The Encumbrance of Females Through Accusations of Witchcraft

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The Encumbrance of Females Through Accusations of Witchcraft

Her feet dangle wildly beneath her, hoping to brush upon any stable object. Inches away, the platform beneath taunts her. All the blood is gushing to her head, at any moment she thinks it will explode. Her eyes are straining, searching for a friendly face in the crowd that has gathered around her, but there is not one. She sees the judge that convicted her, she sees the Inquisitor that accused her, and she sees her husband that once loved her. The last sight she sees is her husband bowing his head in shame and finally she gives in to the noose strangling her to death. She has no name; she represents one of the more than 100,000 women that were executed for their involvement in witchcraft (Clark).

Women were far more likely to be accused of being a witch than men were. Out of the 200,000 trials, 80% of the accused were female, and of the 100,000 executed, 85% were also female (Clark). This was do to the reason that society feared and resented independent women, therefore, this was an attempt at keeping the female gender at a status below that of males.

First of all, it is important to define what exactly a witch was:

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)

Because these witches were servants of the devil, they were thought to be the enemies of God and Christianity; they were the "ultimate heretics" (265). The "witch craze" era lasted for about 200 years, from 1560-1760 all over Euro...

... middle of paper ...

...man was accused of practicing witchcraft (Clark). This was an easy, and legal "disposal" of a potential problem to the traditions that had been established in society.

Gender equity has come a long way since the witch craze about 450 years ago, and it is good to know that just because a woman has an opinion, and stands up for herself does not mean that she will have the same fate as many of those women who were accused of witchcraft had.

Bibliography:

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Clark, Patricia. Class lecture. History 202. University of

Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 26 September 2000.

Kramer, Heinrich and Jacob Sprenger. Malleus Maleficarum. Trans.

Montague Summers. 1928. New York: Dover,1971. 41-44,140-4.

Weisner, Merry E. Women and Gender in Early Modern Europe. 2nd

ed. Cambridge UP,2000.

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