Women, Power and the Devil; although many may incline to believe this to be the feminist holy trinity, it is, in fact, men's worst fear. Going back from second-century Christian theologian Tertullian who claimed women to be the gate of Hell (2) to a notorious American businessman who recently accused this presidential candidate of being the Devil himself (Volk and Sullivan,"Trump calls Hillary Clinton ‘the devil’"), men have always been prone to demonize women in order to prove their unfitness to govern. Shakespeare is no stranger to this thought pattern which he explores in his 1606 play, Macbeth. Indeed, Shakespeare's vile portrayal of Lady Macbeth and the Witches in the play stems from the medieval demonization of women. Through his choice
Was The Crucible historically accurate? It was loosely accurate. A lot of the stories were definitely over dramatized. There were outrageous accusations on almost everyone. Here is how it all started.
In 1692, a group of young girls from Massachusetts named Elizabeth and Abigail, believed they were being possessed by the devil and falsely accused several woman, men and children of witchcraft. Once the men and woman were accused they were ordered to attend multiple trials in which would be help in the Massachusetts general court. Once the men and woman were taken to trial they were proven guilty by the girls actions that proved the court these men and woman were apart of witchcraft. After the accuses were proven guilty in front of the court they were either held in prison and eventually died or hanged and died.
There are several incidences in history when someone was accused of witchcraft. Maybe they didn’t have anything to do with witchcraft but if someone said it, everyone believed them. Some many people’s lives were taken because of something they didn’t do not had a part in.
any innocent people in the colonial times who were accused of witchcraft didn't even partake in any of the activities that were associated with witchcraft, were still labeled as witches, and harshly punished or sentenced to death. The people of salem frowned upon witchcraft. the people had come to the conclusion that the devil had come to their town in 1692. Most of the cases of witchcraft were girls were acting strange and doing weird activities with women in the woods believed to be witches.the townspeople thought this was strange and took action.
In Act IV, the three witches played a major role in providing important prophecies concerning Macbeth. The song “Witches Brew” illustrates the wickedness of the Weird Sisters. When creating their potion, the witches add ingredients, such as an “eye of newt” and a “toe of frog” (Shakespeare 4.1.14), that are often associated with evil and nasty creatures. The Weird Sisters use this concoction to reveal Macbeth’s apparitions, a dark premonition depicting his downfall. If the witches knew about Macbeth’s demise all this time, it proves the nature of their malevolence. Furthermore, the witches are described as “secret, black, and midnight hags” (Shakespeare 4.1.48), where black is a symbolism of darkness and death.
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
Although introduced as a thoroughly hardened, ambitious woman, Lady Macbeth’s seemingly unbreakable character shatters when she is consumed by the demon of guilt. The guilt of Lady Macbeth seems nonexistent when she persuades Macbeth to kill King Duncan, but the heinous acts she and her husband commit throughout the play strain her slowly. Eventually, the guilt Lady Macbeth harbors emerges from her subconscious and crumbles her. The downfall of Lady Macbeth reveals that even the toughest, strongest, and most powerful people can succumb to guilt.
The stereotype of witches is that they are ugly, green, have warts, and fly on broomsticks. During the trials, the “witches” looked nothing like that. The people who were accused of witchcraft looked like normal humans. Witchcraft tended to be a female crime and most of the people accused were women (britannica.com). Out of all the people who were tried, 85% of them were female (Day). Other people who were accused were the poor members of the Puritan
In the Crucible there are no actual dates of when the witch trials actually took place. Since the story is taking place in the days of early settlement the story can not be proven or disproven. But, since the fear of witches and the devil was real in those times then I can say that Salem Witch Trials might have happened, but , this specific set of incidents did not.
Trevor Reznik from The Machinist hasn't slept in over a year. He suffers from severe insomnia from guilt after killing a young girl on accident with his car. He begins to lose weight drastically, hanging around the wrong crowd, takes the blame for a fellow coworker who lost his arm after Trevor starts up a machine on accident, and even begins to hallucinate committing murders and much worse. The guilt we feel can take over our lives and lead us to our own moral demise. Many characters in Macbeth understand guilt whether its Macbeth seeing the ghost of a murdered friend or unable to scrub off blood that may or not be there. Shakespeare uses plenty of examples of hallucinations and guilt within his stories.
Macbeth cannot control his paranoia and hallucinations, but he can control his actions towards the prophecies he 's given in the beginning. By the end of the play, his paranoia led to his lonely demise which showed how he believed in the prophecies. Macbeth’s control over his destiny reflects on what the play is teaching us overall.
The Tragedy of Macbeth written by William Shakespeare deals with the concepts of power, ambition, evil and fear. One particular scene in the play seems to deal with more of the concepts of fear and power, as well as feeling nothing. In Act 5, Scene 5, Shakespeare uses differing types of figurative language to add to the somber tone and dark nature of the scene/play.
In Shakespeare’s day witches were not merely a novelty character brought out as a joke around Halloween. It was widely believed that witches were real and that they possessed powers that were considered to be of the devil. This belief in witchcraft eventually led to a widespread panic that was followed by the persecution of witches. Due to this belief in witchcraft at the time Macbeth was written and performed; the tone was already set. Shakespeare used this fear to create suspense within the play and it led to the involvement of the weird sisters and the crazed actions committed by Macbeth and his wife.
The three witches, in the play “Macbeth” written by William Shakespeare, present themselves as just plain evil, caring only for themselves. They harm those that displease them or to please themselves. The witches can be compared to the Fates in Greek mythology because, “In nearly all mythologies the three Fates,