Elizabeth Gaskell - Lois the Witch
The instant their mother told them that Captain Holdernesse was in the outer room, the girls began putting away their spinning-wheel and knitting needles, and preparing for a meal of some kind; what meal, Lois, sitting there and unconsciously watching, could hardly tell. First, dough was set to rise for cakes; then came out of a corner-cupboard--a present from England--an enormous square bottle of a cordial called Gold-Wasser; next, a mill for grinding chocolate--a rare, unusual treat anywhere at that time; then a great Cheshire cheese. Three venison-steaks were cut ready for broiling, fat cold pork sliced up and treacle poured over it; a great pie, something like a mince-pie, but which the daughters spoke of with honour as the 'punken-pie,' fresh and salt-fish brandered, oysters cooked in various ways. Lois wondered where would be the end of the provisions for hospitably receiving the strangers from the old country. At length everything was placed on the table, the hot food smoking; but all was cool, not to say cold, before Elder Hawkins (an old neighbour of much repute and standing, who had been invited in by Widow Smith to hear the news) had finished his grace, into which was embodied thanksgiving for the past, and prayers for the future, lives of every individual present, adapted to their several cases, as far as the elder could guess at them from appearances. This grace might not have ended so soon as it did, had it not been for the somewhat impatient drumming of his knife-handle on the table, with which Captain Holdernesse accompanied the latter half of the elder's words.
(...)
'They are fearful creatures, the witches! and yet I am sorry for the poor old women, whilst I dread them. We had one in Barford, when I was a little child. No one knew whence she came, but she settled herself down in a mud-hut by the common-side; and there she lived, she and her cat.' (At the mention of the cat, Elder Hawkins shook his head long and gloomily.) 'No one knew how she lived, if it were not on nettles and scraps of oatmeal and such-like food, given her more for fear than for pity. She went double, and always talking and muttering to herself. Folk said she snared birds and rabbits in the thicket that came down to her hovel. How it came to pass I cannot say, but many a one fell sick in the village, and much cattle died one spring, when I was near four years old. I never heard much about it, for my father said it was ill talking about such things; I only know I got a sick fright one afternoon, when the maid had gone out for milk and had taken me with her, and we were passing a meadow where the Avon, circling, makes a deep round pool, and there was a crowd of folk, all still--and a still, breathless crowd makes the heart beat worse than a shouting, noisy one. They were all gazing towards the water, and the maid held me up in her arms, to see the sight above the shoulders of the people; and I saw old Hannah in the water, her grey hair all streaming down her shoulders, and her face bloody and black with the stones and mud they had been throwing at her, and her cat tied round her neck. I hid my face, I know, as soon as I saw the fearsome sight, for her eyes met mine as they were glaring with fury--poor, helpless, baited creature!--and she caught the sight of me, and cried out, "Parson's wench, parson's wench, yonder, in thy nurse's arms, thy dad bath never tried for to save me; and none shall save thee, when thou art brought up for a witch." Oh! the words rang in my cars, when I was dropping asleep, for years after. I used to dream that I was in that pond; that all men hated me with their eyes because I was a witch: and, at times, her black cat used to seem living again, and say over those dreadful works.'
Victor Hugo - L' homme qui rit
The English law, not very lenient to beasts of the forest, might have picked a quarrel with the wolf, and have put him to trouble for his assurance in going freely about the towns: but Homo took advantage of the immunity granted by a statute of Edward IV. to servants: "Every servant in attendance on his master is free to come and go." Besides, a certain relaxation of the law had resulted with regard to wolves, in consequence of its being the fashion of the ladies of the Court, under the later Stuarts, to have, instead of dogs, little wolves, called adives, about the size of cats, which were brought from Asia at great cost.
Ursus had communicated to Homo a portion of his talents: such as to stand upright, to restrain his rage into sulkiness, to growl instead of howling, etc.; and on his part, the wolf had taught the man what he knew—to do without a roof, without bread and fire, to prefer hunger in the woods to slavery in a palace.
(...)
A statute of the early part of William and Mary's reign hit the association of child-buyers hard. It was as the blow of a club to the Comprachicos, who were from that time pulverized. By the terms of this statute those of the fellowship taken and duly convicted were to be branded with a red-hot iron, imprinting R. on the shoulder, signifying rogue; on the left hand T, signifying thief; and on the right hand M, signifying man-slayer. The chiefs, "supposed to be rich, although beggars in appearance," were to be punished in the collistrigium—that is, the pillory—and branded on the forehead with a P, besides having their goods confiscated, and the trees in their woods rooted up. Those who did not inform against the Comprachicos were to be punished by confiscation and imprisonment for life, as for the crime of misprision. As for the women found among these men, they were to suffer the cucking-stool—this is a tumbrel, the name of which is composed of the French word coquine, and the German stuhl. English law being endowed with a strange longevity, this punishment still exists in English legislation for quarrelsome women. The cucking-stool is suspended over a river or a pond, the woman seated on it. The chair is allowed to drop into the water, and then pulled out. This dipping of the woman is repeated three times, "to cool her anger," says the commentator, Chamberlayne.
Elizabeth Gaskell - Lois the Witch
Lois did not often walk out for the mere sake of walking; there was generally some household errand to be transacted when any of the women of the family went abroad; but once or twice she had caught glimpses of the dreary, dark wood, hemming in the cleared land on all sides--the great wood with its perpetual movement of branch and bough, and its solemn wail, that came into the very streets of Salem when certain winds blew, bearing the sound of the pine-trees clear upon the cars that had leisure to listen. And, from all accounts, this old forest, girdling round the settlement, was full of dreaded and mysterious beasts, and still more to be dreaded Indians, stealing in and out among the shadows, intent on bloody schemes against the Christian people: panther-streaked, shaven Indians, in league by their own confession, as well as by the popular belief, with evil powers.
