One of the witches discusses a curse she has placed on a woman's husband, because she refused to share her food. This display of evil powers and spitefulness, suggests that the witches may have some influence in the development of the motif. Macbeth enters during this scene along with Banquo, arriving from a victorious battle. He uses the motif to describe the day as "So foul and fair a day I have not seen" (1.3.38).

In addition, Thomas Putnam’s desire for more land causes him to make his daughter accuse an innocent man of witchcraft since “[t]he day [she] cried out on Jacobs, [Putnam] said she’d given him a fair gift of land”(89). His greed for land surpasses his care for the other residents of the town. Both Ann and Thomas Putnam are willing to destroy other families for their own benefit, and they succeed because the townspeople’s fear of witchcraft clouds their common sense that the accusers may have ulterior

In Miller's play, an ambitious teenager, blinded by the married man she loves, fans Salem into a blood-lust frenzy in revenge. Abigail Williams, like Joseph McCarthy accuses many not of communism, but of witchcraft. Communism, as well as witchcraft, are two philosophies that are feared in communities and often results in imprisonment and aggressive investigations. Blacklisting during communism is comparative to hangings in witchcraft, and there is a standard in both scenarios that must be met for one to be considered citizen. Abigail, eleven years old at the time, is portrayed as seventeen in The Crucible, one of many events altered in the play to exaggerate specific scenarios.

When Christianity was established, the works of the devil became associated with witches. Therefore it was important to Shakespeare to introduce the witches at an early stage in the play, as they immediately contrast Macbeth's character as being a good upstanding individual to the audience. The witches are the physical manifestation of evil itself, and they bring temptation, malice and disaster with their visit upon hapless morta... ... middle of paper ... ... strength to kill the king. Lady Macbeth completely ignores the first influence of loyalty to Duncan, her influence is completely self motivated and originated in her own mind. She takes advantage of Macbeths's original motivation, his ambition, and uses that to decide what he must do.

Through this essay I want to show you Lucy and Edmund’s similarities and differences as well as Aslan and the White Witch’s so that you will see the spiritual allegory portrayed through these characters. Edmund’s differences from his sister become crystal clear as their story unfolds. The young boy seeks his own interest, crushing others in an effort to fulfill his desires. In pages 38 and 39, seated on the sleigh of the White Witch he betrays his whole family for a few pounds of Turkish Delight. Edmund can also be very cruel.

The Church and men alike should be forever sorry for their part in the witch hunting craze. Bibliography Australi, Stella. ?Witchcraft Craze?, -http://www.geocities.com/Athens/2962/witchcraze/intellectual.html 2, Ellerbe, Helen. ?The Witch Hunts: The End of Magic and Miracles?, -http://www.warcove.com/cove/morningstar/chapter8.html 3, Hoyt, Olga. Witches.