Ashley Johnson
Dr. Watkins
ENGL N206-Section 003
7 May, 2018
The Witch Archetype and Female Sexuality
Women have been referred to as the lesser of the two sexes for generations. Appropriately, from a young age girls are expected to be submissive and effortlessly inferior. This stereotype also speaks to that of women’s sexuality. There are certain things that “women simply must not do.”A woman should not be thought of as powerful, or dress scandalously, or even enjoy sex. Women are taught to hide their sexual desires, as it’s not for enjoyment, only a means of reproduction. Female sexuality and passion were either ignored or attacked as a form of insanity. Throughout history, witches have represented the fear of female sexuality and
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empowerment in culture, in American Horror Story: Coven, female sexuality and control of it is given back to the women themselves. One of the first times witches were introduced as a character in a universally known work of literature was in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, written in the early seventeenth century.
This is where the origin of our usual thoughts of witches- old women with beards, green skin, and pointy hats- comes from. While that may be the common conception of a traditional witch today, it is believed that Shakespeare originally drew his inspiration for the Wayward Sisters from Holinshed’s Chronicles, a collaborative work published in the late sixteenth century. In Holinshed’s Chronicles the witches are associated with nymphs, rather than these dark, and ugly creatures described in Macbeth.
Modern witches, however, have undergone many changes since the days of Macbeth. In fact, most witches that are shown in the media today have a tendency to be almost polar opposites of their archetypical roots. Lacking the common warts and flying broomsticks that history has so often pictured them with. In modern media, there are countless movies, television series, and books that revolve entirely around witchcraft like Harry Potter and Halloweentown. With such abundance of this classic archetype in mass media, the theme continues to remain the same from generation to
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generation. A great example of witches being a symbol of female sexuality is American Horror Story: Coven (Season 3). American Horror Story: Coven goes into the complex, secretive history of witches and witchcraft in America. Taking place centuries after the terrifying Salem witch trials, those who were able to escape the horrible atrocities, are facing near extinction. Witches are being mysteriously attacked in increasingly large numbers. Young witches are being sent to Miss Robichaux’s Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies, in New Orleans, to learn how to use their powers and protect themselves. Women are put to shame for taking pleasure in sex, unless of course they follow "the rules." Traditionally, one should only engage in intercourse if they are married. In the first episode of the episode,“Bitchcraft” the opening shot is of one of the main characters in this season, Zoe. Zoe is an innocent, seemingly normal girl, who appears to have finally had sex with her long-term boyfriend. Not long after they begin intercourse, her boyfriend has an aneurysm, causing him to die. Since in many religions, it is considered a sin or wrongdoing of sorts to engage in sexual activities, when one is unmarried. Zoe chose to have sex and since she did so, she faced the consequence for her actions. By having sex with her boyfriend, she made him die. Of course Zoe did not realize that was a price that she had to pay, and she was also unaware that she was a witch. Witches are not only a metaphor for female sexuality, but they are also a symbol of female power. Zoe is found by the Coven, and after meeting the other witches, her and Madison attend a college fraternity party. Madison, being an untamed Hollywood starlet is gang-raped by some of the frat boys, as a result of the main rapist slipping a roofie into her drink. Zoe walks in with the president of the fraternity, Kyle Spencer and the rapists quickly leave. As Madison regains consciousness, she uses her telekinetic powers to flip over the party bus that many of her rapists and Kyle were on, in efforts to get revenge on those who decided to take advantage of her as they induced her state of vulnerability. This killed all but two members of the fraternity, leaving the other fraternity brothers dismembered. Although Madison insists that she is fine the following morning, we later see her sobbing in the bathtub. Being that the main rapist survived, Zoe chooses to use her gift to kill him in his hospital bed. The witch archetype is one that is extremely diverse with many different subcategories. Zoe is an example of a witch that faces many struggles just within herself. For the woman who must wrestle with the witch inside her, the heroic life has an added lure, a specifically feminine