Religion and spirituality have been points of both tension, debate, and even anxiety in the novel I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem, written by Maryse Condé. In this novel follows the life and tragedies in the life of Tituba and witness how she is displaced, used, and eventually accused and convicted of being a witch in the Salem Witch Trials in the late 1600s. In a quite a riveting way, the reader experiences the pain, oppression, and strict hypocrisy that was present in the late seventeenth century in both the early colonies of America and in Barbados. Similarly, this tension is also experienced in the novel Wide Sargasso Sea, which was written by Jean Rhys. Although this novel focuses on the mental space of an alleged lunatic, and the unhappiness …show more content…
When the creation of the new forms of miracles and magic starts a threatened the settling authority, these civilized people will always claim that they have either the truth, of the real authoritative benevolence that their sovereign and reigning being has given them. This is also an act of self-preservation, a way to give the people a comfort, if not of superiority, at least of benignity that is needed to justify the way that things are. This tension is best mentioned in the by Condé when she has Tituba narrating the horrible things happening in the Witch trials during her imprisonment. She narrates: "Where was Satan? Wasn't he hiding in the folds of the judges' coats? Wasn't he speaking in the voices of these magistrates and men of religion?" (Condé 116). And here is where the exhibited religious superiority that the conquering whites have is being challenged by a slave and, by their definition, a witch. But the incredulity here is being further advanced in the text by the way that these three questions are put in this type of successions, creating not only the sense of hypocrisy but a sense of urgency. An urgency that even if it wasn't suggesting that their beliefs were wrong, it is suggesting that the thing they had …show more content…
But further, than that, it shows that her magic can do as much harm as the systematic religion that allows people to do the horrible things that were done in the time of slavery. There is danger in the power that any type of spirituality, or systematic belief, can provide to an individual or a group. Even in those religions that believe that there is preserving the goodness of the heart of the people that practices it, there is still a great danger in the power this safety is suppose to grant, and that any passion or wrong turn could, in fact, damage the person. But there is also something to be said with the lesser evil that is being chosen here. The fact that it is better to give them something "inconvenient and humiliating" and effectively crippling is still something that creates a certain fear and respect, which in this case was then backfired by having Mrs. Endicott not killing them, her own version of "inconvenient and humiliating" and sending her to a fate that was might as well be worse than death, same as Tituba did to her. Equally as important as the fact that there is a focus on the benevolence and the self-protection of the heart and soul, there is a sense that this alternative spirituality can, in fact, benefit the community in a large. Sometimes this fact can be overlooked, but it is important to see how both Christianity and
In order to understand the outbreak of the witchcraft hysteria in Salem, Massachusetts in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, authors of Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft, explore the social and economic divisions and tensions within Salem and the surrounding communities. Both Boyer and Nissenbaum have a strong background in history. Paul Boyer (1935-2012) was the Merle Curti Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as well as a cultural and intellectual historian who authored several other books. Stephen Nissenbaum was a Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst who authored several other books as well. In Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of
While most people are familiar with the notorious Salem Witch Trials in 1692, many people are unaware that similar events were taking place in other parts of New England in the very same year. The book, Escaping Salem: The Other Witch Hunt of 1692, takes readers through an intriguing narrative of a young girl with claims of being bewitched. Although I was concerned at first about the book being in a narrative style, the author was very concise and used actual evidence from the trial to tell an accurate and interesting story.
As the story of Tituba unfolds, it reveals a strong and kind hearted young woman, very different from the Tituba we meet in The Crucible. I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem unveils for the reader, Tituba's life, loves, and losses. Her long and arduous journey through life is inspired by her many female counterparts, yet also hindered by her insatiable weakness for men, who also press upon her the realities of life.
The Salem Witch Trials were a scary time but the director of this movie made it seem action packed. The actors made it seem like they actually lived in that time. The wardrobe in the movie also had a huge impact on how the movie appeared and it also told the viewer how to be emotionally. I would give this movie a thumbs up for many reasons. Now I am going to tell you about the characters and the directors perspective.