Nattee, the old Indian servant, would occasionally make Lois's blood run cold, as she and Faith and Prudence listened to the wild stories she told them of the wizards of her race. It was often in the kitchen, in the darkening evening, while some cooking process was going on, that the old Indian crone, sitting on her haunches by the bright red wood embers which sent up no flame, but a lurid light reversing the shadows of all the faces around, told her weird stories, while they were awaiting the rising of the dough, perchance, out of which the household bread had to be made. There ran through these stories always a ghastly, unexpressed suggestion of some human sacrifice being needed to complete the success of any incantation to the Evil One; and the poor old creature, herself believing and shuddering as she narrated her tale in broken English, took a strange, unconscious pleasure in her power over her hearers--young girls of the oppressing race, which had brought her down into a state little differing from slavery, and reduced her people to outcasts on the hunting-grounds which had belonged to her fathers.
After such tales, it required no small effort on Lois's part to go out, at her aunt's command, into the common pasture round the town, and bring the cattle home at night. Who knew but what the double-headed snake might start up from each blackberry bush--that wicked, cunning, accursed creature in the service of the Indian wizards, that had such power over all those white maidens who met the eyes placed at either end of his long, sinuous, creeping body, so that, loathe him, loathe the Indian race as they would, off they must go into the forest to seek out some Indian man, and must beg to be taken into his wigwam, adjuring faith and race for ever? Or there were spells--so Nattee said--hidden about the ground by the wizards, which changed that person's nature who found them; so that, gentle and loving as they might have been before, thereafter they took no pleasure but in the cruel torments of others, and had a strange power given to them of causing such torments at their will. Once, Nattee, speaking low to Lois, who was alone with her in the kitchen, whispered out her terrified belief that such a spell had Prudence found; and, when the Indian showed her arms to Lois, all pinched black and blue by the impish child, the English girl began to be afraid of her cousin as of one possessed. But it was not Nattee alone, nor young imaginative girls alone, that believed in these stories. We can afford to smile at them now; but our English ancestors entertained superstitions of much the same character at the same period, and with less excuse, as the circumstances surrounding them were better known, and consequently more explicable by common sense, than the real mysteries of the deep, untrodden forests of New England. The gravest divines not only believed stories similar to that of the double-headed serpent, and other tales of witchcraft, but they made such narrations the subjects of preaching and prayer; and, as cowardice makes us all cruel, men who were blameless in many of the relations of life, and even praiseworthy in some, became, from superstition, cruel persecutors about this time, showing no mercy towards any one whom they believed to be in league with the Evil One.
Mary Webb - Precious Bane
But the time is not yet come for speaking of Kester. It is the story of us all at Sarn, of Mother and Gideon and
me, and Jancis (that was so beautiful), and Wizard Beguildy, and the two or three other folk that lived in those
parts, that I did set out to tell. There were but a few, and maybe always will be, for there's a discouragement about
the place. It may be the water lapping, year in and year out—everywhere you look and listen, water; or the big
trees waiting and considering on your right hand and on your left; or the unbreathing quiet of the place, as if it
was created but an hour gone, and not created for us. Or it may be that the soil is very poor and marshy, with little
nature or goodness in the grass, which is ever so where reeds and rushes grow in plenty, and the flower of the
paigle. Happen you call it cowslip, but we always named it the paigle, or keys of heaven. It was a wonderful thing
to see our meadows at Sarn when the cowslip was in blow. Gold−over they were, so that you would think not
even an angel's feet were good enough to walk there. You could make a tossy−ball before a thrush had gone over
his song twice, for you'd only got to sit down and gather with both hands. Every way you looked there was naught
but gold, saving towards Sarn, where the woods began, and the great stretch of grey water, gleaming and wincing
in the sun. Neither woods nor water looked darksome in that fine spring weather, with the leaves coming new, and
buds the colour of corn in the birch−tops. Only in our oak wood there was always a look of the back−end of the
year, their young leaves being so brown. So there was always a breath of October in our May. But it was a
pleasant thing to sit in the meadows and look away to the far hills. The larches spired up in their quick green, and
the cowslip gold seemed to get into your heart, and even Sarn Mere was nothing but a blue mist in a yellow mist
of birch−tops. And there was such a dream on the place that if a wild bee came by, let alone a bumble, it startled
you like a shout. If a bee comes in at the window now to my jar of gillyflowers, I can see it all in clear colours,
with Plash lying under the sunset, beyond the woods, looking like a jagged piece of bottle glass. Plash Mere was
bigger than Sarn, and there wasn't a tree by it, so where there were no hills beyond it you could see the clouds
rooted in it on the far side, and I used to think they looked like the white water−lilies that lay round the margins of
Sarn half the summer through. There was nothing about plash that was different from any other lake or pool.
There was no troubling of the waters, as at Sarn, nor any village sounding its bells beneath the furthest deeps. It
was true, what folks said of Sarn, that there was summat to be felt there.
(...)
