With a medieval Europe’s view of a patriarchal world, the idea of women as an inferiority to men was inevitable. However, the idea of women being “the wicked of all wickedness” (Kramer) elevated such view into what we know as misogyny. The medieval witch trials exemplifies the product of gender specific hatred outweighing the initial view of religious cleansing and stability. Thus, one argues that while both men and women were accused of being witches, the driving force behind such hysterical event
and stays at home. She cannot make a living outside the home because of her gender. This is referred to as sexism because the presumed sexual identity of Samantha is to be a loving housewife and not a witch. Darrin feels weird about Samantha’s witchcraft because as a man, he has a different role in society. It is supposed to be a dominating male role and he is supposed to be the model of a supporting husband. Darrin has special privileges since he is a male. Currently, society has changed this
During my study of witchcraft I looked into a number of sources to help me gain insight into the period of 1560-1660 in order to put forward a strong argument in my coursework. A valuable source was Levack “The witch-hunt in early modern Europe”. It offers the reader a thorough and objective examination of witch-hunts and is consistent with the numbers of explanations given from religion to the misogynistic argument. The explanations provided are both easy to understand and therefore have been beneficial
medieval witchcraft which antedate the witch hunts, and the time period that scholars recognize as most critical for the formation of the witch lies between the years 1430 and 1660. Before this time period, witchcraft, sorcery, and maleficium (magic) were dismissed as false superstition. Gradually, much of Medieval Europe began seriously believing that they were dealing with an omnipresent, uncontrollable threat of as many as “ten
religions created tensions in Europe. These tensions created a need for a scapegoat, as the negative aspects of the Reformation could not be associated with the pioneers of the movement. Due to a heightened sense of divine power and new ideas about witchcraft, people, mainly women, were targeted and persecuted as witches. The Protestant Reformation brought on a new sense of divinity, as more people began to acknowledge the power of God. As Protestantism swept over Europe, the new sects of Christianity
“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. The rise
strangely, the Puritans grew progressively hysterical because they became more convinced that witches existed within Salem as they had little scientific knowledge. In a nutshell, the cause of the Salem Witch Trial Hysteria were Puritan fundamentalism, misogyny, and hysteria. The Puritans were a group of fundamentalist people. This meant that they led a life that was to be followed as God put in the bible..For instance, in Exodus 22:18 (Doc A.) it is stated, “‘Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live’”,in
There are documented examples of persecution of witchcraft going as far back as Classical Antiquity and the Old Testament. For example, in Ancient Rome black magic was treated as a capital offence by the Law of the Twelve Tables . The early legal codes of most European nations contain laws directed against witchcraft. For instance, the oldest document of Frankish legislation, the Salic Law, punishes those who practice magic with various fines, especially when it could be proven that the accused launched
Karlsen who was a Professor of History and Women’s Studies at the University of Michigan had a different take on the trials. Karlsen wrote The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England in 1987, a book examining the role of women in the Salem Witch Trials. Karlsen was “concerned with the meaning of witchcraft for New England’s first settlers… and why most witches in early American society were women.” Karlsen obviously felt that there was a disparity of the female perspective
The Salem Witch Trials were a series of accusations, trials, and executions based on the supposed outbreak of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts. The trials began during the spring of 1692, and the last of them ended in 1693. It all started when two young girls, Abigail and Betty Parris, began experiencing violent convulsions and outbursts, which were thought to be brought about by witchcraft. Whether they were faking these symptoms, were afflicted with an actual sickness, or were experiencing them