The Hysteria of Salem Witchcraft Essay

When Eve took that bite of the Forbidden Fruit, she had no idea what she had gotten women-kind into. Whether or not you believe in the story of creation, the perception of women as corrupting and sinful had shaped women's social roles in Western Society for thousands of years. Augustine was one of the first to write about the wickedness of women, and the acceptance of this doctrine is evident in the Letters of Abelard and Heloise through their disdain toward marriage. Along with mass death of the Black Plague, came an opportunity for women to change the ways in which society viewed them. The great number of deaths in Europe often resulted in the situation where no male heirs remained which led to the legal ability of women to inherit

The salem witch trials hysteria of 1692 was caused by the Puritans strict religious standards and intolerance of anything not accepted with their scripture. The largest account of witch trials as well as deaths by witch trials occurred in Salem, a village heavily populated with the Puritans. Because most of the trials were occurring in Salem, this meant that the accusations were happening among the Puritans themselves, which could very well be anything as long as the Puritans found it as contradicting their bible. Not only did the strict religion intolerance fuel the accusations and trials, but also the possible factor of ergot being involved which has been known to cause symptoms leading to hysteria.

Milton’s Paradise Lost has been praised as being the greatest English epic of all time, most stunningly in its author's depiction of the parents of humanity, Adam and Eve. How Milton chose to portray the original mother and father has been a focus of much criticism with contemporary readers. One of the main subjects of these comments is in reference to Eve, who, according to many, is a trivial character that is most definitely inferior to her mate. Nonetheless, many do not recognize that, after the fateful Fall, she becomes a much more evolved character. When Eve is introduced to the storyline of the epic, her character is shallow and extremely undeveloped, meant simply for display. She is quite firmly set as being inferior to her mate

== = The Salem Witchcraft trials started in 1692 resulting in 19 executions and 150 accusations of witchcraft. This was the biggest outbreak of witchcraft hysteria in colonial New England. The trials began because three young girls, Betty Parris, Abigail Williams and Ann Putnam began having hysterical fits, convulsions and terrifying visions after being caught engaging in forbidden fortune telling[1].

In 1692, a town in Massachusetts by the name of Salem Village found itself in one of the most well-known cases of mass hysteria. This saga started with three girls Elizabeth Parris, Abigail Williams, and Ann Putnam a neighborhood friend. Abigail Williams, the niece of the town’s minister, began to display weird and questionable behavior. The town’s physician William Greggs, was called to determine the cause of this sporadic behavior. The town’s physician determine that the three girls were under “the Devil’s influence” and they had been bewitched. What started as a silly game between children, slowly brought the town of Salem to the edge of insanity. This insanity lead to the killing of 25 innocent people due to their crimes of witchcraft. When scholars look back at the Salem Witch Trials they often time ask the question “What were the key factors in the spread of hysteria throughout the town of Salem?” Most scholars contribute the widespread of hysteria to three important factors; these factors include social, political, and religious tension that occurred in Salem Village. Each one of these factors played a key role in the start of the Salem trials and why it spread so rapidly throughout Salem Village.

In the Hebrew Bible, a significant section where this idea can be seen is in the beginning with the story of Adam and Eve, specifically in Genesis 4. When Eve is manipulated to eat the forbidden fruit, it poses the idea that the suffering of humankind was caused by a woman, showing the idea that woman react without consideration or senselessly, when really Eve was only acting on a very human trait, curiosity. When Eve convinces Adam to eat the forbidden fruit, one of gods punishment to Eve is “Your man shall be your longing, and rule over you” (p.97). Or when God describes Eve as “his woman”, God is essentially saying she is not her own independent person and is meant to be owned by men. This passage alone shows that women are viewed as people that were meant to be controlled; that men were always meant to be above them.

be governed by men, who after all, had been created in God's image. It is Ironic to think that

The belief of witchcraft has been around for centries. For being a small city, Salem Massachusetts carries a big name for the events that took place in late winter early spring 1692. When someone hears the word ¨Salem” its mostly the person will think ¨witchcraft”. Many people thoughts on witches that their power are evil and will arm others. My people during that time were accused of being witches and for witchcraft things. There were many young girils, women and men that were sent to death. Why did it come to this? What was the root cause pf the Salem Witch Hysteria? I think this tragity accured because of the role of religion in the village, social issues accurred, political turmiol, and economic dilocation.