It wasna near so bad as I'd feared at the inn, for the old men were gone with their droves, and the Camperdines
were by this at their dinner. It is often so, if you are in a heavy dread of summat and yet brave it, and behold! it is
naught. The landlord and his missus, thinking little of us, sent the maid−servant to wait on us — a frightened,
simple creature, like Miller's Polly, and nothing to be feared of. We had the parlour to ourselves, for folk go home
early from Lullingford market in the winter, seeing what the roads are even to this day. I was glad of the red fire
and the steaming tea, after the sadness of that house with its dead light.
Gideon began to talk after a while, very slow, and as if the words cost gold.
'Now, Prue, I've gotten a deal to say, and if we dunna want to be benighted, I'd best start. You know as me and
Jancis have taken up together in good sadness?'
'Ah.'
'I didna think to care about any wench like I do about that girl, Prue. Catches at a chap's vitals, she do. I never
meant to go furder than a bit of fun. I didna reckon to marry, nor yet I didna mean lawless love. I meant fair by
Jancis, and so long as we had our Sunday evenings it was all right. When there's no gainsaying there's no burning
in the blood. Gainsay, and the blood's on fire. Afore old Beguildy found us out we were contented enow and as
innocent as two pinks on a stem.'
'And still be that last,' I says.
'Ah.'
He looked strangely on me for a while, and said
'You've got the second sight, seemingly, our Prue.'
'No. Only a bit of sense.'
'Well, now as the old man's given me the go−by, I did hunger and thirst after Jancis pretty near as much as I do
after the place yonder, and the money and all as goes with it.'
'Not more?'
'Laws, no!'
(...)
I came to myself and opened my eyes, wondering what the great trompling was, and thinking it was Bendigo
got loose. Then I remembered that Sexton had taken Bendigo away, so I looked to see what it might be, for all the
waggon horses had been taken back to Plash Farm for the day. I looked up, and straightway I thought I must have
died, and be now in Paradise.
There, looking down upon me from his nag, with a dwelling gaze so blazing with life that, if I hadna been sure
the other way, I should have thought he loved me, was none other than Kester Woodseaves. Older−seeming he
was, a little, and his face even cleaner cut than afore, as if the soul had been busy chiselling at it. As for his eyes,
all the light of heaven was in them, not to speak of a very pleasant touch of the old Adam. They took me in from
head to foot, and I was at rest. Ah! tied to the ducking−stool, in such sad case as no self−respecting woman could
choose to be seen in by any man, let alone the man she loved, I was yet at rest. I cared for nothing now. I werrited
about nothing. Kester was here. Kester had gotten things in hand. What could ail me? Such was my faith, that
though three hundred people, more or less, were set against me, and only Kester for me, yet I knew that I was
safe. I could have turned on my side and gone to sleep on that ducking−stool as if it was a feather bed, so
comfortable I was in my mind.
Elizabeth Gaskell - Lois the Witch
'The Sin of Witchcraft.' We read about it, we look on it from the outside; but we can hardly realise the terror it
induced. Every impulsive or unaccustomed action, every little nervous affection, every ache or pain was noticed,
not merely by those around the sufferer, but by the person himself, whoever he might be, that was acting, or being
acted upon, in any but the most simple and ordinary manner. He or she (for it was most frequently a woman or
girl that was the supposed subject) felt a desire for some unusual kind of foodsome unusual motion or resther
hand twitched, her foot was asleep, or her leg had the cramp; and the dreadful question immediately suggested
itself, 'Is any one possessing an evil power over me; by the help of Satan?' and perhaps they went on to think, 'It is
bad enough to feel that my holy can he made to suffer through the power of some unknown evil−wisher to me;
but what if Satan gives them still further power, and they can touch my soul, and inspire me with loathful
thoughts leading me into crimes which at present I abhor?' and so on, till the very dread of what might happen,
and the constant dwelling of the thoughts, even with horror, upon certain possibilities, or what were esteemed
such, really brought about the corruption of imagination at last, which at first they had shuddered at. Moreover,
there was a sort of uncertainty as to who might be infectednot unlike the overpowering dread of the plague,
which made some shrink from their best−beloved with irrepressible fear. The brother or sister, who was the
dearest friend of their childhood and youth, might now be bound in some mysterious deadly pack with evil spirits
of the most horrible kindwho could tell? And in such a case it became a duty, a sacred duty, to give up the
earthly body which bad been once so loved, but which was now the habitation of a soul corrupt and horrible in its
evil inclinations. Possibly, terror of death might bring on confession, and repentance, and purification. Or if it did
not, why, away with the evil creature, the witch, out of the world, down to the kingdom of the master, whose
bidding was done on earth in all manner of corruption and torture of God's creatures! There were others who, to
these more simple, if more ignorant, feelings of horror at witches and witchcraft, added the desire, conscious or
unconscious, of revenge on those whose conduct had been in any way displeasing to them. Where evidence takes
a supernatural character, there is no disproving it. This argument comes up: 'You have only the natural powers; I
have supernatural. You admit the existence of the supernatural by the condemnation of this very crime of
witchcraft. You hardly know the limits of the natural powers; how, then, can you define the supernatural? I say
that in the dead of night, when my body seemed to all present to be lying in quiet sleep, I was, in the most
complete and wakeful consciousness, present in my body at an assembly of witches and wizards, with Satan at
their head; that I was by them tortured in my body, because my soul would not acknowledge him as its king; and
that I witnessed such and such deeds. What the nature of the appearance was that took the semblance of myself,
sleeping quietly in my bed, I know not; but, admitting, as you do, the possibility of witchcraft, you cannot
disprove my evidence.' The evidence might be given truly or falsely, as the person witnessing believed it or not;
but every one must see what immense and terrible power was abroad for revenge. Then, again, the accused
themselves ministered to the horrible panic abroad. Some, in dread of death, confessed from cowardice to the
imaginary crimes of which they were accused, and of which they were promised a pardon on confession. Some,
weak and terrified, came honestly to believe in their own guilt, through the diseases of imagination which were
sure to be engendered at such a time as this.