one. For the female is not just pulled, as a man might be, toward the devouring witch force of the psyche; the female also becomes the witch. She knows the witch’s power as part of her female identity. To face and accept and integrate the fact of the witch presence within her is to experience the archetypal feminine flowing through her. She does not feel possessed by it; that would be to identify with it. But it does abide in her psyche (Ulanov 32). From the opening shot of the series, Zoe is a character that is constantly battling with her moral compass. Although she does choose to have sex with her boyfriend, she still struggles with deciding to go through with the act, as her catholic upbringing influenced her morals. Zoe finally succumbs to the power within her once she uses her gift to kill Madison’s rapist. This is the pivotal turning point where she finally accepts that she is a witch, as she is choosing to use her powers while fully aware of the results of her actions. In many of the stories told, witches are evil, who only use their powers for bad things. These witches are so powerful that their spells and enchantments can take lifetimes to break. An example of this in American Horror Story: Coven is Madame Delphine LaLaurie. The voodoo queen, Marie Laveau, had cursed her to immortality and kept her locked up in a trunk since the seventeenth century. When the Coven finds her locked up it is present day and Madame LaLaurie is still alive and well, the curse unbroken. Even in Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty, Princess Aurora is cursed to death, and all her fairy godmother can do is lessen the extent of her curse, putting her in an eternal slumber until true love's kiss, she can't even break it- because Maleficent is too powerful. Maleficent is a metaphor for a woman who is aware of herself. Because she is aware of how strong she is, everyone else sees it as a threat. Another example of witches being a symbol for female power is in the fifth episode of the season, entitled “Burn, Witch. Burn!”. On Halloween, Marie Laveau performs a voodoo ritual that resurrects an army of the undead to cause trouble for the witches of the Coven. As the undead encircle the house, one of the young witches, Nan rushes out to the front of the house to save the next door neighbor, Luke. Nan and Luke cannot escape, and they seek refuge in the car parked in the driveway. Zoe takes control of this situation, and loudly bangs pots to lead the undead away from Luke and Nan, giving them time to escape. This is the first time in the series that the young witches are working together, to protect each other, rather than living in constant competition with one another. Zoe rushes to the help the unarmed Nan and Luke with a chainsaw and destroys many of the intruders. The last of the undead, a large man with a cleaver, disarms her and makes her fall. Zoe responds instinctively with what appears to be a new power, impelling the undead man to "be in your nature". He falls, becoming nothing more than a cadaver and Marie Laveau shrieks, as she falls from her levitation, exclaiming that the witches now have real power. The reason she even sent the army to the Coven was to threaten Fiona Goode. Fiona Goode is a representation of the witch mother archetype in this season. Continuously placing her career above her relationship with her daughter, she struggles to be successful, while also promoting the image that is “all she has”. Fiona returns unexpectedly to the Coven and is disappointed with the way her daughter, Cordelia has been running the school for young witches. Fiona warns that a storm is coming for them all and insists upon staying and actively fulfill her role as Supreme, despite her daughter’s protests and threats. Fearing the loss of her powers, she disregards her duties and becomes obsessed with finding the new Supreme only to kill her, as Fiona wishes to remain Supreme. “From the archetypal point of view, the witch mother personifies aspects of our own unconscious, especially its regressive pull away from consciousness . . .” (Ulanov 43). Through this lens, the character of Fiona is a symbolic representation of her daughter’s own subconscious fear and paranoia about the rise of the next Supreme. Although Cordelia does not have a strong relationship with Fiona, she is still afraid of losing her mother. In comparison to the witch mother archetype, the young witch shown in mass media today is first and foremost a sensual, sexual creature, her power centered directly in her femininity. She is beautiful, self-assured, and powerful. She knows how to “bewitch” and seduce men. Much like a siren, her feminine enticement is more powerful than even the strongest man’s right hook. She can tempt, lure, and “charm” with her pretty face, scantily clad, curvaceous body, her tender touch, and soft, soothing, voice. Her body and voice are her weapons, and men are powerless to resist her enchanting. Historically, the witch has been seen as both a victim and a victor.
