Delving even deeper within the psychosocial elements that influenced the early colonists in 1692, Carol Karlsen, in her book The Devil in the Shape of a Woman, demonstrates that women's status being particularly confined to that of Puritan definition was strenuous enough to cause such "possessions" to occur (231). What is described as a "cultural performance," Karlsen claims that these performances were representative of a ritual that the young New England girls were performing and that the ministers and townspeople were much like that of an interactive audience (231). Karlsen points out that as the play revolved around a battle between good and evil that was taking place for the whole town to witness and minsters found themselves attempting
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Thus, I was greatly intrigued when I came upon a theory that led to explain the hysteria of 1692 on a purely biological cause. In her research, Laurie Winn Carlson, found an explanation that could help to explain the large range of physical manifestations that were described by the colonists and this she postulates is an isolated epidemic of encephalitis (124). In comparing the physical manifestations that appeared in Salem with an encephalitis lethargica pandemic that occurred in the early 20th century, Carlson draws on some strikingly similar descriptions of symptoms that took place between each that she points to too make her case. Symptoms that were often mentioned in the historical accounts of Salem include, "fits" body tremors, spectral visions, mental distractions, pinching, eyes twisted, inability to walk, neck twisted and the repeating on nonsense words (Carlson124). During the encephalitis epidemic that took place between 1916-1930's symptoms were defined as convulsions, hallucinations, psychoses, myoclonus on skin surfaces, oculogyric crises, pareisis, torticollis and palilalia (Carlson 124). While the terminology that was used to describe …show more content…
Like most, I was under the impression that what developed was an isolated incident that was confined to the city of Salem. What I came to find in my research was that firstly, the origins of the witch trials began in Salem village (which is now the city of Danvers) not in the city of Salem that it is named after. Also, that the hysteria had struck out over a large portion of Essex county and that many people were afflicted, accused, tried and finally executed. As my inquiry progressed I began to gain a better understanding of the trials and tribulations that those early colonists had to endure and my perspective widened with regards to early colonial living in the late 17th century. With regards to the various theories that have been laid out to explain what exactly took place during the trials, I can say that most all make an adequate claim to what underlined this period of time. I would postulate that instead of there being one dominant theory to explain what was the cause, that there is a hint of truth in the sociological, psychological, economic and biological descriptions of all. My aim of this paper was to gain a better understanding of what occurred during the Salem witch trials and I have succeeded beyond expectation as now I have a sharpened understanding of early colonial
Thus, I was greatly intrigued when I came upon a theory that led to explain the hysteria of 1692 on a purely biological cause. In her research, Laurie Winn Carlson, found an explanation that could help to explain the large range of physical manifestations that were described by the colonists and this she postulates is an isolated epidemic of encephalitis (124). In comparing the physical manifestations that appeared in Salem with an encephalitis lethargica pandemic that occurred in the early 20th century, Carlson draws on some strikingly similar descriptions of symptoms that took place between each that she points to too make her case. Symptoms that were often mentioned in the historical accounts of Salem include, "fits" body tremors, spectral visions, mental distractions, pinching, eyes twisted, inability to walk, neck twisted and the repeating on nonsense words (Carlson124). During the encephalitis epidemic that took place between 1916-1930's symptoms were defined as convulsions, hallucinations, psychoses, myoclonus on skin surfaces, oculogyric crises, pareisis, torticollis and palilalia (Carlson 124). While the terminology that was used to describe …show more content…
Like most, I was under the impression that what developed was an isolated incident that was confined to the city of Salem. What I came to find in my research was that firstly, the origins of the witch trials began in Salem village (which is now the city of Danvers) not in the city of Salem that it is named after. Also, that the hysteria had struck out over a large portion of Essex county and that many people were afflicted, accused, tried and finally executed. As my inquiry progressed I began to gain a better understanding of the trials and tribulations that those early colonists had to endure and my perspective widened with regards to early colonial living in the late 17th century. With regards to the various theories that have been laid out to explain what exactly took place during the trials, I can say that most all make an adequate claim to what underlined this period of time. I would postulate that instead of there being one dominant theory to explain what was the cause, that there is a hint of truth in the sociological, psychological, economic and biological descriptions of all. My aim of this paper was to gain a better understanding of what occurred during the Salem witch trials and I have succeeded beyond expectation as now I have a sharpened understanding of early colonial