Silvia Federici - Ο Κάλιμπαν και η μάγισσα
Τον 14ο αιώνα οι γυναίκες γίνονταν επίσης δασκάλες, γιατροί και χειρουργοί και άρχισαν να συναγωνίζονται τους άντρες που είχαν πανεπιστημιακή μόρφωση, αποκτώντας συχνά μεγάλη φήμη. Ο δήμος της Φρανκφούρτης, όπως και άλλες πόλεις που παρείχαν στους πολίτες δημόσια περίθαλψη, προσέλαβε τον 14ο αιώνα δεκαέξι γυναίκες γιατρούς, μεταξύ τους και αρκετές εβραίες οφθαλμίατρους και χειρούργους. Οι γυναίκες γιατροί, όπως και οι μαίες ή αλλιώς sage femmes, επικρατούσαν στο χώρο της μαιευτικής, είτε αμειβόμενες από τους δήμους είτε απευθείας από τις πελάτισσές τους. Οι γυναίκες ήταν εξάλλου οι μόνες που εφάρμοζαν την καισαρική τομή, μετά την εισαγωγή της τον 13ο αιώνα (Οpitz 1996: 370-371).
Καθώς οι γυναίκες αποκτούσαν περισσότερη αυτονομία, η παρουσία τους στην κοινωνική ζωή άρχισε να καταγράφεται συχνότερα: στα κηρύγματα των παπάδων που γκρίνιαζαν για την απειθαρχία τους (Casagrande 1978 ), στα αρχεία των δικαστηρίων όπου πήγαιναν για να καταγγείλουν την κακομεταχείρισή τους (S. Cohn 1981), στις δημοτικές διατάξεις για την πορνεία (Henriques 1966), στις χιλιάδες αμάχων που ακολουθούσαν τα στρατεύματα (Hacker 1981) και, κυρίως, στα νέα λαϊκά κινήματα, ειδικά των αιρετικών.
Αργότερα θα εξετάσουμε το ρόλο των γυναικών στα αιρετικά κινήματα. Προς το παρόν, ας αρκεστούμε να πούμε ότι ως αντίδραση σε αυτή τη νέα γυναικεία ανεξαρτησία ξεκινάει ένας μισογυνισμός που εμφανίζεται ιδιαίτερα στις σάτιρες των fabliaux, όπου και εντοπίζονται τα πρώτα ίχνη αυτού που οι ιστορικοί ονόμασαν "Αγώνα για τα Παντελόνια".
(...)
Όπως έχει επισημάνει η Μαίρη Κόνντρεν [Mary Condren] στο The Serpent and the Goddess (O όφις και η θεά, 1989) - μια μελέτη της διείσδυσης του χριστιανισμού στην κελτική Ιρλανδία-, η προσπάθεια της Εκκλησίας να ελέγξει τη σεξουαλική συμπεριφορά έχει μακρά ιστορία στην Ευρώπη. Ήδη από πολύ νωρίς (αφ' ότου ο χριστιανισμός είχε ανακηρυχθεή επίσημη θρησκεία τον 4ο αιώνα) ο κλήρος αναγνώρισε τη δύναμη που ασκούσαν οι γυναίκες πάνω στους άνδρες μέσω της σεξουαλικής επιθυμίας και προσπαθούσε επίμονα να την ξορκίσει ταυτίζοντας την ευλάβεια με την αποφυγή των γυναικών και του σεξ. Ο κλήρος απέκλεισε τις γυναίκες από τη θεία λειτουργία και την τέλεση των μυστηρίων, προσπάθησε να σφετεριστεί τη μαγική, ζωοδότρα γυναικεία δύναμη υιοθετώντας ένα γυναικείο ένδυμα, μετέτρεψε τη σεξουαλικότητα σε αντικείμενο αιδούς. Μέσω όλων αυτών, μια πατριαρχική κάστα προσπαθούσε να κάμψει τη δύναμη των γυναικών και της ερωτικής έλξης.
(...)
Αργότερα, το 1304, όταν ο Αδελφός Ντολτσίνο ίδρυσε μια κοινότητα στα βουνά του Βερτσελέζε (στο Πιεμόντε) επαγγελόμενος τον ερχομό μια θεϊκής βασιλείας εθελούσιας πενίας και αγάπης, βρήκε υποστήριξη από τους ντόπιους αγρότες που είχαν ήδη εξεγερθεί εναντίον του επισκόπου του Βερτσέλι (Mornese και Buratti 2000). Οι υποστηρικτές του Ντολτσίνο αντιστάθηκαν για τρία χρόνια στις σταυροφορίες και τους αποκλεισμούς που οργάνωνε ο επίσκοπος εναντίον τους, με τις γυναίκες να μάχονται στο πλευρό των ανδρών φορώντας ανδρικές στολές. Στο τέλος, νικήθηκαν από την πείνα και την αριθμητική υπεροχή των δυνάμεων της Εκκλησίας (Lea 1961: 615-620' Hilton 1973: 108 ).
(...)