There are many stories of witches being persecuted, like the fate of those “witches” in the Salem witch trials in the seventeenth century. Yet, we also hear these tales of powerful witches who had no limitations but their imagination. The witch archetype is similar to that of the femme fatale, and is an easy way to categorize women who are not simply one thing. It has such a large spectrum that shows the vulnerability and strength women posses. This strays from the usual binary categorization of women into the virgin/whore complex, and shows that women cannot be placed into one of two boxes that lack variation. The witch is a woman warrior, now a symbol of the modern American woman who is aware of her self-worth and in control of her
sexuality. Works Cited Covington, Coline. "The Witch And The Clown: Two Archetypes Of Human Sexuality (Book)." Journal Of Analytical Psychology 33.3 (1988): 314-316. Academic Search Complete. Web. 04 May. 2018. Cuțitaru, Codrin Liviu. "The Genius of Shakespeare’s “Plagiarisms”. Case Studies: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear and Macbeth" Linguaculture, 2017.1 (2017): 63-71. Retrieved 6 May. 2018, from doi:10.1515/lincu-2017-0006 Dunham, Duwayne, director. Halloweentown. The Walt Disney Company, 1998. Holinshed, Raphael. The Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland. London: Marble Books, 1922. Print Olsson, Peter A. "The Psychotherapy Of A Modern Warlock: Rapprochement In A Coven Of White Witches." American Journal Of Psychotherapy 39.2 (1985): 263. Academic Search Complete. Web. 04 May. 2018. Shakespeare, William. The Complete Works. Volume 2. Ed. Avid Bevington. London: Scott, Foresman & Company, 1980. Print. Ulanov, Ann, and Barry Ulanov. The Witch and the Clown: Two Archetypes of Human Sexuality. Chiron Publications, 2013.
The Salem witchcraft trials of 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts can be considered a horrendous period in American history, yet is also viewed as the turning point in what was considered acceptable in a contemporary society. In a documentation of a trial against a woman named Sarah Good, the reader is able to see the way in which such an accusation was treated and how society as a whole reacted to such a claim. Sarah Good fell victim to the witchcraft hysteria because she was different, and that fear of her divergence from the Puritan lifestyle led to her eventual demise.
Karlsen highlights with an remarkable accuracy, the prejudices connected with areas of the particular portrayal of women along with the linkage of the "lady as-witch" idea inside United states tradition. Many contemporary individuals ended up being perplexed by such hasty action against a force that has no evidence. Karlsen brings a plethora of ideas to the table regarding these prejudices and explains in detail, the injustices performed against entirely innocent individuals.
“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.
...ion. The Salem tragedy, which occurred in 1692, makes us feel sympathetic towards the innocent people that died. It almost brings tears to our eyes because these people gave in to death in order to maintain humanity on this Earth. Although the deaths of these people were very tragic, it clearly demonstrates that good deed will always over power evil. The people, who reinforced this statement, were people like John Proctor and Rebecca Nurse. These people uprooted the seeds for evil from the ground, to lay the seeds for goodness. Throughout history citizens have branded people as witches, and warlocks. Maybe, a person act's different than us, or they have strange habits, does this make them a witch? In the Massachusetts Bay Colony in January of 1692, you would be branded a witch for these odd doing's. Being accused of witchcraft had serious consequences (spark notes).
Witchcraft has always fascinated many people and been a very controversial topic in North America during the seventeenth and 17th centuries. Many people believe that witchcraft implies the ability to injure or use supernatural power to harm others. People believed that a witch represented the dark side of female presence and were more likely to embrace witchcraft than men. There are still real witches among us in the Utah who believe that witchcraft is the oldest religion dealing with the occult. However, the popular conception of a witch has not changed at least since the seventeenth century; they still caused panic, fear and a variety of other emotions in people.
Karlsen, Carol. "Witchcraft: Prejudice and Intolerance Targeted Gender During the Witch Hunts: Effects on Early Mode." setonhill.edu. n.p., 1998. Web. 18 February. .