During the time of the Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692, more than twenty people died an innocent death. All of those innocent people were accused of one thing, witchcraft. During 1692, in the small town of Salem, Massachusetts many terrible events happened. A group of Puritans lived in Salem during this time. They had come from England, where they were prosecuted because of their religious beliefs. They chose to come live in America and choose their own way to live. They were very strict people, who did not like to act different from others. They were also very simple people who devoted most of their lives to God. Men hunted for food and were ministers. Women worked at home doing chores like sewing, cooking, cleaning, and making clothes. The Puritans were also very superstitious. They believed that the devil would cause people to do bad things on earth by using the people who worshiped him. Witches sent out their specters and harmed others. Puritans believed by putting heavy chains on a witch, that it would hold down their specter. Puritans also believed that by hanging a witch, all the people the witch cast a spell on would be healed. Hysteria took over the town and caused them to believe that their neighbors were practicing witchcraft. If there was a wind storm and a fence was knocked down, people believed that their neighbors used witchcraft to do it. Everyone from ordinary people to the governor’s wife was accused of witchcraft. Even a pregnant woman and the most perfect puritan woman were accused. No one in the small town was safe. As one can see, the chaotic Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692 were caused by superstition, the strict puritan lifestyle, religious beliefs, and hysteria.
In Rosalyn Schanzer’s Witches! The Absolutely True Disaster in Salem, the author discusses how the Salem Witch trials started and how the Puritans believed the witches should be tortured or killed for being a witch. Many people were accused of being witches. Many people thought the accused should die but some were somewhat nice and didn’t think they should die just in prison. Every puritan believed them because the dad was a reverend and everyone believed him so they all accused people. The causes of the Salem Witch Trials were disease, revenge, and attention.
John M. Murrin’s essay Coming to Terms with the Salem Witch Trials helps detail the events of these trials and explains why they might have occurred. The witch trials happened during a “particularly turbulent time in the history of colonial Massachusetts and the early modern atlantic world” (Murrin, 339). Salem came to be in 1629 and less than seventy years later found itself in a mess of witch craft.
Salem Massachusetts became the center of a horrible tragedy, which changed the life of many people. It was a hard time, because of the bad crops and diseases. The people in Salem had to blame someone or something. This people accused innocent people by calling them witches. They were accused by having contact with the devil, hurting people, to pinch people on their bodies and more. These actions were result of hysteria. Maybe those extraneous symptoms were result of an illness or bacteria. On the Bible says “thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.” This mean that any type of witch or curse will not live, so I think that quote or versus in the Bible want to explain that we need to fight against the devil, those people who are practicing witchcraft need to be light, to be with God. Those people were confused because is not necessary to kill innocent people and the Bible says that if someone kills is a sin.
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.
hysteria brought about by the witchcraft scare in The Crucible leads to the upheaval in people’s differentiation between right and wrong, fogging their sense of true justice.
Those whom step outside the boundaries set by the “Puritan society” are often accused of
Salem Village, Massachusetts was the home of a Puritan community with a strict moral code through 1691. No one could have ever anticipated the unexplainable events that were to ambush the community’s stability. The crisis that took place in Salem in 1962 still remains a mystery, but the accusations made by the young girls could be a result of ergot poisoning or the need for social power; this leads the people of Salem to succumb to the genuine fear of witchcraft.
The Devil, the Witches and the Victims of Salem. Nineteen were hanged, seventeen died in prison, 150 were imprisoned. and one was crushed to death. All of them were accused, by a group of seemingly innocent young girls, of witchcraft and wizardry.
For the rioters, Coco the parrot, and Antoinette, fire offers an instrument of escape from and rebellion against the oppressive actions of their respective captors. Wide Sargasso Sea takes place shortly after the emancipation of Jamaican slaves. Annette's husbands, first Alexander Cosway and then Mr. Mason, have both profited immorally off of the exploitation of black Jamaicans. Unsurprisingly, the former slaves feel great hatred towards the Cosways--- hatred that boils over when the ex-slaves set fire to Annette's house (35). The significance of th...
“The Wonders of the Invisible World”, written by Cotton Mather, is an account of the Salem Witch Trials. He retells information that has been passed down to him without actually being present at the trial and simultaneously explains his theory to why witches were suddenly emerging in Salem, Massachusetts. There were quite a few holes in the Salem Witch Trials, especially regarding whether or not these events occurred the way they are said to. Mather’s book shows us how intense the Puritan ideals were, attaching anything out of the ordinary to a higher power and in doing this shows the flaws of the religion which caused to Salem Witch Trials.