One of the most common threads connecting cases of accusations of Witchcraft and possession is the social roles of those accused, and how those social roles were predominately positions of femininity and weakness. The language of witchcraft remains synonymous with a type of rebellious femininity, just as femininity had become synonymous with weakness, susceptibility, rampant sensuality, and an allover ease in vilifying what was not correctly feminine, or rather, submissive. Christina Larner defines the dominating definition of a witch, and how that idea creates a dialogue about forms of femininity within a community in her article, “Was Witch-Hunting Woman-Hunting,” she states that “the stereotype witch is an independent adult women who does …show more content…
Her autonomy makes her a threat to the order that has been carefully constructed to benefit what is not hers. In order to irradiate this threat to patriarchy, women who do not conform are vilified and made into an example. They demonstrate a consequence to women who think they benefit from conformity within this system, the danger being women and witches alike becoming closer and closer to discovering autonomy as empowered individuals rather than cogs in a machine that they can never be consequential, or powerful, within. In this essay, I will explore the connection of witchcraft and possession to their commonly female participants. Their power is the mark of female exploration of individuality, and turmoil in spiritual identity, and their malice interpreted as the frustration of their hopeless subjugation reaching a breaking point. A witch, well intended in her own practices or not, wields powers that disrupt indoctrinated social order in ways that lies in an unconscious frustration toward this order, an order which resulted in their lack of a voice within society and limited, predetermined, cookie cutter identities for …show more content…
This reveals that the general assumption was that these women were witches because they were fundamentally morally corrupt. Only a woman could be responsible for the malicious intent in wielding the supernatural against the society she is bound to be subservient to. This assumption, however, doesn't account for the type of offenses women were being accused, prosecuted and killed for. Larner points out that “while older women were coming into the courts for witchcraft offenses (including unofficial healing) and for keeping disorderly houses, younger women were being prosecuted for infanticide and prostitution.” (Larner, 254). The criminalization and vilification of non-conforming women was rampant. The lines between maleficium and unacceptable sensuality, or a woman who is otherwise too individual and cannot be understood by her community, are able to be completely blurred. The message becomes clear, that “if you are looking for a witch, you are looking for a woman, and it could
Karlsen, Carol. "Witchcraft: Prejudice and Intolerance Targeted Gender During the Witch Hunts: Effects on Early Mode." setonhill.edu. n.p., 1998. Web. 18 February. .
Karlsen, Carol F. The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial America. New York: W.W.Norton & Co., 1987.
. She claims that the proceeding force connected with lady as-witch in this combination creative ability handles the problem on the power that surpasses embellishment and design the particular discernment connected with witches and witchcraft throughout. Looking at these kind of queries could encourage selection that the mention of their imagination and prejudices attached to the particular "lady as-witch" idea that the current strain on females building in popularity can easily trigger anger these days. She slyly evaluates having less adequate traditional beliefs with regards to the part women performed inside creating our community, at a variety of instances.
Did people really believe women were more sinful and evil than men, or were they afraid of women taking over? In the 1600’s, Witch Trials took place in Salem, Massachusetts. Many of the accused witches were in fact female. Witch accusations were mainly aimed at women due to the Puritan ideas that women were more vulnerable and evil than men, their sexuality was more obvious and sinful, and the fear of women gaining power and authority.
It cannot be ignored that the large majority of those accused of witchcraft were women, although regions fluctuated on average 80 percent of witches were women. This may be used to argue that witch-hunting
The term witchcraft is defines as the practice of magic intended to influence nature. It is believed that only people associated with the devil can perform such acts. The Salem Witch Trials was much more than just America’s history, it’s also part of the history of women. The story of witchcraft is first and foremost the story of women. Especially in its western life, Karlsen (1989) noted that “witchcraft challenges us with ideas about women, with fears about women, with the place of women in society and with women themselves”. Witchcraft also confronts us too with violence against women. Even through some men were executed as witches during the witch hunts, the numbers were far less then women. Witches were generally thought to be women and most of those who were accused and executed for being witches were women. Why were women there so many women accused of witchcraft compared to men? Were woman accused of witchcraft because men thought it was a way to control these women? It all happened in 1692, in an era where women were expected to behave a certain way, and women were punished if they threatened what was considered the right way of life. The emphasis of this paper is the explanation of Salem proceedings in view of the role and the position of women in Colonial America.
