Preview

Caliban And The Witch Quotes

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1341 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Caliban And The Witch Quotes
Ronnie Mukhopadhyay
Philosophy 62 Essay
3/9/11

“Caliban and the Witch”

“Caliban and the Witch” is a wonderful book written by Silvia Federici. This book consists the basis and the importance of labor power, the history, and the concepts of the body, and also about Capitalism. Federici got the name Caliban from Shakespeare’s book “The Tempest”. Federici has many details that I find much tensed, of what many people went through. “Caliban and the Witch” is about the transition to Capitalism, and also about the peasant revolts in the middle ages. As I started to read the book, I noticed that Federici analyzed the history that took place in Medieval Europe, and what I found interesting was the part about the basic role of women in
…show more content…
A difficult time that took place was during he 16th, and 17th century Europe. During that time, pregnancies were required to be registered with the authorities, and marriage was an important part. It was very difficult for the women that were deprived from their means in tradition of Contraception, and abortion. The work that was being done by females was described as housekeeping. It was assumed that people should have not been working outside of their home. In the 16th century, people lived in a sexist society, where European females had retained economic independence from males that usually don’t underneath Capitalism, where genders are very important. In the medieval society, females had many tasks like washing, and harvesting. The Witch hunt was like a time period, where the females had to become servants to the men’s work force. The writer Silvia Federici explains in this particular book, about the sexuality of a female, which is type of female’s power over males. The object of mystery, and suspicion, was coming under attack by authorities. There were new laws that was taking away the female’s control over reproductive process, for example, banning the birth control measures, and also not having midwives instead replacing them with male doctors, and also the abortion being …show more content…
Things like that prevailed during the middle ages, in the 16th century which was celebrated in Europe”. Witch hunt did not just target the sexuality of a female, but also homosexuality that crafted the boundaries that take place in the society. The politics of gender was part of the feudal system which was in Crisis. As the movements were increasing, the revolutionary was increasing also. Those that were elite European nobles, in the working class were destroying, and also threatened rule The Witch hunt was like a Capitalist paradigm. The Capitalism was known as a counter-revolution which ruined the parts of the anti-feudal problem. In the book, Federici had concepts about witch burning, and she compared it to the 21st century, “War on terrorism”, which crushed the peasant women. It showed how women took part as leaders of peasant rebellions. Federici’s book reminded me of the article that Jeanne Theoharris wrote. This article was very stressful, which was mainly about Syed Hashmi who was sent to jail. I find it very painful for one to go through that pain, and that is not right, how can a human being be treated for something like that. Syed Hashmi had no access to anything, he was not allowed to contact anyone. Syed’s family misses him, and one can tell that Syed is well educated who attended Brooklyn

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    THE WITCH-HUNT IN MODERN EUROPE By: Brian Levack The Witch-Hunt in Modern Europe by Brian Levack proved to be an interesting as well as insightful look at the intriguing world of the European practice of witchcraft and witch-hunts. The book offers a solid, reasonable interpretation of the accusation, prosecution, and execution for witchcraft in Europe between 1450 and 1750. Levack focuses mainly on the circumstances from which the witch-hunts emerged, as this report will examine. The causes of witch-hunting have been sometimes in publications portrayed differently from reality. The hunts were not prisoner escapee type hunts but rather a hunt that involved the identification of individuals who were believed to be engaged in a secret activity. Sometimes professional witch-hunters carried on the task,…

    • 1702 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Hans Baldung’s Witches’ Sabbath offers a vivid and startling view of a gathering of witches. Depicted as wild, evil women, the woodcut aligns strongly with the views expressed in Malleus Maleficarum, which identifies the many dark characteristics and satanic practices of the vastly female population of witches. Responsible for everything from crop failure to impotence, they are a force to be feared and persecuted. They are a group of women who reject male governance, oftentimes being older unmarried women (therefore having failed in the pursuit of marriage and children), and thus must be demons.…

    • 987 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    For hundreds of years, the word “witch” has been associated with innumerable negative images. Witches were considered devil worshipers who committed scores of evil deeds toward society. By the 14th Century, a law was passed outlawing any practice of witchcraft or sorcery; anyone in Europe accused of witchcraft was subject to the torture and execution. In the 1450’s there was a breakout of violent persecutions against people accused of being witches. “During this time more than 100,000 people (mostly woman) were killed for allegedly practicing witchcraft” (Kallen 33) . Witches were viewed by the public as dangerous and uncontrollable menaces to society. They were believed to have relationships with the devil, this relationship was developed because of the church demonizing the witches in the 1450’s. During this time, people lacked medical knowledge about sickness and disease. When the witches were healthy during many of these wide spread diseases, the people believed they were the ones that cursed everyone with it. The people believed that witches could curse people that they did not like. In the city, It was common for old beggars to be on the side of the street asking for change but when people refused to give the beggars coins, they would angrily curse at the passersby. If the people that the…

    • 1192 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    It seems that every hundred years or so a new fear develops. Right now, in the 21st century the fear is terrorism and war. In the 20th century it was world expansion and industrialization. Yet all else aside, in the 16th and 17th century, witches were the ones to fear. In this essay I will discuss the characteristics of an “alleged” witch, methods used to insure a person practiced witchcraft, and the treatment of the ones accused.…

    • 877 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Calpurnia Quotes

    • 418 Words
    • 2 Pages

    “As more individuals are produced than can possibly survive, there must in every case be a struggle for existence, either one individual with another of the same specie, or with the individuals of distinct species, or with the physical conditions of life.”…

