Words of the Bewitched in Bridget Bishop Assignment

Words of the Bewitched in Bridget Bishop - Assignment Example This affirmed the fears of the witnesses that indeed 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 was 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. A large number of her culprits and the intensity of their predicament could not help matters for the Bishop either.