Σημείο καμπής των αγώνων κατά τον Μεσαίωνα αποτέλεσε ο Μαύρος Θάνατος που σκότωσε περίπου το 30% με 40% του ευρωπαϊκού πληθυσμού (Ziegler 1969: 230). O Μεγάλος Λοιμός του 1315-22, που εξασθένησε την άμυνα των ανθρώπων απέναντι στην αρρώστια (Jordan 1996), είχε ως επακόλουθο αυτήν την πρωτοφανή δημογραφική κατάρρευση που άλλαξε ριζικά την κοινωνική και πολιτική ζωή της Ευρώπης, πρακτικά εγκαινιάζοντας μια νέα εποχή. Οι κοινωνικές ιεραρχίες ανατράπηκαν εξαιτίας των ισοπεδωτικών συνεπειών της εξάπλωσης της νόσου. Επιπλέον, η εξοικείωση με το θάνατο υπονόμευσε την κοινωνική πειθαρχία. Αντιμέτωποι με το ενδεχόμενο ενός αιφνίδιου θανάτου, οι άνθρωποι δεν είχαν πια καμιά όρεξη να δουλέψουν ή να συμμορφωθούν με τους κοινωνικούς ή σεξουαλικούς κανόνες, παρά νοιάζονταν να περάσουν όσο καλύτερα μπορούσαν, να γιορτάσουν όσο περισσότερο μπορούσαν χωρίς να σκέφτονται το μέλλον.
Ωστόσο, η σημαντικότερη συνέπεια της πανούκλας ήταν η εντατικοποίηση της κρίσης της εργασίας που είχε ήδη δημιουργηθεί με την ταξική πάλη. Ο αποδεκατισμός του εργατικού δυναμικού έκανε την εργασία εξαιρετικά σπάνια, αύξησε σημαντικά το κόστος της και ενίσχυσε την αποφασιστηκότητα των ανθρώπων να σπάσουν τα δεσμά της φεουδαρχικής κυριαρχίας.
(...) Έτσι, ενώ τα σπαρτά σάπιζαν και τα ζώα τριγυρνούσαν στα χωράφια, οι αγρότες και οι τεχνίτες είχαν ξαφνικά τον έλεγχο της κατάστασης. Σύμπτωμα αυτής της νέας εξέλιξης ήταν η αύξηση της άρνησης πληρωμής ενοικίου, που ενισχυόταν μάλιστα από την απειλή μιας μαζικής φυγής προς άλλες γαίες ή την πόλη. Όπως καταγράφεται λακωνικά στα χωροδεσποτικά αρχεία, οι αγρότες "αρνούνταν να πληρώσουν" (negant solvere). Επιπλέον, δήλωναν ότι "δεν θα πλήρωναν πια τους φόρους" (negant consuetudines) και αδιαφορούσαν για τις διαταγές των γαιοκτημόνων να επισκευάσουν τα σπίτια τους, να καθαρίσουν τα χαντάκια ή να κυνηγήσουν τους δουλοπάροικους που είχαν δραπετεύσει.
Doris Lessing - Memoirs of a Survivor
Ενας σκύλος. Συναισθήματα σκύλου: αφοσίωση, ταπεινοσύνη, υπομονή. Βλέποντάς τον λοιπόν από πίσω, ο Ούγκο ξυπνούσε μέσα σου διάφορα συναισθήματα, όπως συμβαίνει με τα περισσότερα σκυλιά: λύπηση, στενοχώρια, σαν να επρόκειτο για κάποιον φυλακισμένο, κάποιο σκλάβο. Τότε όμως γυρνούσε το κεφάλι του και, ενω περίμενες να αντικρίσεις τη ζεστή, ταπεινή στοργή των ματιών ενός σκύλου, μεμιάς κάθε αίσθημα συναδελφοσύνης εξαφανιζόταν: Εδω δεν ειχες να κανεις μ' ενα σκυλο που ειχε καποια κοινα χαρακτηριστικα με τον ανθρωπο. Τα εντονα πρασινα ματια του εκαιγαν. Κατι το μη ανθρωπινο. Γατισια ματια, ενα γενος ξενο στον ανθρωπο, χωρις θλιψη, ταπεινοτητα και ικεσια. Γατισια ματια στο σωμα ενος σκυλου, γατισια ματια και κεφαλι. Το ζωο αυτο, που η ασχημια του τραβουσε τη ματια σου ετσι οπως την τραβαει και η ομορφια, μ'εκανε να τον χαζευω συνεχως, καθως προσπαθουσα να συμβιβαστω μαζι του και να κατανοησω το δικαιωμα που θεωρουσε οτι ειχε να ειναι μερος της ζωης μου - αυτό το ζώο, που αποτελούσε μια παρέκκλιση από το φυσιολογικό, αυτή η ιδιοτροπία της φύσης, στεκόταν άγρυπνος φρουρός πλάι στην Έμιλυ, σχεδόν με την ίδια αφοσίωση που έδειχνα κι εγώ.
(...)
