Kendall Osborne stared, standing ramrod straight, from the sitting room window at the two old bats glowering at her house, the witch’s house. That is what they called it: the witch’s house. Even before the Unveiling the people of San Francisco had called her home that. The women watching the house talked with their heads together as if they were whispering, but not so subtle in theiry gesturing to the pale blue house on the hill. Both were dressed dull apron-style day dress with tight bonnet and the flag shaped Ladies of the Standard pin on the callor. “How can they have any facial expression with bonnet that tight,” Kendall grumbled, but she knew she was just being grumpy because they lady’s league wants the city to take …show more content…
the ‘nice house away from the evil witch.’ She began drumming her fingers on the sill. Jade’s whirl and clicking rose as the tiny clockwork dragon raced up the curtains and curled on her forefinger. She wondered if King Arthur knew how magic would be treated when he walked to parliament Unveiling magic. Drumming became harder because of the weight but Kendall was agitated enough she continued until Jade pawed at the window, metal pin points on glass. “You’re right. Staring back at them doesn’t do us any good.” Kendall turned from the window and crossed the hall to the library. Floor to ceiling bookshelves crammed with printed and hand written books cover the far wall. The witch, Kendall Osborne, set the animated metal dragon on her grandmother’s desk and sat down in front of the large tome on it. She had started studying magical protections enchantments and she should really get back to it. The thicker the protection, the more the pracitisor is cut off. So like many things, there is a balance to stuck. Protection is practical until it interferes with being able to with a practisator’s abily to draw from the energy from the Earth and the sun. Red and white are the colors of protection, candles, cloths or crystals. One pracital protects is the ability to call weapons to you. Jade ran up the spine of the book and swiveling the gears in his neck to watch her. Kendall had just gotten her letter opener to slither a few inches across the dark wood of the desk, when Ida, the maid, knocked on the door. “There is a woman here about hiring your services,” she announced without entering. “See her into the sitting room” Kendall answered to annoy her snobby maid. Ida bobbed in something the resembled a curtsy and left. Kendall really didn’t need the money but she loved helping people and loved vexing the haughty maid. Paying for a spy in her house irked Kendal but it was the smart choice at the moment have some control of what got report to Ladies of the Standard, the group of non-magical women who were trying to get her out of her home. Kendall paused to check the mirror. Her brown leather flight jacket and ash blue shirt was not proper receiving attire but those who came to hire would not accept her to dress like a proper lady… and if she did she would be sorely disappointed. Stilled, Kendall took a jade, her favorite stone, hair clips and secured her hair and bit more properly. Jade, the dragon, scurried up her arm and latched on to more stray tressuels, pinned them in place with his body and went lifeless. Feeling less like a scary witch, Kendall when to meet the woman who came to hire her. Her guest wore just a plain gray, working woman’s dress, her hair in a plain, but tidy bun. She stood, shifting on her feet, shoulders hunched. A washer woman or something of that nature, Kendall decided “Good morning,” the witch greeted. The visitor jumped. “Miss,” she cried with a hurried curtsy. A maid, Kendall mentally corrected. “How can I help you?” The maid’s eyes flickered around the room. Kendall had removed the crystal balls, the bells, the ritual broom, the incense burner of her grandmother’s from this room so it did scream “witch” but the energy of the house still did. “How may I help you miss?” “Miss Osborne?” Kendal laughed. “All witches start out young.” The maid cocked her head before saying “I meant no disrespect.” “No but it is a common reaction.” The maid stiffened. Kendall didn’t know what the offence was but decided that offending her would not help anything at all. “I’m a young witch. How may I help you?” “I have heard you are very good at finding things.” Kendall waved for the woman to sit and took a seat herself in the nearest chair. The woman sat as well, the edge of her seat directly “I am.” “My employer committed suicide last night.” “I’m sorry for your lost,” Kendall said wondering if it was a lost, not all employers were and wondering about what was mislaid. “It is,” answering the one of the unanswered questions. “She was helping search for my son. You see…” the woman flushed red with embarrassment. “I had a son out of wedlock and I placed him in an orphanage but she paid well enough I could take him back. For they said he wasn’t there when I went back to fetch him. She had hired a pritive eye for me to find him.” “And she had not told you what she had found,” Kendall guessed. The woman nodded. “So many a child die in those conditions. She wanted to soften the blow of any ill new but now she is dead and I could not find her diary before the copper shooed me out. I know that everything is in that diary. Ms. Jeanie wrote everything in that diary.” The maid was up and across the space between taking Kendall’s hand. “Oh please help me. Please please. I will never see my son again if you don’t. People wouldn’t talk to me the way they would talk to Ms Jeanie Baker.” The maid was on her knees at Kendall’s feet. “The performer?” Kendall asked. “Oh yes.” “She is dead.” “She killed herself last night. I found her just an hour ago and then a copper have shoved me out. They’ll pocket anything they think that can sell.” “Genie Baker killed herself.” Even Kendal had gone to the performer who dressed as an Arabian Genie who sung and acted in a play although it was the songs that got Kendal. Her voice could invoke any emotion. “That is a lost.” Kendall thought about the stories of Genie playing for orphans Christmas or giving a note out her bag to a beggar on the street. Kendall turned back to her guest. The story had the ring of truth. “Your name, Ma’am.” “Betty Dow.” “Are the police still there?” “Yes.” “What does the diary look like?” “Red leather with an imprint of a bird taking flight on the cover, secured with a gold lock.” “Where did she keep it?” “Where she was.” Kendall thought a moment before standing.
“Where can I reach you when I have it?” “I’m not sure. I was living with my miss but… I could stop by tomorrow.” “I would be surprised if I do not have it by then. I’ll see you tomorrow. My maid will see you out.” “But your payment.” Kendall had hoped to have snuck out without talking about money. Ms. Dow had just lost her employment Kendall but did not want to insult her. “I brought this,” Ms. Dow held out a worn change purse. Kendall took it and counted out the coins. “It’s a month’s wages.” Kendall shove the purse back. “I’m not taking a month’s wages for a day’s work.” Ms. Dow frown, flummoxed by the response. “But you’re a witch?” “Ladies of the Standard lies, and a few bad apples started rumors that all witches are money grubbers.” “The Ladies of the standard would hang all magically creatures if they could,” Betty spat. Kendal wondered by care of magic the woman had. She had to have some to be that …show more content…
venamate. Recalling the two women pointing at her home, Kendall commented, “they are just trying to get all of us out of the city for now. But their stories are lies.” Again, Ms. Dow’s eyes flickered around the room. Heavy oriental rugs covered the floor. Queen Anne chair in lapis cloth faced each other. Mohogamy end tables specked the room. Ms. Dow’s rested on the French needle point firescreen of a bird in flight. “Eight generations of good healers have slowly furnitured this house that they built with their own hands. Plus a few good marriages, including my grandfather who was a good business man.” Ms. Dow took the change purse back and fished inside. “Some would still take advantage. That is how the rich get rich.” She handed Kendall a bit more than a day’s wages. “A true witch had been taught that riches gained that way will cost you more in the long run because you get back what you put out into the world.” “I hope not, Miss. I really hope not.” Ms. Dow walked out and Kendall went to get the stuff for a glamour. * * * There was no one outside Genie’s house, which surprised her.
There was a few lights burning inside and no one on the sidewalk: no gawker or newspaper men, more importantly no officers. The newsboy she had passed coming here shouted about more Morelocks in the east side dead. Dead magically night worker couldn’t hold a candle to a suicide of a stage star which means the news hadn’t gotten out. Kendall studied the house from across the street. People moved around her without noticing her so the glamour hid her well. Maybe the police have removed Genie and were gone. Yes her glamour was good well but trained observers, even without magic, could see through the haze of obscurity. Got it over with, Kendall said to herself. She touched Jade in her hair, and then galvanize, she crossed the street and walked up the path to the back door. It was unlocked with the window panel broken out, with glass on the steps. Odd. But Kendall set that aside the thought to focus on the job at hand. She conjured up the image in her mind and sent the image through the house and waited for the echo. Then waited for the echo. Kendall went further into house, wondering if the dairy was there. If it was in the city, she should have felt an echo. She felt out for the dairy with every other step and listened for the police with the
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. 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.
