The Great Cat Massacre by Robert Darnton - Essay Example

Simultaneously, they caused the sovereign insult to their master-his wife being his most precious possession just as her cat was hers. 2. How do the apprentices let the viewer in on the joke or reveal the "hidden meaning" of the events to the community around them workers amused themselves with Lveill skillfully reenacting the horrible scene over and over during the following days. The mime was an atrocious and humiliating attack at the expense of the master's entire household. It provided entertainment for the men.

It must be taken into account the unity of the workers against the masters. By executing the cats with such elaborate ceremony, they condemned master guilty-guilty of the unjust management of the shop towards apprentices. The cats were a representation of the masters, who were declared guilty of poor labor practices. In trying, confessing, and hanging a collection of half-dead cats, the workers meant to ridicule their master. Perhaps the whole act intended to frighten their master that they were capable of fighting for their rights if necessary.

They also used it as a witch hunt, which provided an excuse to kill his wife's cat and to insinuate that she herself was a witch. The master became the victim of the workers' ridicule without him realizing it and the perpetrators got off free. The entire massacre disguised the insult of the workers brought about by their extreme hatred of their master that had spread among all the workers. The workers found the massacre funny because it gave them a way to turn the tables on the bourgeois. 3. How might the event have simply been the outcome of a culture of cruelty to animals and not liking cats In the story, the author arrogated that the cat massacre as extreme cruelty toward animals was a practice deriving from the Middle Ages.