Καθόταν ξαπλωμένο έτσι πολλές ώρες, βυθισμένο στις σκέψεις του. Και γιατί όχι; Σκεφτόταν, έκρινε, όπως κάνουν όλα τα ζώα, αν τα παρατηρήσουμε χωρίς προκατάληψη. Εδώ θα πρέπει να πω, μιας και πρέπει να το πει κάποιος για τον Ούγκο, ότι πιστεύω πως μια σειρά σκέψεις που γεννάει αυτόματα στο νου μια τέτοιου είδους δήλωση, οι τετριμμένες παρατηρήσεις οι σχετικές με τον "ανθρωπομορφισμό" είναι εκτός θέματος. Η συναισθηματική μας ζωή μοιάζει μ'εκείνη των ζώων' κολακεύουμε τον εαυτό μας, αν πιστεύουμε ότι τα ανθρώπινα συναισθήματα είναι πολύ πιο πολύπλοκα από τα δικά τους. Ίσως το μοναδικό συναίσθημα που είναι άγνωστο σε μια γάτα ή σ' ένα σκύλο είναι η ρομαντική αγάπη. Αλλά και γι'αυτό ακόμα θα πρέπει να αναρωτιόμαστε. (...) Όσο για τις σκέψεις μας, το διανοητικό μας εξοπλισμό, τον ορθολογισμό μας, τις λογικές μας κατασκευές και τα πορίσματά μας μαζί με όλα τα υπόλοιπα, μπορεί να ειπωθεί με απόλυτη βεβαιότητα ότι οι σκύλοι, οι γάτες και οι πίθηκοι δεν μπορούν να στείλουν έναν πύραυλο στο φεγγάρι ή να δημιουργήσουν τεχνητά υλικά για υφάσματα από τα υποπροϊόντα του πετρελαίου, όμως έτσι καθώς στεκόμαστε στα ερείπια που άφησε πίσω της αυτή η εκδοχή της διάνοιας, είναι δύσκολο να της αποδώσουμε και μεγάλη αξία' υποθέτω μάλιστα ότι τώρα την υποτιμάμε με τον ίδιο τρόπο που κάποτε την υπερτιμούσαμε. Θα πρέπει να βρει κανείς τη θέση της, αλλά μια θέση πολύ χαμηλότερα από κείνη όπου βρίσκεται τώρα πιστεύω.
Νομίζω πως όλο αυτό το διάστημα τα ανθρώπινα όντα έχουν γίνει αντικείμενο παρατήρησης από κάποια άλλα πλάσματα, που οι διανοητικές τους ικανότητες είναι τόσο προχωρημένες -ξεπερνώντας οτιδήποτε θα μπορούσαμε εμείς οι άνθρωποι να παραδεχτούμε εξαιτίας της ματαιοδοξίας μας - ώστε, αν ήμασταν σε θέση να γνωρίζουμε, θα νιώθαμε αηδία για την ανημποριά μας, θα νιώθαμε ταπεινωμένοι. Ζούμε μαζί τους δίνοντας μια εικόνα αδαών, τυφλών, πωρωμένων και ανηλεών δολοφόνων και βασανιστών και εκείνα μας παρακολουθούν και μας γνωρίζουν. Και γι'αυτό το λόγο αρνηθήκαμε να παραδεχτούμε την εξυπνάδα των πλασμάτων που μας περιβάλλουν: Το σοκ για τον εγωισμό μας θα ήταν πολύ δυνατό, η κριτική που θα έπρεπε να ασκήσουμε στον εαυτό μας ανηλεής' είναι η ίδια ακριβώς διαδικασία η οποία μπορεί να κάνει κάποιον να εξακολουθήσει να διαπράττει ένα έγκλημα ή να επιδεικνύει διαρκώς σκληρότητα, έχοντας πλήρη επίγνωση της αιτίας που τον κινεί: Αν σταματούσε να εγκληματεί κι ήταν υποχρεωμένος να αντικρίσει τις προηγούμενες πράξεις του, θα του ήταν πολύ οδυνηρό, δε θα μπορούσε να το αντιμετωπίσει καταπρόσωπο.
Όμως οι άνθρωποι χρειάζονται σκλάβους, θύματα και εξαρτώμενα πλάσματα, και βέβαια πολλά από τα "κατοικίδια ζωάκια" μας παίζουν αυτόν ακριβώς το ρόλο, επειδή νομίζουμε ότι έχουν πλαστεί γι' αυτό, όπως ακριβώς και οι άνθρωποι μπορούν να γίνουν αυτό που περιμένουν οι άλλοι απ' αυτούς να γίνουν. Όχι όμως όλοι, σίγουρα όχι' σ'όλη τη διάρκεια της ζωής μας μας συντροφεύουν, όπου κι αν πάμε, πλάσματα που μας κρίνουν και τα οποία κάποιες φορές συμπεριφέρονται με μια ανωτερότητα που είναι... που την ονομάζουμε ανθρώπινη.
(...)
"Αυτό" το θεωρούμε σαν μια φουσκοθαλασσιά γεγονότων, εμπειριών... Σύμφωνοι, αλλά τι ήταν "αυτό"; Είμαι βέβαιη πως, από τότε που υπάρχουν άνθρωποι πάνω στη γη, "αυτό" σε εποχές κρίσης συζητιόταν ακριβώς με τον ίδιο τρόπο, δεδομένου ότι σε εποχές κρίσης "αυτό" γίνεται ορατό και τότε είναι που η αλαζονεία μας καταρρέει μπροστά στη δύναμή του. Γιατί "αυτό" είναι μια δύναμη που παίρνει τη μορφή του σεισμού, ενός κομήτη που μας επισκέπτεται, και το δυσοίωνο και ολέθριο που το χαρακτηρίζει έρχεται απειλητικό όλο και πιο κοντά μας κάθε νύχτα που περνάει, διαστρεβλώνοντας μέσω του φόβου κάθε σκέψη: "Αυτό" μπορεί να είναι, να ήταν ένας λοιμός, ένας πόλεμος, η μεταβολή του κλίματος, μια τυραννία η οποία διαστρέφει το νου των ανθρώπων, η αγριότητα μιας θρησκείας.
