Response To Audette's Short Story

As the two dripping refuges began to warm up, Meliza offered the central altar as a bed to her, as it was the traditional place for the welcoming of new-comers, she told. Not only finding it odd, Audette also found it cold and hard. Her guide had passed her a drink of something she poured from a jug at the chapel’s decorative shrine, the liquid was introduced to her as Witch-tea. Once again, odd, but it had a soothing effect.

This article is about witchcraft and its different varieties of practices in different cultures. This article explains how witchcraft exists and plays an essential part in structural and functional aspects of a society. It also sheds the light on the journey of witchcraft from being profane and wicked to acceptable part of a culture.

"At the word witch, we imagine the horrible old crones from Macbeth. But the cruel trials witches suffered teach us the opposite. Many perished precisely because they were young and beautiful."

Upon meeting some of the accused I felt very surprised that these reputable women would ever be suspected of witchcraft. Never had I seen such pure women be convicted as witches, never the less there were suspicions and I must investigate it to my full potential.

Most observers now agree that witches in the villages and towns of the late Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century New England tended to be poor. They were usually not the poorest women in the community, but the moderately poor. Karlsen tries to show that a woman who was vulnerable was most likely to be accused of being a witch. Even women who had gained wealth because of the death of a husband were prime candidates.

In addition to all of this, Karleson has established statistically, that women who were married but had no children, women who were married but had only daughters, and finally women who were daughters of parents who had no male offspring were more vulnerable to cause of witchcraft. (Page 101) What this shows is the clear linkage of economic interest and the importance of

Witchcraft was defined for the masses by the publication of the Malleus Maleficarium also known simply as the Handbook. Written by two Dominican friars in 1486 it’s purpose was to be used as a handbook to identify, capture, torture, and execute suspected witches. Opinions stated as facts and written in the Malleus Maleficarium, “handbook”, were based their faith, church doctrine, and the Bible. No doubt a religious masterpiece in it’s time this handbook is a neatly woven together a group of beliefs, experiences, wisdom of ancient writers, religious ideas, and God inspired writings that justify it’s purpose. Written by and used by Catholics this handbook proved useful for Protestants as well. Based on biblical interpretation and ideas the handbook provided Protestant Church leaders biblical authority to prosecute witchcraft as well. Translated into today’s vernacular phrases such as, “everybody knows that women are feeble minded” or “everybody knows that women are more superstitious than men” and “all women have slippery tongues” are included in the handbook and presented to the reader as foregone conclusions. Specific

In fact, the pair seem to thrive under it. After a couple tells their child that the ladies in the house eat little girls, Merricat tells Constance “”I wonder if I could eat a child if I had the chance.” Far from being shocked or disgusted at the idea of cannibalism, Constance simply replies “I doubt if I could cook one.” Despite the heightened isolation that the girls are experiencing, they feel more powerful than ever before. Merricat shows this by declaring, “poor strangers, they have so much to be afraid of,” which implies that she and her sister have nothing to fear. For Merricat and Constance, witchcraft was

It is by our Virtue of Blood that our bond with the Faerie and our Lord that this tome is worked properly, for this craft at the feet of Cowan; manifesting nothing, only imagination unrewarded. For a Witches Power is in the Blood, and her Words and Deeds manifest this between waking and dreaming. Thus a mystery is conveyed and so Knowing may Proceed. Those who Know not will be lead by the Lapwings that Ward this Grannary. Never to find the nest among the thorns. Heed and discern, then proceed.

John Demos’s nine point portrait of a witch is one way to analysis the case of Rebecca Nurse. To do so, one must first evaluate and understand the history of Rebecca Nurse and her role in the Salem in the late 1600’s. Rebecca Nurse was the wife of Francis Nurse, a farmer who became wealthy after buying and tending a large plot of land between Salem Village and Salem Town. Together they had eight children, and as a family they were prosperous. Connecting this information to Demos’s portrait of a witch, Rebecca Nurse falls under the first four points made in his sketch. These first two points are that she was “female” and that she was of “middle age”. However, the latter point is slightly inaccurate because Nurse was older than sixty years. The final two points that Rebecca Nurse falls under in Demos’s portrait of a witch are that she was of “English” and “Puritan” descent and culture, and that she was “married”, with little or no children. Again, the latter point is not fully accurate because Rebecca Nurse, while married, had, in fact, eight children in her lifetime. The significance of these traits of Rebecca Nurse agree, for the most part, with the

The witchcraft phenomenon of the Renaissance period was shaped by a wide range of cultural factors; witchcraft was not necessarily subject to a single cohesive idea or concept, and it was often instead a conglomeration of many different societal concerns, concerns which spanned through all spheres of society. Textual evidence from this period provides insight into the way in which witches were conceived, and how witches were dealt with, while visual images present a companion visualisation of the tensions, which influenced created the witch, and the imagery, which came to be associated with witchcraft.

One of the main factors in the persecution of witches comes from the men of the time’s misogynistic attitudes. During this time, women were beginning to take more prominent roles in society, like the notable humanist Christine de Pizan or “The First Lady of the Renaissance,”

Prior to the fifteenth century, rural European women were highly revered and respected pillars of rural community life; not only considered mothers and wives, but seen as community leaders, physicians, and sources of strength and wisdom. Women had a special and imperative role in rural life, and even those that lived on the fringes of society were well respected as the village healers and wise women. These old women would possess the wisdom of the ages and pass it on to others. This respect for women quickly deteriorated, however, during the witch hunts. The belief spread that women were morally weaker than men and driven by carnal lust, therefore making them more susceptible to being tempted by the Devil, and thus practicing witchcraft. (Levack p. 126) As people took this belief to heart, it is apparent that society would be affected indefinitely by such intolerance.

As she waited for her hapless victim, she thoroughly glances at the city without even blinking an eye. The red sun was collecting its rays as it set from miles away. Every corner of the city was becoming darker and darker each moment, night time was approaching. Alleys that were once bright and clear became the Stygian depths of an ocean. Once in awhile she follows the oval flying pods with her hazel eyes; then she catches a glimpse at the pink buoyant clouds. With her favorite weapon (boon of decay) by her side, she continued eyeing at the city from a rooftop for hours.

The signal to begin their evil incantations is brought to the witches by three meows of a “brinded cat” (IV.i.1). Again, the witches take turns, speaking in a threefold pattern, taking