Elizabethan Era Superstitions

Now superstitions have affected people's lives for ages. Superstitions really shine in the story of Huckleberry Finn. Chapter one already gives you a good glimpse of superstitions. For example, Huckleberry Finn flicked a spider off of his arm and it went straight into a candle's flame. This is apparently bad luck and he did various good luck charms to ward off the bad luck. From this amount of information you can tell superstitious affects a lot of peoples lives.

A variety of jobs existed during the Elizabethan era. There were some people who worked for the queen, others who worked with their hands, and lastly people who worked for royalty. These jobs that people did were really important out of the elizabethan era.

By the end of the fourteenth century, the Black Death killed nearly 60% of Europe’s population. First arriving in Europe through sick merchants on Genoese trading ships that docked in Sicily, the plague caused boils, fever, diarrhea, horrible pain, and shortly, death. No one was sure how the Death spread, and this combined with the fast course the disease took and the primitive medical practices of the time allowed for the disease to spread through the continent in devastating time. It only took about twenty-three days from the point of infection for the plague to be fatal (Benedictow). The Black Death spread extensively through Europe, affecting both nobility and peasants.

There were two sorts of witches in Elizabethan times: Black witches and White witches. Dark-skinned witches were seen as the Devil 's admirers who conducted in magic with a specific end goal to cause pain. White witches, thought to be "Healers" by individuals from their town, were seen as precious individuals as the group, who used magic to help, for the most part by curing

Did you know that for stealing a purse you could have your limbs torn off?During the Elizabethan period, there would be crimes committed followed by punishments. These crimes are most not like the crimes today. Some include stole purses, begging, and poaching.Now you're probably wondering, what such crimes must those be? Money wasn't much easy to get back then so people tried to steal and be able to feed their families. There was no police to stop these thieves. They had the watch which was armed citizens. Major crimes included high, treason ,spying, murder, witchcraft etc.

In the “Elizabethan Era” most people cared about their appearance. They would carry mirrors, combs, ear scoops, and bone manicure sets. Pale skin and dark eyebrows were a big part of the bizarre trend in the Elizabethan Era. Women would do anything to achieve pale skin. Not only was pale skin popular so was having long fair colored hair. They wore extravagant makeup and even though they put harmful things on their face they took very good care of it at the end of the day. Few of the trends they used back then are still around.

During the Elizabethan times, superstitions and folk tales were very popular and were spread all throughout England, and impacted almost everything. Life, sickness, and many beliefs were affected by superstitions that branched from other ideas. For example, astrology and medicine helped construct many of these beliefs. In some ways the church also had an impact because church affected how the common people reacted to these ideas. A religious church man would talk down upon superstitions opposed to an individual who is open minded to the ideas. This was normal during this time, to have such a controversial topic be embedded into the minds of the common citizen in England. Despite the fact that superstitions were controversial to the church, they had a huge impact during the Elizabethan era. Superstitions shaped daily life, affected illnesses, and impacted modern beliefs in the form of folk tales.

Many people do not realize how fortunate they are to have the medical advances and medical technology we easily have the right to use. People from many years ago did not have specialized doctors and medicine to cure their diseases that we easily have access to today. (Ramsey) Many civilizations used what they thought to be alleviating processes, but medical experts today know now were pointless and dangerous. Among these people were the Elizabethans. (Chamberline) The Elizabethan Era was a time of accusations. People believed certain procedures were curing people when in fact they were killing them. (Ramsey) They also blamed mysterious acts they could not explain on innocent people, creating a handful of superstitions we know and use today. Unexplainable events and hazardous medical customs sparked the era of the Elizabethan Age. (Elizabethan Superstitions)

Medicine during the Elizabethan Era was extremely basic. The knowledge most people had about medicine came from their ancestors through many generations. The Elizabethan Era was a time when terrible illnesses such as the Black Plague were killing nearly one-third of the population. The cause of many illnesses during this time was lack of sanitation. Back then, women played a major role in medicine. They often nursed the sick using home remedies that were passed down from generation to generation.

Maintaining healthy waters are crucial to the human life. Water is needed by all life on earth. Over 1.1 billion people live without access to safe drinking water. In the Elizabethan Age, the concept of treating wastewater had not yet crossed the minds of a society that was dangerously unaware of the potential for the diseases and ill health they faced by exposing themselves to household and personal wastes. With the growth of world population nature cannot always treat all the wastewater created. Each person uses up to 100 gallons of water every day for drinking, cooking, bathing, flushing toilets, laundry, washing cars, and watering lawns. The water that we have used in our homes that goes down the drain is called wastewater. This includes water from baths, showers, sinks, dishwashers, washing machines, and toilets.

1. How is the purpose of urban legends of today the same as that of folktales that have been passed down for generations?the way that these urban legends can in some ways serve a similar purpose is that it has always keeped people aware of what's around them. The fact that people have scene or even talked about things that may seem unreal, well that idea even to the non believers, would still be aware.

One symbol is the forest. It was considered the devil’s territory and symbolizes the evil within humans. When the girls were caught in the forest they presented a new evil and fear to the community. Another symbol is the doll, it can be a symbol of innocence and purity, but it can also be a symbol of witchcraft. It symbolizes witchcraft because of the transformation from good to evil. Like stated previously it symbolizes innocence because it’s usually an object that would be given to a child. In witchcraft a doll can be used to do harm to others; a voodoo doll. When Abigail Williams saw the doll at John Proctor's home and saw the needle stuck into the doll, she decided to accuse Elizabeth of witchcraft.

The East Anglia witch hunt was a turning point for English witchcraft. Witchcraft hysteria lessen as the seventeenth-century continued. After the end of the civil wars, Oliver Cromwell became the Lord Protector of England. Cromwell was not a believer in witchcraft, he tried to repress it in England. During the 1950s witch hunting had its times of highs and lows. Political debate regarding witchcraft had begun during Cromwell’s rule. New religious groups, such as Baptist, formed fear of witchcraft in some cases leading to accusations and trials. Baptist rejected any modern medicine of the time and choose essential oils in healing bewitchment. Cromwell himself was accused of being a witch in the late 1650s. In 1657, a Royalist spy claimed

In the summer 1692 the town of Salem, Massachusetts spiraled into a witchcraft epidemic, 19 people were hanged and 1 person was pressed to death. People started to get marks and rashes on their body and when a doctor couldn 't even explain it they started accusing people of witchcraft. Bridget Bishop was the first victim of hanging during the epidemic. Then after that it went downhill. People started to take advantage of witchcraft, and accuse people they wanted gone, and it worked they could get away with it with no punishments. The main cause of witchcraft is people taking advantage of it for their own purposes.

Many people today are very superstitious and prejudice, there are many ways to eliminate these things but nobody wants to fix the problem. Being superstitious and prejudice is where you believe something but you really don’t know about it, and there are no facts to prove it. In The Crucible there were a lot of examples of people being superstitious and prejudice. Some steps to stop this problem would be getting to know things that you are superstitious and prejudice about, ask questions, and don’t believe everything you hear. Some examples would be a black cat crossing in front of you would be bad luck, although nobody has an actual answer to if that is true or not it would be considered a superstition.