"Αυτό", με δυο λόγια, είναι η λέξη για την ανήμπορη άγνοια ή την ανήμπορη γνώση. Μήπως όμως είναι και μια λέξη για την ανθρώπινη ανεπάρκεια;
"Άκουσες τίποτα γι' αυτό;"
"Αυτό κι αυτό ειπώθηκε τώρα τελευταία, ότι..."
Και τα πράγματα είναι ακόμα χειρότερα, όταν φτάσουμε στο στάδιο του: "Άκουσες τίποτα νεότερο;" όταν "αυτό" έχει απορροφήσει τα πάντα μέσα του και οι άνθρωποι δεν εννοούν τίποτε άλλο, όταν ρωτάνε τι συμβαίνει στον κόσμο μας, τι κινεί τον κόσμο μας... Αυτό.
Nathaniel Hawthorne - The Scarlet Letter
Her final employment was to gather seaweed of various kinds, and make herself a scarf or mantle, and a head-dress, and thus assume the aspect of a little mermaid. She inherited her mother's gift for devising drapery and costume. As the last touch to her mermaid's garb, Pearl took some eel-grass and imitated, as best she could, on her own bosom the decoration with which she was so familiar on her mother's. A letter—the letter A—but freshly green instead of scarlet. The child bent her chin upon her breast, and contemplated this device with strange interest, even as if the one only thing for which she had been sent into the world was to make out its hidden import.
"I wonder if mother will ask me what it means?" thought Pearl.
Just then she heard her mother's voice, and, flitting along as lightly as one of the little sea-birds, appeared before Hester Prynne dancing, laughing, and pointing her finger to the ornament upon her bosom.
"My little Pearl," said Hester, after a moment's silence, "the green letter, and on thy childish bosom, has no purport. But dost thou know, my child, what this letter means which thy mother is doomed to wear?"
"Yes, mother," said the child. "It is the great letter A. Thou hast taught me in the horn-book."
Hester looked steadily into her little face; but though there was that singular expression which she had so often remarked in her black eyes, she could not satisfy herself whether Pearl really attached any meaning to the symbol. She felt a morbid desire to ascertain the point.
"Dost thou know, child, wherefore thy mother wears this letter?"
"Truly do I!" answered Pearl, looking brightly into her mother's face. "It is for the same reason that the minister keeps his hand over his heart!"
"And what reason is that?" asked Hester, half smiling at the absurd incongruity of the child's observation; but on second thoughts turning pale.
"What has the letter to do with any heart save mine?"
"Nay, mother, I have told all I know," said Pearl, more seriously than she was wont to speak. "Ask yonder old man whom thou hast been talking with,—it may be he can tell. But in good earnest now, mother dear, what does this scarlet letter mean?—and why dost thou wear it on thy bosom?—and why does the minister keep his hand over his heart?"
She took her mother's hand in both her own, and gazed into her eyes with an earnestness that was seldom seen in her wild and capricious character. The thought occurred to Hester, that the child might really be seeking to approach her with childlike confidence, and doing what she could, and as intelligently as she knew how, to establish a meeting-point of sympathy. It showed Pearl in an unwonted aspect. Heretofore, the mother, while loving her child with the intensity of a sole affection, had schooled herself to hope for little other return than the waywardness of an April breeze, which spends its time in airy sport, and has its gusts of inexplicable passion, and is petulant in its best of moods, and chills oftener than caresses you, when you take it to your bosom; in requital of which misdemeanours it will sometimes, of its own vague purpose, kiss your cheek with a kind of doubtful tenderness, and play gently with your hair, and then be gone about its other idle business, leaving a dreamy pleasure at your heart. And this, moreover, was a mother's estimate of the child's disposition. Any other observer might have seen few but unamiable traits, and have given them a far darker colouring. But now the idea came strongly into Hester's mind, that Pearl, with her remarkable precocity and acuteness, might already have approached the age when she could have been made a friend, and intrusted with as much of her mother's sorrows as could be imparted, without irreverence either to the parent or the child. In the little chaos of Pearl's character there might be seen emerging and could have been from the very first—the steadfast principles of an unflinching courage—an uncontrollable will—sturdy pride, which might be disciplined into self-respect—and a bitter scorn of many things which, when examined, might be found to have the taint of falsehood in them. She possessed affections, too, though hitherto acrid and disagreeable, as are the richest flavours of unripe fruit. With all these sterling attributes, thought Hester, the evil which she inherited from her mother must be great indeed, if a noble woman do not grow out of this elfish child.
Pearl's inevitable tendency to hover about the enigma of the scarlet letter seemed an innate quality of her being. From the earliest epoch of her conscious life, she had entered upon this as her appointed mission. Hester had often fancied that Providence had a design of justice and retribution, in endowing the child with this marked propensity; but never, until now, had she bethought herself to ask, whether, linked with that design, there might not likewise be a purpose of mercy and beneficence. If little Pearl were entertained with faith and trust, as a spirit messenger no less than an earthly child, might it not be her errand to soothe away the sorrow that lay cold in her mother's heart, and converted it into a tomb?—and to help her to overcome the passion, once so wild, and even yet neither dead nor asleep, but only imprisoned within the same tomb-like heart?
Such were some of the thoughts that now stirred in Hester's mind, with as much vivacity of impression as if they had actually been whispered into her ear. And there was little Pearl, all this while, holding her mother's hand in both her own, and turning her face upward, while she put these searching questions, once and again, and still a third time.
"What does the letter mean, mother? and why dost thou wear it? and why does the minister keep his hand over his heart?"
