Culture and Religion - Essay Example

THE SALEM WITCH HUNT Literature always chronicles human history, social developments, cultural integration and changes. irrespective of their racial, regional, religious, or ethnic origins always tend to retain a sense of moral obligation to the society and they try to reflect the truthful accounts of human life in their writings, so that people can understand and decipher the implications of events they would otherwise not be able to discern. It is through such accounts that the actual transfer of information takes place from generation to generation. The Salem Witch Hunt, which occurred in 1692, had been chronicled in a plethora of literary works, because of its relevance to cultural, racial, gender, and class distinctions existing in the 17th Century. The course of events that culminated in this event clearly depicted how people had been marginalized on the basis of these indicators. This mass hysteria afflicted Salem Village Massachusetts, in January 1692, when a group of young girls began to display bizarre behavior. The tight-knit community was perplexed by the seizure, screaming and spells of trance these girls went through. The physicians who attended the girls were unable to offer any plausible explanation. The confusion escalated into mass hysteria and people believed that the hovering presence of the devil over the village caused this problem. Tituba, a migrant African, confessed that a conspiracy of witches permeated Salem Village. Thus began the Salem Witch Hunt. The episode’s far-reaching ramifications are dealt in three classic works: I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem, a novel by Maryse Conde, The Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller, and Young Goodman Brown, a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The themes of all three stories are inspired by historical accounts of the Salem witch trials. All of them attempt to comment earnestly and staunchly on the hypocrisy and social stigmas; class, ethnic and racial distinctions that draw the fine line between the privileged and under-privileged, through the literary devices like theme, characterization, symbolism etc. I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem: Historical accounts of Salem trial inspired the novel I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem, by Guadeloupen writer Maryse Conde. This story portrays Tituba, a slave woman from Barbados, whose quest consists of numerous journeys that take her progressively further and further away from her home land to which she will return before her death with a more definitive understanding of her place within her community. Spiritual growth becomes an integral part of her voyage. Perhaps it is this potential in her that makes Mama Yaya, a spiritual healer and medicine women of immense mystical abilities, to take her in. Through this woman, Tituba acquires knowledge of her land, medicinal herbs, and the history of her people. She also learns that love and fond memories can keep the dead alive, and their honor intact. Thus forms the base for her belief that a few words can conjure them back. Conde narrates the story from the perspective of the oppressed other, as evident from the inclusion of the Jewish character, Benjamin Cohen D’Acevedo, who becomes Tituba’s owner, friend, and lover. The author underscores the history of racism and oppression, shared alike by the black and Jewish community, when Acevedo grants Tituba her freedom, so she can return to her homeland. Thus it can be seen that though the book is about Tituba’s role in the Salem Witch Craft Trial, it transcends this score as Tituba lives through a terrible string of events and explores philosophical problems like gender roles, mother-hood, married life, and the similarities between the experience of black and jews. This reflection, “Abena, my mother, was raped by an English sailor on the deck of Christ the King one day in the year 16** while the ship was sailing to Barbados. I was born of this act of aggression. From the act of hatred and contempt”, compels the reader to seek out the nuances and innuendos of each word. (3) The Crucible: Millers’ play symbolizes the McCarthy era of smears, innuendos, and attacks that ruined the lives of several innocent people, and he makes it clear it is based on Salem Trials. The story evolves around Reverend Samuel Parris and his daughter, Betty, niece Abigail and Tituba, a slave. Reverend Parris catches the dancing and chanting girls in the woods. Betty, remorseful, faints at the sight of her father. The prognosis of the doctor that Betty fainted due to unnatural causes makes the villagers believe that the girls were practicing witchcraft. They become apprehensive of the Devil hanging around Salem. They want him away but think that this will be possible only if the girls admit and repent their sins. Rev Parris fears losing his honor and status. Abigail wants John Poctor, the man she has an affair with, to confess his love for her. But he denies out of fear of castigation. This reveals the attitude of men towards women. Both men, responsible to protect the girls, are more concerned about their personal interests. This element of essential evil subtly resonates throughout the play. The plot throws light on the Puritan rigidity of religious faith allowing little room for persons to break away from the monotony of close-knit society and gives a history of the church employing accusations of satanic alliance against enemies. Miller also tries to expose the capability of gossip and rumors to disseminate throughout the close-knit society, and the amazing agility with which accusations snowball into an issue of catastrophic proportions. He claims that the Salem tragedy developed from a paradox for