“We Aren’t Superstitious” Questions:



“We Aren’t Superstitious” Questions:

1. According to Benet, why is the story worth re-telling?

2. Describe the examples Benet uses to prove that Salem was an “ordinary” village.

3. How does Benet relate the panic of Salem to something that might happen today?

4. How did New Englanders view witchcraft in 1692?

5. Who was Cotton Mather and how did he help instigate the witchcraft hysteria?

6. What was the history of witchcraft trials in Europe and how does Benet defend their belief in witches?

7. Describe the historic Rev. Samuel Parris.

8. What does Benet mean when he writes, about Rev. Parris, “And when he brought those two or their service in the West Indies, he was buying a rope that was to hang nineteen men and women of New England’?

9. Why were the girls attracted to Tituba and her stories?

10. What are some of the “explanations” that were not considered once the girls began to become “afflicted”?

11. How did the village react to the afflicted girls?

12. How did the “afflicted” girls react to the attention (note Benet’s phrase: “and any reported knows what that does to certain kinds of people”)?

13. To what does Benet relate the swarming crowd that swarmed to the meetinghouse after the first arrests?

14. What made Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne such easy targets?

15. How does Benet draw the reader into the courtroom scene?

16. What do you notice about Judge Hathorne’s first question to Sarah Good?

17. How did the “afflicted” act in court?

18. What does Benet mean when he writes, “And with these words, Sarah Good was already hanged”?

19. How did the examination of Sarah Osborne proceed?

20. Describe the historic Tituba. How did she act in court and what result did this have?

21. After that first hearing, how did the townsfolk feel?

22. What eventually happens to Tituba?

23. What events lead to the arrest of Martha Corey?

24. What was the real reason behind the arrest of Rebecca Nurse?

25. During the subsequent examinations, how did the “afflicted” act?

26. Benet claims that Mary Wolcott and Abigail Williams’ demonstrations of possession “would not have deceived a child”, so why were they believed so completely by the learned adults?

27. What made Bridget Bishop an easy early victim?

28. How did the social level of the accused change?

29. Why do you think Benet includes the details of Rebecca Nurse’s trail?

30. Why does Benet write, in the middle of his explanation of the accusations brought against Susanna martin, “No, I am quoting from testimony, not inventing.”?

31. What does Benet mean when he writes that “the cloth” could not save Rev. George Burroughs? What does the “cloth” stand for and why wasn’t it able to save him?

32. Why do you think Benet offers the line from the petition of Burroughs’ orphaned children?

33. Describe some of the “flash[es] of frantic common sense” that Benet discusses.

34. Describe the fate of Giles Corey.

35. What stopped the madness? Why does Benet refer to this as reductio ad absurdum?

36. What does Benet mean by the line, “We have no reason to hold Salem up to the obloquy”?

37. What, overall, is Benet’s point? How does he relate “superstition” to “us” at the end of the essay?

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