“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 books thesis is based on why a person was accused of being a witch and the relative circumstances thereof. Marital status, sex, community standing, wealth, and relationships with others all play an important part of a person chances of being accused of being a witch. Karlsen’s words make for a richly detailed portrait of the women who were prosecuted as witches. The witch hunting hysteria seized New England in the late seventeenth century. Why were those and other women likely witches? Why were certain people vulnerable to accusations of witchcraft and possession? These are the questions answered in this book.
Schanzer, Rosalyn. Witches!: The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2011. Print.
Kent, Deborah. Witchcraft Trials: Fear, Betrayal, and Death in Salem. Library ed. Berkeley Heights, NJ: Enslow, 2009. Print.
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.
The first accusers of those on trial for witchcraft were group of teenage girls. The first girl, Betty Parris, began to have painful contortions, fever, and what were most likely hallucinations. These symptoms may have been the result of ergot poisoning, the result of eating bread made with moldy rye, but at the time, no one knew that was possible. The family’s slave, Tituba, had come from Barbados and was knowledgeable in stories of voodoo and black magic. She shared these stories with Betty and her friends. After seeing the attention Betty was getting because of her behavior, her friends began to exhibit the same behavior. Because the local doctor knew of no medical explanation, he suggested the cause was supernatural. Tituba, with her knowledge of magic became the first person accused. She thought she could save her life by confessing and naming other women as her conspirators. Tituba’s accusations were unreliable because she was trying to do anything she could to save her life. Others were also accused by the girls. These women were generally unpopular or strange in some way, so it was easy for them to be targets of the girls accusations. For these girls, who were at the center of the town’s attention and perhaps had no real understanding of the seriousness of their accusati...
“A WITCH! A WITCH!” (20) common knowledge may let people to believe that Salem was the only place where witch hunts took place, but as Godbeer explains in his book, Stamford and other towns also experienced cases of witchcraft. The author not only demonstrates that the locations may vary, but also the methods of prosecution. The ministers of Stanford tried to bring the case to justice using the proper procedures. Instead of using force or other alternative methods to make the witches confess, Goodbeer destroys the stereotypical witch hunt.
The witch hunts in early modern Europe were extensive and far reaching. Christina Larner, a sociology professor at the University of Glasgow and an influential witchcraft historian provides valuable insight into the witch trials in early modern Europe in her article 'Was Witch-Hunting Woman-Hunting?'. Larner writes that witchcraft was not sex-specific, although it was sex-related (Larner, 2002). It cannot be denied that gender plays a tremendous role in the witch hunts in early modern Europe, with females accounting for an estimated 80 percent of those accused (Larner, 2002). However, it would be negligent to pay no heed to the remaining 20 percent, representing alleged male witches (Larner, 2002). The legal definition of a witch in this time, encompassed both females and males (Levack, 1987). This essay will explore the various fundamental reasons for this gender discrepancy and highlight particular cases of witchcraft allegations against both women and men. These reasons arise from several fundamental pieces of literature that depict the stereotypical witch as female. These works are misogynistic and display women as morally inferior to men and highly vulnerable to temptations from demons (Levack, 1987). This idea is blatantly outlined in the text of the 'Malleus Maleficarum' written by James Sprenger and Henry Kramer in the late fifteenth century. This book is used as the basis for many of the witch trials in early modern Europe (Levack, 1987). The text describes women as sexually submissive creatures and while remarking that all witchcraft is derived from intense sexual lust, a women is thus a prime candidate for witchcraft (Sprenger & Kramer, 1487). In this time period, men are seen as powerful and in control and thus rarely...
Karlsen, Carol F. The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1987. Print.
Witches were no longer simply people who used magical power to get what they wanted, but people used by the devil to do what he wanted. Witchcraft was thus not a question of what one did, but of what on was, and proving that a witch had committed maleficia was no longer necessary for conviction. (Wiesner 265)
Toivo, Raisa M. ‘Women at Stake. Interpretations of Women’s Role in Witchcraft and Witch-Hunts since the early 20th century to the present’ Australia: University of New South Wales, 2005.
Aronson, Marc. Witch-hunt: Mysteries of the Salem Witch Trials. New York: Atheneum for Young Readers, 2003. Print.
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...
"The person said something bad occurred at Sally's, and I should hurry. I hope one of those—those malfunctions she’s always helping didn’t hurt her. You know how she is. Everyone’s tried to warn her, but she won't listen."