Witch Hunts & Other Strange Occurences: Exploring Arthur Miller's The Crucible



hysteric Definition hys·teric (hi ster′ik)
adjective
hysterical

Etymology: L hystericus < Gr hysterikos, suffering in the womb, hysterical < hystera, uterus: from the ancient notion that women were hysterical more often than men
noun

a hysterical fit; hysteria (sense )
a person subject to hysteria

To learn about the Salem Witchhunts click on this link to a National Geographic educational tour of Salem in 1692.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dead Crows and Other Mysteries

Image
(Image: Oil Painting by Kirsti Ann Wakelin) The other evening I dreamt I found a dead crow caught behind the cushions of my sofa. Disturbing. How did it get there, in my dream, so concrete and visible? And what does it mean? Carl Jung would have me analyze the significance of this dream as it connects to our collective consciousness. What do crows symbolize in our culture today? Was this a visit from Poe? Has a Haida raven dropped by to keep me on my toes? Or is the recent death of my grandfather somehow "couched" in my internal dialogue? He was a storyteller. Even more intriguing is what happened when I relayed this dream story to my grade 8's. Picking up a new book of poetry and opening it randomly the first poem I fell upon was Jon Silkin's "Carved", the first two lines: Two small dogs stood by a dead black bird And the black bird was very dead. There is no denying death. The dead are dead. As with Silkin's black bird. As with
Read more

Are You Normal?

Pre writing assignment for Ken Kesey 's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Normal : - adj . 1. conforming to a standard; regular, usual, typical. 2. to flee from mental or emotional disorder. 3. Geom . (of a line) at right angles, temperature etc. [Latin normalis: related to norm] - Oxford Dictionary What is normal? Should everyone be normal? Who gets to decide what is normal and what is not? Why? Is there a purpose to opposing the construct of normal? You are invited to post comments that reflect on the idea of normal.
Read more

Rules & Laws: What is their role?

Martin Luther King once said: "Just as it is the duty of all men to obey just laws, so it is the duty of all men to disobey unjust laws". [Presumably he meant women too! ;)] It seems true that rules and laws play a pivotal role in maintaining some sense of social order. What if there were no laws? Would chaos unfold? Would the world as we know it fall apart? Or would life take on some new kind of structure, maybe something we haven't imagined yet? What is the role of rules and laws in our society? Is there ever a time when some rules or laws should be broken? Why?
Read more