Eve has been a powerful female figure throughout history and provoked so many female authors because she is depicted as the first woman, made from the rib of the first man, Adam. Since Eve was the first, and mother to all women, she was preserved to have passed on an evil nature to all women after tasting the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge and asking Adam to as well. Women have invested their time in Eve’s defense by arguing that it was not the fault of Eve alone, and that if Adam was supposed the be a symbol of strength, and wisdom, then he should been able to see through Eve’s fruit and the trickery of the serpent. The story bible has been used as a symbol of oppression for women by the word of God being law in the Christian

When one thinks of the word ‘witch’ today, one pictures a withered old crone from fairytales or a Halloween costume. In short, people associate a witch immediately with fiction. However, in Europe, witches were a very real threat. Between 1400 and 1800, historians estimate that upwards of 50,000 people were killed after being convicted as witches in Europe (Give Me Liberty, p. 109). As colonists settled in North America, they not only brought new customs, plants, animals, and diseases, they brought their superstitions. Witch executions were relatively rare in America, that is, until the 150 convictions and 19 executions of witches that took place in Salem, Massachusetts beginning in 1691 (Orr, September 30, 2015). Though the causes of the mania are still hotly debated even today, the primary cause of the witchcraft hysteria that captivated Salem, Massachusetts in the 1690’s was socioeconomic tensions within the community.

Many parents want their child to get married and live their lives with a companion who is successful and loved their child. Like these parents, God created Woman for Man as a helpful companion and soulmate. Even though he does this, when Man and Woman ate from the tree of knowledge, he cracked down on them. In “The Fall from Genesis”, God punishes his people by “multiplying [Woman] sorrow and thy conception… [Man] shall rule over thee” and Man shall “in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground”.

C. I will argue, first, that Eve’s scene alludes to Ovid's myth of Narcissus. Second I dispute interpretations that view Eve’s actions as a narcissistic impulse,

God did not breathe life into her but took her from man. This is where the justification of oppression of woman begins. Due to woman not having the breath of God blown into her, she is not as holy as men, not deserving of God’s breath but rather only deserving of man’s rib and flesh. God is a man who created man, he could not create woman in the image of him because he is a man, so he took Adam’s rib. Adam also had the power of naming all animals in the kingdom, including woman; since she could not name herself, the underlying message from this example is that women do not have the privilege to be knowledgeable and make decisions.

In the Biblical tale of Eve, Eve is portrayed to be a challenge for men and a detriment for them. As the story goes, Eve is the person first swayed by the serpent to disobey God. She eats from the tree and gains knowledge of good and evil, and after she eats, Adam follows her example and eats as well. This story makes it seem like the original sin and the fall of man are the fault of Eve. Overall, the impression of Eve is very poor, since she seems incapable of making the right choices, and is even commanded to follow the will of her husband because of this supposed flaw she posses. On the other hand, the myth of Alcestis portrays the female protagonist in a much more positive light. Alcestis, following her own will, seems to make the right choices while Eve failed to. First, when her sisters are plotting to chop their father, King Pelias, she is the only one to object and to try to stop her sisters from being fooled by the magic of Medea; she is clearly a character capable of making sound decisions on her own. Later, when her husband is about to die, she also seems to make the right moral decision, laying down her life for her husband and being rewarded by having her soul brought back from the realm of the dead. These are two very different portrayals of women, where one story’s female protagonist can make the good choices on her own while the one in the other story

Now I will talk about how milton portrayed eve in his writing. Milton sees Eve as Narcissus. For many hundreds of years, the female has been seen as the weaker sex the gentle sex, the docile sex, even the less intelligent sex. And this is because, for many hundreds of years, the societies that humanity lived in were based mainly on survival. Necessity of women remained in the home in order to further the mere survival of the species, while men were in charge of providing for this family unit. Through this situation, men developed an egocentric view of life, seeing themselves as the centers of their own microcosms. Humans always look for someone else on whom to place the blame any man would be pleased if he were able to place all of the evil of humanity on to a poor decision made by a woman. This view of Eve makes her a flat and undeveloped character. She is vain, falls in love with herself at first sight in the glimmering pool, and can barely stand to tear herself away from the water to be with Adam. As usual, this episode of her self-absorbed conceit only contributes to the already growing compassion for Adam,