“as with Anne, Alice Kirfoote began to call out in her fits against Elizabeth Gregory and Agnes Pepwell.” Page 55

This quote is very interesting to me because I think it supports the idea that most people at that time may not have even been fearful of actual witchcraft, and that behavior such as this was just due to mass hysteria. While also being able to be used as a political tool, which was what Anne’s father may have been doing, I think much of this behavior can be linked to town gossip and runaway hysteria. At one point, Anne’s father even believed he was bewitched due simply to “a pain he had in his neck” (p. 54). I think this blatantly supports this idea, and could offer a reasonably explanation on why people were acting in this way.

“It is no overimaginative to see in Anne’s attempts to comply with her father’s wishes a desperate effort by an unloved child to gain her father’s affection.”

This quote reinforces the toxic nature of Anne’s relationship with her father. As a female child, Anne relied on her parents to support her. If she refused to participate in this elaborate ruse that her father orchestrated, she could risk not only adding to the resentment her father felt for her, but also being cast out on her own. As such, Anne was unfairly coerced into faking these possessions and other witchcraft; she did not have the means to abandon her family even after the guise started taking an extreme toll on her.

“One of the most unpleasant experiments conducted on Anne was having pins…stuck into her arms to demonstrate lack of feeling.” pg 10

I realize that we already discussed in class a bit about whether Anne was willingly part of the deception or not, but I can’t help but be confused by her. Her testimony certainly gives the impression that she did not want to be a willing counterpart in this scheme. Maybe I’m not ‘in tune’ with the times enough, but certainly there’s no way that she would endure this much without telling anyone if there wasn’t a part of her that was in on the scheme as well. All she had to do was react a bit when the needles were stuck and it would’ve been enough. She was drugged while this was going on, but I’m under the impression it dulled her senses while she was still in full control of her mind.

“Witchcraft involved power, and one way of understanding it at the level of the local community is to see it as a way in which the relatively powerless were thought to be able to gain access to power.” (Sharpe, Page 70)

This idea that witchcraft has to do with power relations is an interesting as Sharpe suggests that  there is power for both women performing witchcraft and also for the usually higher class people accusing them. I think it is important to address the role of agency specifically within a socioeconomic lens when discussing the history of witchcraft. As mentioned by Sharpe, many historians have trouble discussing witchcraft without bringing in their own biases. However, when you think of poor old women with few options, it becomes more understandable why someone would be willing to try Witchcraft to gain more power over their lives.

A whole chapter in The Betwitching of Anne Gunter is dedicated to contemporary law, which I found particularly fascinating because not only how much it resonates with how our legal institutions work now, but also how the two contrast in so many ways.  For instance, lawyers, a traditional element of trials, were “largely absent from criminal trials” (120) of the time.  Also very different from today are how trials back then often involved a “direct confrontation between the accuser and the accused” (121); and how often the judge – rather than act as a neutral arbiter as expected today – would actually interpose in the trial himself, his input being “as important in the trial of witchcraft as it was with any other offense” (122).

“We know that she could read: she learned how to pretend bewitchment partly by consulting books about such matters… (5)”

This quote stood out a lot to me, and I think I mentioned it in class. To me, this quote shows the effect of literature on real world events. This girl, because she was literate and had access to books, was able to strengthen her real world depiction of being possessed. This in turn created such a complicated situation that even the king became involved. She may not have been able to do this without access and the know how to read these books. Furthermore, it shows how the increased availability of printed text is affecting the world. In previous centuries, the youngest daughter of a family would likely not have access to multiple books about witchcraft and bewitchment.

“Aspects of Gunter’s behavior towards his daughter appear abusive to the modern observer, while it is not over imaginative to see in Anne’s attempts to comply with her father’s wishes a desperate effort by an unloved child to gain her father’s affection.” pg. 12

Although Brian Gunter’s actions were abusive, Anne so badly wanted to be accepted and loved by her father that she was willing to go through the torture so that he would love her and be happy.  It stated earlier how her father “disliked her so much” and when she was sick he didn’t even want to help.  Anne had to endure all this pain just to gain acceptance and could not go about it otherwise because she just wanted to please her father.  The abuse was the most amount of attention she had received from her father and it was better than being ignored and unloved again.

“…with all her varied self-presentations, she was still an unmarried woman instead of a king. She could not overcome either her sex or the decision she made not to provide England with a king-consort and an heir of her body or to name any other successor.” p. 90

This quote hit the reality of Queen Elizabeth’s situation pretty hard while I was writing my paper. Carol Levin showed many of Elizabeth’s various strengths during her rule. Yet her status as an unmarried woman was still a huge shadow that she couldn’t get out of.

“She was conventionally religious. some of the statements made while she was in her fits (where the sufferer’s body turned temporarily into a battlefield between good and evil, and she was expected to voice godly sentiments) demonstrate this.” (The Bewitchment of Anne Gunter, pg.5)

I found it very interesting when Sharpe had state Anne was “conventionally religious”. By this, I believe it had meant she was the simplest form of what one would consider themselves religious by doing the basics ie. prayer, attending of sermons, and reading of scriptures. Although she was religious, she had still gone through the elongated lie her family put her through as a tool of revenge for her father. There’s a heavy dismissal of a religious perspective on the situation because all in all it is a sin to lie in God’s name and give in to her father’s purpose and sin, pride. Her purpose in sustaining this facade was to upkeep her relationship with her family and put their wishes on top of what she might’ve truly thought was wrong or right. Her moral compass was surrounded around her family and they took advantage of that with examples such as her father taking her to pray in a church as a vow of secrecy between her and her family about the bewitchment. They’ve skewed religion to support a system of filial piety to keep Anne obedient to her father so is Anne truly conventionally religious? Or is she just a daughter in hope of winning the love of her family through loyalty?

Hi All,

I’m enjoying reading your posts and comments on our blog. Please remember that you need 4 posts and 4 comments to complete this assignment. Each of your posts should consider a different one of the books we’ve read. If you haven’t had a chance to write about the Bewitching of Anne Gunther, please do so before the exam on Monday the 17th.

All comments are due that day too.