The Salem Witchcraft Hysteria was a product of women’s search for power. This claim is supported by Lyle Koehler, from A Search for Power: The “weaker sex” in seventeenth-century New England (University of Illinois, 1980), explained and argues why this is true. Koehler mentions that the women were in search for more power and respect and power equality. She mentioned that the men were afraid of witches because they felt they were superior to them which brought in the question of who really was the superior gender. But really, the women accused others as being witches so as to gain more power from men. Basically, this showed that the women were not afraid of controlling or taking the power from men. In the seventeenth century, the men had power; so therefore, women did anything and would do anything to gain more power than the men. In puritan society, the only women with any significant power were mothers. They had powers not only in their homes but also in the public as long as they accused people of being witches. They also implicated others to achieve this power. An example that Koehler gave would be sociologist Dodd Bogart’s conclusion that “demon or witch charges are attempt to restore “self-worth, social recognition, social acceptance, social status and other related social rewards” is pertinent to the Salem village situation.
Comprised of a theocratic justice system, The Crucible highlights Salem’s prodigious tendency to believe ‘that they held in their steady hands the candle that would light the world’, ‘for they were united from top to bottom by a commonly held ideology whose perpetuation was the reason and justification for all their sufferings’. However, ironically it was this common ideology that lead to the corrupt legal system which eliminated the goodness and integrity of the common man. Justifying even the smallest of circumstances with phrases from the Bible, the Puritans of Salem turned to holy book hoping for an explanation for the girls’ odd and “extremely” sexual behaviour in the forest. ‘Thou shall not suffer a witch to live’ arose when Mr Hale an ‘eager-eyed intellectual’ with a knowledgable outlook in witchcraft—the ‘most precise science’—journeyed to Salem to observe the strange conduct of the girls. Nevertheless, as bravely put in Wendy Schissel’s Feminist Reading of The Crucible, the girls were ‘caught in scandalous behaviour in a society that provides no outlet for exuberance, much less sexual exploration’ it might be worth considering ‘whether eating disorders today, or other related dysfunctions, could be similar last-ditch for girls facing dilemmas to which they see no healthy solutions.’
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.
In today’s times, witches are the green complexed, big nosed ladies who ride around on broomsticks at Halloween. Back in the 1600’s, witches looked like average people, but they worked alongside the devil. Salem, Massachusetts, was a religious town of Puritans. They were strong believers in God, and had believed that witches were the devils workers. Everything was usual in Salem in 1692, until, 9-year-old Elizabeth Parris and 11-year-old Abigale Williams had sudden outbursts of screaming, contortions and convulsions, the doctor came and diagnosed witchcraft (Blumberg, Jess) And from this time on, the people of Salem believed there were witches all around them.
I Married a Witch (1942) conveys the tale of how Jennifer, a powerful witch, which no mere mortal man could ever control ends up falling in love with Wallace Wooley, a man whose descendants angered her in which she cursed them for centuries. She fights over a series of unfortunate events: going against her father, destroying Wallace Wooley’s wedding, running away with him, marrying, and losing her powers; in the end Jennifer is successfully able to lead a happy domestic life. This film reflects society’s norms, limitations, and standards for women during the 1940s-1960s era. These ideologies of women being obedient, having no real power, and the expectations to get married really was an outcry to the so-called privileges women had.
Although witch trials were not uncommon in Puritanical New England, none had reached such epidemic proportions as Salem. In 1691 the mass hysteria began when several young girls dabbled in witchcraft and began acting strange. When villagers took notice the girls were seriously questioned and so they began naming people, mainly woman, who had supposedly bewitched them (Boyer, p66). Several other who had been accused were woman displayed ‘unfeminine’ behavior and those who
...ches and witchcraft have been passed down through generations to generations. From way back to the 1200’s to today in the present times, that is how long witches have been around. As of the history of witches and witchcraft, stories were used to keep the history alive inside the stories written in ancient mythology to Walt Disney’s movies. Check your family history. What and who were they. Were they witch hunters or were they a witch? There’s more to the story of Halloween or All Hallows Eve than meets the eye. What story or legend will come next?
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...
In examining the "evil" female characters we have encountered in Shakespeare's tragedies -- Regan, Goneril, and Lady Macbeth, the primary corrupting factor that links these women is their desire for or exercise of power. When comparing these women with Desdemona and Cordelia, who relinquish their power to men, the concept of "good" and "bad" women in Shakespeare's tragedies becomes overly simplified.