Words of the Bewitched in Bridget Bishop - Assignment Example

Words of the BewitchedBridget Bishop is facing trials of crimes of witchcraft she committed years ago. The trial is a proceeding of several testimonies from beholders. It is, however, interesting to note that the beholders testify of instances of bewitching that were done to them years ago yet they remember them and associate them with the Bishop as though they took place only the other day. The shape of the prisoner, Bridget Bishop, proved it all. Besides, they all recollected that the tortures they underwent were all related to the Bishop; when all the bewitched were touched by the Bishop, their conditions improved.

This affirmed the fears of the witnesses that in deed the Bishop was a witch.Each witness had an account different from the next, all of which were related to an interaction with the Bishop. In most of the testimonies, the unsuspecting culprits would welcome the Bishop into their homes as a visitor or simply interact with her as they would any other villager. However, the more her visits became, the more their miseries increased. This showed them that the torments would not have been instances of accidents but were well planned and the culprits carefully selected.

The Bishop’s gender contributed to the accusations against her. Being a woman, she had gained so much influence and was living on her own. This was not common with the villagers. On the trial day, a body search revealed shambled body parts that did not resonate with the physique of a woman. A teat that was found mysteriously disappears right in the sights of her searchers. This is an occurrence that she could not let herself out of. The presence of puppets made of rugs and hogs bristles with headless pins on them were found in her house.

These were weird things that the witnesses could not fathom. Their presence in her home and lack of a proper explanation of their use worsened the case against her. The bench of female jurists thus made the ruling of guilt against her based on the amount of evidence.To protect one from being accused of witchcraft, all it took was the courage to sign a book. The Bishop refused to sign this book. This is an act that proved her among the villagers as an outright witch. She could not thus be accused of routine misconduct.

Furthermore, the accusation leveled against her and the following testimonials were unique in that they involved strange occurrences that inflicted pain and torture on her culprits. The large number of her culprits and the intensity of their predicament could not help matters for the Bishop either.From the text, puritan settlers succeeded in creating a New England. Their success came in the creation of a nation free from any instances of white magic. In the seventeenth century, Europe was flocked with witches and magic that made life unbearable for most people.

Strange occurrences and calamities whose origins could not be explained all found their explanations embedded in witchcraft. Lives were lost as the accused witches were torched and expelled from the villages. However, with the arrival of the puritan settlers, laws were made upon which offenders were tried. Following a well-organized court case and with a very fair set of laws to judge the accused against, the witches were eliminated. This paved way for scientific studies to establish causes and find solutions to problems (Cotton 297).

Work cited.Cotton, Mather. Wonders of the Invisible World (1692) in witch hunting in seventeenth century New England: A documentary history 1638-1692, ed. David Hall. Boston: Northern University Press, 1991. Print.