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Bloody Mary
Legend has it that if you stand in front of a candlelit mirror and chant the words Bloody Mary thirteen times, a vengeful spirit will appear. However, there are also many other variations to this urban legend. There is no definitive answer as to Bloody Mary’s identity, but Mary could often be depicted as a witch, ghost or demon (Houston). Some accounts say that a young woman named Mary was supposedly in a terrible accident, which mutilated her face (Norder). There are other variations to the legend that claim she was a witch that was executed over a hundred years ago for practicing the dark arts (Mikkelson).
I collected this urban legend from a nineteen year old male here at the University. He is a sophomore and is majoring in biochemistry. He was born in India, but moved to Phoenix with his parents, sister and two brothers. He first heard this urban legend from friends during a sleepover when he was in fifth grade. While we were standing and retelling the story, other people came up and listened to him tell the story. Afterwards, everyone agreed that they had heard this story when they were younger, but that some of the details were different. It was very interesting how one story could have so many different variations.
The way he remembers the story of Bloody Mary is that you have to be standing in front of a mirror. When retelling the story, he paused before specifying that you have to be standing in front of a mirror in the bathroom. You must be by yourself or else it will not work. You must turn out the lights, leaving only a small light on, such as a night light. Next, you have to say the name Bloody Mary thirteen times. He paused again, and then included that you must be turning around in a circle, wh...
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...as impacted countless people around the world, especially in the United States, even sparking the emergence of numerous other urban legends based on the same principles. Many aspects of the original story have changed--there are countless variations to the particular legend. Bloody Mary has played on people’s desire for excitement and it is also a way to release anxiety and experience some safe fear.
Works Cited
Houston, Mystic. "The Legend of Bloody Mary." Bella Online. 2006. Minerva WebWorks LLC. 8 Apr. 2006. http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art30890.asp.
Mikkelson, Barbara, and David P. Mikkelson. "Bloody Mary." Snopes. 27 Oct. 2005. Urban Legends Reference Pages. 6 Apr. 2006. http://www.snopes.com/horrors/ghosts/bloodymary.asp.
Norder, Dan. "The Face in the Mirror." Mythology Web. 1999. 7 Apr. 2006. http://www.mythologyweb.com/bloodymary.html.
First, “Lamb to the Slaughter”, Mary Malony. She killed her husband when he said he was going to leave her and her baby all alone. I guess she couldn’t bare the thought of him leaving her all alone like that so she just killed him with their dinner. “At that point, Mary Maloney simply walked up
Mary struggles to get the pillow off, but Bigger overpowers her. He ends up accidentally killing her. The thoughts of him being caught and fired, or even being arrested under suspicion, overcame his mind. This is evident when Wright explains, “He knew that Mrs. Dalton could not see him; but he knew that if Mary spoke she would come to the side of
A basic sense of honesty is another of Mary Warren’s traits. In Act I she goes to Salem to convince Abigail to tell the truth about what really happened in the woods. When the witchcraft scare gets out of hand, Mary joins Abigail and the other girls in falsely accusing women of being witches. These false accusations are motivated by hysteria. There is evidence that Mary really believes that the women in court are bewitching her. She tells the judge that she thought she saw spirits. The other girls were screaming, and before she knew it, Mary was screaming with them. When she realizes that there are no spirits, Mary is willing to be truthful. After Elizabeth Proctor’s name is brought up in court, Mary Warren defends her against the accusation. At the end of Act II, the reader hopes that the basic sense of honesty will remain strong enough to allow Mary to testify on behalf of the accused women in Act III.
I originally heard this from my brother when I was like ten years old. I also saw it in the movie Urban Legends. But I’ll tell you the version my brother told me. You have to go into a bathroom in your house. You turn off all of the lights and stand facing away from the mirror. You then spin around thirteen times and say ‘Bloody Mary’ thirteen times. After you finish spinning you turn around and you will see Bloody Mary looking back at you through the mirror. My brother and his friends made me do it one day at my house and nothing happened to me.
Mary was accused of being involved in this act and when one of the guards was murdered she was thrown in jail with a twenty-year sentence.
One night Ann saw the shape of a coffin from the egg trick, that's where it all started. Soon after that happened Ann Putman, Abigail Williams, and Betty Parris started acting weirdly. They started babbling, convulsing, or simply staring blankly. Once they were identified as victims of witchcraft they were asked to point out their tormentors. Ann pointed to Sarah Good and Sarah Osbourne. She also testified against Tibuta and said that the woman had tortured her grievously by pricking and pinching her dreadfully."(Yanak, T.,and Pam Cornelison, ...
12 Nov 2013. <http://www.luminarium.org/encyclopedia/queenmary.ht,>. "Ghost Myth: Bloody Mary." seeksghosts.blogspot. N.p., 08 Jun 2011.
On February 29, 1692, Tituba, Sarah Osborne, and Sarah Good were accused of The Devil’s Magic by the group of girls (Linder). Women were thought to have been more likely to be a witch, because women were considered lustful towards the Devil by nature (Blumberg). Tituba confes...
Malpezzi, Frances M., and William M. Clements. ?Conversation.? Italian-American Folklore. Little Rock: August, 1992. 43-57.
Schmitz, R. M. "Leo Frank and Mary Phagan." The Journal of American Folklore 60.235 (1947): 59-61. JSTOR. Web. 13 Apr. 2014.
I interviewed a 19-year-old male sophomore who anticipates getting into the School of Business. He transferred from Community College this past fall, and currently lives with a relative in a nearby off-campus home. He went to a small Catholic high school. He recalls first hearing this legend early in high school, probably between freshman and sophomore year. After telling him the purpose of the interview, I began the conversation by asking if he knew any urban legends, to which he replied:
It was really an odd way of how the Salem witch trials all started. Something so big is caused by a group of such young girls. They were known as the “afflicted girls” (Brooks). There were about a total of 9 girls involved. Supposedly after playing a fortune-telling game they all started to act out in very abnormal ways. Three of the girls: Mercy Lewis, Betty Parris, Mary Warren, were all examined by Dr. William Griggs and he suggested that they were bewitched (Brooks). During this time Salem separated into accusers and the accused. One of the accused women was a former slave, Tituba. She of the three women accused confessed the use of witchcraft. All three of the women were arrested and questioned. Tituba confessed seeing a few girls acting weird and confessed treating some of the girls in a rude way. She however did n...
Urban legends are the supernatural folklore of our modern society. From one generation to the next, they orally travel throughout the world, constantly changing from one region to the next. Although cultural variations exist, the core of all these urban legends remains the same, to unveil the universally known individual and societal fears. “The Graveyard Wager” is a timeless urban legend told again and again, and the one of which I will explore more in depth.
Turner Sharp, Michele. If It Be a Monster Birth: Reading and Literary Property in Mary
When I heard this story, 12 years ago, it came from the mouth of my father’s good friend, an Ojibwa man, named Henry Meekis. I still remember everyone sitting in front of him while he told the story. His passion for the story permeated the room and we were all captivated by it.