good purposes, the people of Salem developed a theocracy to keep the community together, but all organization is grounded on the idea of exclusion. The witch hunt was not mere oppression, but also an opportunity for every one to express publicly his guilt and sins under the cover of accusations against the victims. The fulfillment of the theme of self preservation recurs through the Salem Witch Hunt and it is evident from the words of Rebecca Nurse that “whether it is worse sin to lie to save oneself or to make a decision that directly leads to ones death.” In order to escape religious persecution a mixed group separatist Puritans (Pilgrims) and adventurers from England sailed to America on the Mayflower landed on Capecod in November, 1620. The puritans believed that universe was God centered, and that man, inherently sinful and corrupt, rescued from damnation only by arbitrary divine grace, was duty bound to do God’s will. Their religious ethics informed all aspects of society promoting safeguards against immorality at any cost to personal privacy or justice. They developed a willful sense of community safeguard against infiltration from outside sources. Their belief that they were the people of God destined to found New City of God imposed harsh religious restrictions uniformly, even on unwilling populace. But, unfortunately, their action contradicts what they preached as is evident from what transpired in the Salem Witch Hunt, which bares open the hypocrisy and evil in men. Young Goodman Brown: “Young Goodman Brown” is said to be one of the best stories ever written by Hawthorne. The use of symbolism in “young Goodman Brown” shows that evil is everywhere, which becomes evident in the conclusion of this short story. Hawthorne’s works are filled with symbolic elements and allegorical elements. “Young Goodman Brown” deals mostly with conventional allegorical elements, such as Young Goodman Brown and Faith. The name, Faith, is not a choice of whim but deliberately purposeful. This young woman is filled with sin yet she is said to be Godly. Because Faith was so honest and Godly, Goodman Brown put all of his faith in her, which made this pretty pink ribbon-wearing woman one of his worst enemies. Faith is said to be a good wife; pure, pious and saintly. But in the end her sin becomes explicit, revealing the hypocrisy hidden in the Puritan society. There is always an association between forests and evil because of its dark and gloomy nature. That is why the witch meetings were held in the midst of it. The minister and the deacon are also corrupt and evil. They all are considered to be holy and people of God, but they are just the opposite. Thus one can say, this short story deals with the realisms of reality. In the end the author asks a question: was this story, a dream or was it reality? Goodman Brown at the beginning of this story was an immature, good, loyal, trustworthy, and holy man. He has lacked strength, courage, firmness, seriousness, and determination as a Puritan should, but at a point in his life he attains maturity. The story ends with the unfortunate Goodman Brown becoming a stern, sad, darkly meditative, distrustful, if not desperate man. In closing, it is implied that Hawthorne wants the reader to integrate historical and psychosexual concepts when comprehending Puritan values. Thus a reader can easily recognize a common thread of the authors’ criticism of the evils of Puritanism, of religious and class bias that served only to marginalize a certain segment. The extent to which race, gender, class and other indicators play a part in the events that form the basis for human history has been artfully and subtly dealt by all the three authors. WORKS CITED Conde, Maryse: I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem, trans. Richard Philcox. New York: Ballantine Books, 1992. Dear Customer, The remaining citations seem to have been lost when I had the problem with the computers. I’ll send you a work-cited page to you later today. But these are web sources. So if you can include references from your text book that will be more appropriate. Keil, James C.  "Hawthornes Young Goodman Brown: Early Nineteenth-Century and Puritan Constructions of Gender."  The New England Quarterly 69 (March 1996): 33-55. Abel, Darrel.  The Moral Picturesque:  Studies in Hawthorne’s Fiction.  Indiana:  Purdue UP, 1988. ”The young man has the vulnerability of youth and, having newly yielded to the persuasions of the Devil, he has been led step by step to mistrust all he had believed in” (Abel 131).  Another element in "Young Goodman Brown" that is related to symbolism is allegory. The story is an excellent example of an allegory because everything in it is something physical that represents an abstract. For instance, "My Faith is gone! cried he, after one stupefied moment. There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come, devil! for to thee is this world given," is an extraordinarily allegorical quote (189). Brown is, in the story, talking about Faith, his wife, but allegorically, the author is showing us that he has lost his faith in man because he gives up the world to the devil. The quote "Faith kept me back awhile," shows us yet another example of allegory (185). Again Brown is talking about his wife, but the implication is that his good heart and faith in the more spiritually beneficial is what kept him off the path of destruction for a short while longer. A third example of allegory is when Brown looks at his wife and cries, "Faith! Faith! Look up to Heaven, and resist the Wicked One!" (192). It could be interpreted literally as well as figuratively. The figurative interpretation would include Brown making one last attempt to save his inner faith and look for something blessed to cling to. Read More