In today’s times, witches are the green complexed, big nosed ladies who ride around on broomsticks at Halloween. Back in the 1600’s, witches looked like average people, but they worked alongside the devil. Salem, Massachusetts, was a religious town of Puritans. They were strong believers in God, and had believed that witches were the devils workers. Everything was usual in Salem in 1692, until, 9-year-old Elizabeth Parris and 11-year-old Abigale Williams had sudden outbursts of screaming, contortions and convulsions, the doctor came and diagnosed witchcraft (Blumberg, Jess) And from this time on, the people of Salem believed there were witches all around them.
The epoch of Medieval European history concerning the vast and complicated witch hunts spanning from 1450 to 1750 is demonstrative of the socioeconomic, religious, and cultural changes that were occurring within a population that was unprepared for the reconstruction of society. Though numerous conclusions concerning the witch trials, why they occurred, and who was prosecuted have been found within agreement, there remain interpretations that expand on the central beliefs. Through examining multiple arguments, a greater understanding of this period can be observed as there remains a staggering amount of catalysts and consequences that emerged. In the pursuit of a greater understanding, three different interpretations will be presented. These interpretations, which involve Brian Levack’s “The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe,” Eric Boss’s “Syphilis, Misogyny, and Witchcraft in 16th-Century Europe,” and Nachman Ben-Yehuda’s “The European Witch Craze of the 14th to 17th centuries:
Were the witch-hunts in pre-modern Europe misogynistic? Anne Llewellyn Barstow seems to think so in her article, “On Studying Witchcraft as Women’s History: A Historiography of the European Witch Persecutions”. On the contrary, Robin Briggs disagrees that witch-hunts were not solely based on hatred for women as stated in his article, “Women as Victims? Witches, Judges and the Community”. The witch craze that once rapidly swept through Europe may have been because of misconstrued circumstances. The evaluation of European witch-hunts serves as an opportunity to delve deeper into the issue of misogyny.
There were many people that were women, older, widowed, and on the brink of poverty. But not all these women were put on trial for witchcraft. The problem with the stereotype is that it breaks down once the actual trial starts. If a person who doesn’t fit the stereotype confesses to witchcraft and more importantly for elites, to dealing with the devil than the person is going to be convicted as a witch. Unfortunately for Françette Camont she did fit many of the stereotypes for being a witch and therefore when it was time for her trial it made it that much easier to convict
“The Devil in the Shape of a Woman” was an excellent book that focuses on the unjusts that have been done to women in the name of witchcraft in Salem, and many other areas as well. It goes over statistical data surrounding gender, property inherence, and the perceptions of women in colonial New England. Unlike the other studies of colonial witchcraft, this book examines it as a whole, other then the usual Salem outbreaks in the late 17th century.
The Salem Witchcraft Hysteria was a product of women’s search for power. This claim is supported by Lyle Koehler, from A Search for Power: The “weaker sex” in seventeenth-century New England (University of Illinois, 1980), explained and argues why this is true. Koehler mentions that the women were in search for more power and respect and power equality. She mentioned that the men were afraid of witches because they felt they were superior to them which brought in the question of who really was the superior gender. But really, the women accused others as being witches so as to gain more power from men. Basically, this showed that the women were not afraid of controlling or taking the power from men. In the seventeenth century, the men had power; so therefore, women did anything and would do anything to gain more power than the men. In puritan society, the only women with any significant power were mothers. They had powers not only in their homes but also in the public as long as they accused people of being witches. They also implicated others to achieve this power. An example that Koehler gave would be sociologist Dodd Bogart’s conclusion that “demon or witch charges are attempt to restore “self-worth, social recognition, social acceptance, social status and other related social rewards” is pertinent to the Salem village situation.
One situation, however, perhaps has not changed in any major way in approximately 300 years until the 21st century and can leave one in quandary; the evolution of women. Women in the 1950’s were family oriented and devoted their lives to caring for their children and cooking for their husbands. Comparably, women in 1692, around the time period of The Crucible, were caring about their reputation and not wanting to mess it up out of fear of accusation of witchcraft. Today, nevertheless, women keep a fearless, strong, and courageous ambience around them and hold nothing back. The women of the 1950’s and The Crucible time
Overall, all these women who were tried and hunted for being witches, may not have been witches at all, they could have been struggling individuals who just participated unusual behaviours during that period of time.
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...