Superstitions In The Elizabethan Era Essay

During the Elizabethan Era, witches were considered evil burdens to society. It was thought that witches worshipped the devil and used their supernatural powers to commit crimes against the community. They were often held responsible for deaths, illnesses, and other mishaps that occurred within the community. Many citizens hated witches for these misfortunes, even though witches had no control over these accidents. Many times witches were severely punished for committing these crimes and they could even be sentenced to death.

Most observers now agree that witches in the villages and towns of the late Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century New England tended to be poor. They were usually not the poorest women in the community, but the moderately poor. Karlsen tries to show that a woman who was vulnerable was most likely to be accused of being a witch. Even women who had gained wealth because of the death of a husband were prime candidates.

In 17th-century Colonial America, contact with the supernatural was considered part of everyday life; many people believed that evil spirits were present and active on Earth. This superstition emerged 15th century Europe and spread with the colonization of North American puritan colonies. Women were believed to be the most susceptible to demonic behavior; females were considered simple targets for Satan due to being viewed as the weaker sex physically, spiritually, and morally. Women who did not conform to the Puritan ideals at the time were usually ostracized, institutionalized, or brutally murdered. In 1692, thirteen women were famously put on trail for accusations of witchcraft; famously known as the Salem Witch Trails. Most of these women were put on trial and later burned to death for erratic and un-Godly behaviors, 78% of the people charged were women who were accused of doing devilish things such as; speaking out against church officials, being a financially wealthy widow, having pre marital sex, or just being too beautiful. According to Michael Coren’s Why Catholics are Right “five million women were killed by the Church as witches… witch hunts began in the sixteenth century in Europe and that between 30,000 and 50,000 men and women were burned to death for

Idea of witches date back to the Renaissance and the period in history known as the witch craze.

During the hysteria of the Salem Witch Trials, accusations of witchcraft were made most often with reasons beyond that of simply fear.

During the seventeenth century supernatural played a huge role in everyday life for the people in North America. The peasants during this time would use witchery to invoke particular trinkets for farming and agriculture. As time progressed white magic, which was known to be good, turned into dark magic, which was correlated with demons and evil life forces. However, witchcraft became common between the years 1560 and 1670. In Salem people believed that their town’s misfortunes could be credited to the work of the devil. The people of Salem blamed the supernatural for their tragedies, such as crop failures, infant death and societal hostility among the congregation.

In the 1680’s and 1690’s there was mass hysteria in New England over supposed witchcraft. The most famous outbreak was in Salem, Massachusetts, hence the name Salem Witch Trials. In Salem, there were young girls who started acting strangely, and they leveled accusations of witchcraft against some of the West Indian servants who were immersed in voodoo tradition. Most of the accusations were against women, and soon the accusations started to shift to the substantial and prominent women. Neighbors accused other neighbors, husbands accused their wives, etc. and it kept going on for a while. There was this nature of evil and the trials didn’t end until nineteen Salem residents were put to death in 1692, more importantly before the girls

There are countless different assumptions about witches. The majority of individuals in the sixteenth and seventeenth century presumed that God and Satan were real (Lambert 1). They also assumed that “witches” were in allegiance with Satan and made a vow to bow down and serve him (Lambert 1). Furthermore, another common belief was

Reginald Scot explores the common perceptions towards witches in the late sixteenth century, which he claims they were commonly old, lame, full of wrinkles, poor (Levack 2004: ?), although not necessarily solitary (Larner 1984: 72). Scot claims that their appearance often caused alarm among many in the community and caused the neighbours to find truth in witches utterings. One could argue women were often ascribed with such stereotypes, for they were both physically and politically weakened, and were unable to distance themselves from accusations (levack 1984: 127). It is apparent the oppression of these women could represent an attempt to maintain hegemony in a patriarchal society in the late sixteenth century. Coincidentally, most women accused of sorcery often lived out of the constraints of male authority, where they would live alone, perhaps for the rest of her life.

In Elizabethan times , people believed in ghosts. Even authoritative figures wrote stories about them. The topic of apparitions was treated with reverence and respect. Shakespeare wrote Hamlet at a time when a very considerable conversation raged in England about the nature of ghosts. They also believed in witches. Elizabethans give us our superstitions of Friday the 13th, that special day every year full of people scared of black cats. Elizabethans didn’t know that some of the things that they thought to be paranormal actually were not.

In the Roman world, witches were considered highly dangerous women. Both men and women of every social status were terrified of witches and their power.

Some stories and anecdotes from the late 1600's into the mid-1800 's have them shown in a more malicious light. Stories of witches taking or leaving something in your home, so as to curse a member of that household and make them ill or them being able to steal from others by wringing the items out of a towel, (Chawell & Martin, 2016). However, witches were also sought out for help, although they were known under another name. " [Granny women] were ingenious and incredibly pragmatic, practical thinkers who had an understanding of their land..." (Ward, 2017).

The Elizabethans were a very superstitious bunch. In fact most of our silly seeming superstitions come from them. All of our superstitions from knocking on wood for good luck to black cats crossing your path being a bad omen. They also believed in everything from ghosts, to magic, to fairies, to the influence of the stars and planets alignment.

Superstition in William Shakespeare's Macbeth Throughout Elizabethan times, Witches and witchcraft were considered to be in existence. Seeing a large proportion of the female community being condemned to death, which involved either drowning, hanging or being burnt at the stake was quite plausible at this time. Such savage practices were urged on by macabre and fevered fantasy of the supernatural. In my essay I intend examining how Shakespeare deployed this obsession of superstition in Macbeth and how it is a crucial element of the play. To begin with, the tone of the paranormal theme is set right from the beginning when

Witchcraft was usually blamed whenever inexplicable events occurred. Another reason why witches were blamed for such events during the medieval times was because men were seen as the powerful sex and were expected to obey them. Medieval woman also