1: “Abigail: ‘I saw Goody Hawkins with the Devil!’
Betty: ‘I saw Goody Bibber with the Devil!’
Abigail: ‘I saw Goody Booth with the Devil!’” (pg. 46)
This passage sets the tone for the rest of the story in that it is frantic and we can clearly see the tone of mass hysteria coming out now. Both of the girls start launching accusations to shift the spotlight from them, and the author’s writing style in this gives a heightened atmosphere that makes your hair stand on end.
2: “You have confessed yourself to witchcraft, and that speaks a wish to come to Heaven’s side. And we will bless you, Tituba.” (pg. 43)
This passage in my opinion the holes in the logic of the people living in Salem at this time. This shows how content they are to use personal experience (or faux experience) as evidence, and that’s what allowed the situation to grow to the size that it was.
I agree with your comment on the second quote. But I would also add that it shows the moral superiority of the so-called reverends. They believed themselves above all thing, including attacks from both man and demon. Their authority could not be questioned, no matter how erroneous their theology or policies were, because they were ordained by God. They believed also that this alone gave them the power to cast out demons. A lot of the tragedy caused was a result of leaders' and judges' perceived sense of authority .
ReplyDeleteI agree that your first point is an intense point in the story. The seeming insanity is interesting to see and how the people play right into the girls hands is interesting to watch. It is also cool to see how well the girls knew their culture and while they were cornered they were able to use this to their advantage to take control over the situation. Very nice!
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you on the second quote, I think that it also show one of the major flaws in their system. They are going off of "personal experience", but there is no way to prove whether they are telling the truth or not. Which also shows that the officials think rather highly of themselves if they think that they can tell what is in a person's heart. there were just so many flaws that made their system extremely unreliable, and to us, seem very stupid.
ReplyDeleteI like your take on the first response. I hadn't even thought about how this set the tone for the rest of the story. It just seems like such a rash decision to try and shift blame from themselves that they're doing anything they can to not get in trouble
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