    • 418 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Afterwards, however, they saw a chance to extend their services outside of the homes, which was also largely informed by the steady decline in the payoffs of reproductive work. According to Federici, the men were unhappy with the women’s decision to step outside of the home and into the marketplace, thus catalyzing the phenomena of witch-hunts. Men began calling women “whores” and “witches” whenever they would decide to abandon their prescribed household duties (96), which was aimed at dissuading them from entering the marketplace.…

    • 978 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Once interrogated for an explanation behind their state, the girls began to accuse the residents of Salem. What caused the villagers to believed the girls’ claims, remains a topic of great debate, however, it is imperative to evaluate the context in which this all unfolded. The belief and condemnation of witches traces back as far as the Old Testament. Likewise, Salem was a community that was dominated by strong religious beliefs, as Ernest King and Franklin Mixon, in what is now known to be one of the most prominent investigations of the Salem witch trials, claim that “The Puritans, and [their] religious doctrine, dominated the area and . . . had a strong presence in daily life”. Taking this into account, it becomes understandable how easy it was for the villagers to reach the conclusion that the afflicted girls had caught the evil hand.…

    • 498 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    [ 2 ]. Brian P. Levack, The Witch-Hunt in Early Modern Europe, Third Edition (Harlow: Pearson Education Limited, 2006), 112.…

    • 1707 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    I. A. The Salem Witch Trials were a time of panic for poorly, ugly women and their families (A Brief…

    • 266 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In January 1692, the colony of Salem, Massachusetts would encounter a situation that would change the small colony forever. That year the quiet town would endure a 9-month long span of trials of witchcraft that would leave 200 accused witches and 20 dead. The trials were based on religious beliefs and would separate all the “unholy” citizens from the community. The trials separated the community based on fear and individuals singling out others based on class. The witch-hunts have affected modern society by deeming women as weak and inferior to men and as easily controlled. The whole thing could have even simply started as a group of young girls who just wanted to gain attention and then taken over by corrupt leaders who wanted to exercise…

    • 774 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Women were taught to be submissive to the rule of their fathers and men in positions of rank. This caused social tensions, and the agency of a woman was suspect if she acted outside this socially structured role. The roles of women in households and communities were connected to bearing and raising children, marriage, and purchasing goods for the household. The acceptance of women accused as witches being part of the marginalized and poor, she argues, is not reflected in the documents from the trials and did not support the idea that women accused of witchcraft were the marginalized members of the community. Just because they were women in their patriarchal culture, they lacked significant ability to exercise agency.…

    • 1445 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Witch Dbq

    • 1092 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Women who didn’t act like “proper women” were outcast as witches. For instance, if a woman were not obeying her husband’s every command then she wasn’t playing the expected gender role, therefore she was a witch. Outcasts were different, otherwise they wouldn’t be outcasts. People who were exiled were weird in that they lived life their own way, making people judge and want to get rid of them. If a person who was considered an outcast were using herbs as medicine or staying out late and spending time alone, then they were persecuted as witches. A woman accused of being a witch said that she was pinpointed as being a witch because society saw her as different. She wrote, “some call me witch, and being ignorant of my self, they go about to teach me how to be one” (Doc 5) People were also persecuted for “suspiciously” being selfless. A report of Churchwardens in Gloucestershire, England claimed that a woman, Alice Prabury, “ useth herself suspiciously in the likelihood of a witch, taking upon her not only to help Christian people of diseases strangely happened but also horses and all other beasts.” (Doc 4) Women and men who were less fortunate were those most wrongly persecuted. From a regional and comparative witchcraft study done in 1970, it showed that from 1546-1680, woman who were the wives of laborers were more accused than wives of the wealthier men. (Doc 10) This was suspicious in that society and culture were doing the wrong thing, not those who were persecuted. Women were…

    • 1092 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Salem Witch Trials

    • 328 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The events that took place in Salem in 1692 are a part of a greater pattern throughout our history to persecute innocent people, especially women, as "witches”.…

    • 328 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The environment which in persecution takes place is this era of witchcraft equals death. It seems if just one accuser is calming you are a witch, rather the accusation is right or wrong; the accused is damned without any means of retreat. Currently, witchcraft does not have that type of concrete structure with charges, and it’s merely just gossip. Modern times compared to the world in the source is focused on liberal justice factual claims, and evidence is required to support a criminal accusation. A person will not receive any criminal charges, or a death penalty if they are accused of being a witch. The ordinary people of this era would not have appreciated the context of this book because the majority believed in blaming witchcraft without a justified cause. Comparing the circumstance with the sources reveals several common denominators expressed in the Europe-Atlantic world. One of the primary objectives with this era connected to the source is to gain peace. Excerpts from Perspectives from the past describe the chaos circumstances producing the need for peace with the report about the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in 1572, and the Peace Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. Including the essay Of Cannibals by Michele Eyquem De Montaigne, the writings of…

    • 966 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Furthermore, Marx analyzes the dialectic of private property which political economy regards as homogeneous. There are generally two kinds of property according to Marx, one that involves the labour of producers themselves to render it alienable, meaning it can be sold or exchanged, and the other which is maintained by exploiting the labour of others (Marx, 1990, p.930). The two forms of private property are the antithesis of one another and when one converts to the other, consumers who were once self-sufficient become dependent on wage labour. This relates to Marx’s notion of primitive accumulation since the transition to capitalism required the commodification of land. As individuals were expropriated from their land, they were required to…

    • 1727 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays