One of the major goals of Viviane was to preserve her religion against the spread of Christianity, which claimed the Goddess was evil and that Christianity was the only true religion. The high priestess of Avalon was capable of anything to make destiny come true, she manipulated her sister Igraine and deceived Morgaine, all for Avalon’s sake. This fact leads us to think about how different Pagans and the Christians behave. In the first place there are two religions fighting each other instead of coexisting as it had already been said. In a first moment Pagans were fine coexisting with Christians, actually it had been planned by Merlin and Viviane, this way Arthur would be responsible for ruling a place where both religions were supposed to coexist peacefully.
These times also had many differences. People in the Salem Witch Trials were in the 1600's-a very naive time- while people during the time of McCarthyism lived in the 1950's. Citizens of America in the 1600's were scared of one thing, the devil. The churches wanted to rid their town of anyone who associated with him by being hanged. In the 1950's, however, people were terrified of the red Communists coming to take over their beloved country.
Question 1: Anne Hutchinson was a threat to Puritan society in a combination of ways that other dissenters were not, which is the reason she was banished. The Puritan society in Massachusetts was established not so that people can exercise freedom of religion, but only so the Puritans can freely exercise their religion. These were a very intolerant people of any one else’s religious belief; and, their leaders did everything possible to keep other religions from prospering. Their main belief was that the entire community had to follow God’s laws as interpreted by their leaders and if they did then God would reward them. However, if the entire community did not follow God’s laws then the entire community would be punished.
The Social factor was that they weren’t really a community, there failure to really know there neighbors and the economic factor was because of the difference in monetary income. All of these were reasons why the Salem Witch Trials occurred. The religious/Political factor was really the main reason for the accusations of witch craft. The religious side of the factor was
However, Native American bloodshed, their harsh persecution of religious dissenters, and the Salem Witch trials are a blatant display of their hypocritical ways. The Puritans were contradictory in nature, and ultimately they fell short in meeting their goal of constructing the perfect Christian society.
The quote “But I know the child’s sickness had naught to do with witchcraft" (Miller 169) shows that he is sure the child is not sick due to witchcraft, but to natural causes. He wants people to know that the witchcraft is not true just because the girl was sick. They were just startles about all the commotion going on. Another quote is “She only pretended to faint, your excellency. They are all marvelous pretenders (Miller 187).” This quote shows his quest for truth because he
The puritans did not separate Church and State. The puritans lived by a moral code. They believed that sinful people should be punished. The puritans saw it as they were doing the will of God by riding the world of such demonic acts or lifestyles. Finding witches seemed to become a crusade.
An easy accusation of one’s name could tarnish their reputation and ruin their career. This happens to many citizens in Salem when they are charged with the involvement of witchcraft and do not wish to confess to such an outrageous allegation in honor of their good name. The Crucible is a perfect depiction in how intolerance and paranoia of the supernatural can tear a community apart. The devil and sorcery is used as a scapegoat to cover up ones personal mistakes and bad coincidences. If there is something wrong with the plants or the animals keep dying, it must be the work of black magic.
In the early Modern Ages, scholars overwhelmingly rejected the notion of witchcraft, as this would have threatened the monopoly of the Church[3]. The construction and imposition of witchcraft as a crime started in the 1480s. The Malleus Maleficarum written by Heinrich Krämer and Jacob Sprenger[4]were the “instigators of the systematic persecution”[5] of witches. Malleus argued that witches were supported by the devil (with whom they had a sexual compact) and attended Sabbaths[6]; making witchcraft a heresy. These ideas were then widely supported and imposed upon people by theologians and lawyers[7] making diabolic interference central to the idea of witchcraft.
What do you think is the significance of the witches in Macbeth? Witchcraft is the use of supernatural entities which can take on many forms; these forms differ within cultures. In the dark, medieval ages witches were seen as different from sorcerers as they did not use physical tools or actions to bring curses among others, however they were perceived as higher dangers due to their high amount of power. A witch was identified from various aspects, the most obvious one being the ‘witches’ mark’ which was done by the Devil in order to seal their services and obedience to him. He created the mark by raking his claws across their flesh, or by making a red or blue bump using a hot iron; sometimes the mark was believed to have been left by the Devil licking them.