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How Social Tensions Led To Wit - College Essay

How Social Tensions Led To Wit

The history of witchcraft during seventeenth century New England is inherently a history of direct confrontations within communities where relationships become tainted with suspicion, revenge and anger. The documents in Witch-Hunting in Seventeenth Century New England have retold the events and stories of Puritan New England to give the modern reader an understanding of the repressive social institutions of religion and family structure which were controlling factors that lay behind the particular cases discussed in the book. However, in order to really interpret the structure of witchcraft, it is important to consider that social tensions (most likely a dispute or argument) combined with ...

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characteristic would be Hugh and Mary Parsons.
Mary and Hugh Parsons lived in Springfield, Massachusetts. In chapter 2 of Witch-Hunting in Seventeenth Century New England, the introduction clearly conveys that relationships within the Parson family were filled with problems.
With the town’s houses built so close to each other, it could be assumed that neighbors were able to hear every argument and fight that took place within the Parson household. In the Puritan community, the kind of behavior that was observed of the Parson was out of the ordinary. Consequently, when Mary accuses Widow Marshfield of witchcraft for an unknown reason, it seriously damaged the Parsons social reputation – something that the Puritans took very seriously (Hall 29). From then on, suspicions and lack of trust started to be associated with the Parsons.
Accusations of witchcraft often followed arguments that would increase the social tensions in the community. These damaging accusations were usually the ...

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 1/23/2007 10:38:42 PM
Category: World History
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 929
Pages: 4

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