"What shall I say?" thought Hester to herself. "No! if this be the price of the child's sympathy, I cannot pay it."
Then she spoke aloud—
"Silly Pearl," said she, "what questions are these? There are many things in this world that a child must not ask about. What know I of the minister's heart? And as for the scarlet letter, I wear it for the sake of its gold thread."
In all the seven bygone years, Hester Prynne had never before been false to the symbol on her bosom. It may be that it was the talisman of a stern and severe, but yet a guardian spirit, who now forsook her; as recognising that, in spite of his strict watch over her heart, some new evil had crept into it, or some old one had never been expelled. As for little Pearl, the earnestness soon passed out of her face.
But the child did not see fit to let the matter drop. Two or three times, as her mother and she went homeward, and as often at supper-time, and while Hester was putting her to bed, and once after she seemed to be fairly asleep, Pearl looked up, with mischief gleaming in her black eyes.
"Mother," said she, "what does the scarlet letter mean?"
And the next morning, the first indication the child gave of being awake was by popping up her head from the pillow, and making that other enquiry, which she had so unaccountably connected with her investigations about the scarlet letter—
"Mother!—Mother!—Why does the minister keep his hand over his heart?"
"Hold thy tongue, naughty child!" answered her mother, with an asperity that she had never permitted to herself before. "Do not tease me; else I shall put thee into the dark closet!"
Silvia Federici - Ο Κάλιμπαν και η μάγισσα
Στην Ευρώπη της "Εποχής του Λόγου" έβαζαν φίμωτρα σαν τα σκυλιά στις γυναίκες που κατηγορούσαν ότι ήταν στρίγγλες και τις διαπόμπευαν στους δρόμους. Οι πόρνες μαστιγώνονταν ή τις έκλειναν σε κλουβιά και τις υπέβαλλαν σε ψεύτικο πνιγμό, ενώ επέβαλλαν τη θανατική καταδίκη σε γυναίκες που κηρύσσονταν ένοχες για μοιχεία (Underdown 1985a: 117).
Δεν είναι υπερβολή να πούμε ότι οι γυναίκες αντιμετωπίζονταν με την ίδια εχθρότητα και αίσθημα αποξένωσης, όπως οι "άγριοι Ινδιάνοι" στη σχετική γραμματεία που αναπτύχθηκε μετά την Κατάκτηση. Ο παραλληλισμός δεν είναι τυχαίος. Και στις δύο περιπτώσεις, η πολιτισμική κατακραυγή εξυπηρετούσε ένα σχέδιο απαλλοτρίωσης. Όπως θα δούμε, η δαιμονοποίηση των ιθαγενών της αμερικανικής ηπείρου χρησίμευε ως δικαιολογία για την υποδούλωσή τους και την αρπαγή των πόρων τους. Στην Ευρώπη, η επίθεση που εξαπολύθηκε εναντίον των γυναικών χρησίμευσε ως δικαιολογία για την οικειοποίηση της εργασίας τους από τους άνδρες και την ποινικοποίηση του ελέγχου που ασκούσαν επί της αναπαραγωγής. Το τίμημα της αντίστασης ήταν πάντοτε ο αφανισμός. Καμιά από τις στρατηγικές που καταστρώθηκαν εναντίον των γυναικών και των αποικιοκρατούμενων δεν θα είχε πετύχει, εάν δεν είχαν ενισχυθεί από μια εκστρατεία τρόμου. Στην περίπτωση των γυναικών στην Ευρώπη, το κυνήγι των μαγισσών πρωταγωνίστησε στην κατασκευή της νέας κοινωνικής τους λειτουργίας και στην υποβάθμιση της κοινωνικής τους ταυτότητας.
Ο ορισμός των γυναικών ως δαιμονικών πλασμάτων και οι απάνθρωπες και εξευτελιστικές εμπειρίες στις οποίες τόσες πολλές από αυτές υποβλήθηκαν, έχουν αφήσει ανεξίτηλα ίχνη στη συλλογική γυναικεία ψυχή και στην αίσθησή τους των δυνατοτήτων τους. Από κάθε άποψη -κοινωνική, οικονομική, πολιτισμική, πολιτική- το κυνήγι των μαγισσών αποτέλεσε κομβικό σημείο στη ζωή των γυναικών.
(...)
Το κυνήγι μαγισσών ήταν επίσης ο πρώτος διωγμός στην Ευρώπη που χρησιμοποίησε έναν συνδυασμό μέσων για να ενεργοποιήσει μια μαζική ψύχωση στον πληθυσμό. Ένα από τα πρώτα έργα της τυπογραφίας ήταν να προειδοποιεί το κοινό για τους κινδύνους που δημιουργούσαν οι μάγισσες, μέσα από φυλλάδες που δημοσιοποιούσαν τις πιο διάσημες δίκες και τις λεπτομέρειες για τα φρικτά τους κατορθώματα (Mandrou 1968: 136). Στην υπόθεση επιστρατεύτηκαν καλλιτέχνες, (...) Αλλά αυτοί που περισσότερο συνεισέφεραν στις διώξεις ήταν οι νομικοί, οι δικαστές και οι δαιμονολόγοι, ιδιότητες που συχνά συγκέντρωνε το ίδιο άτομο.(...)Οι άνθρωποι του νόμου μπορούσαν να υπολογίζουν στη συνεργασία των πιο ευυπόληπτων διανοούμενων της εποχής, συμπεριλαμβανομένων φιλοσόφων ή επιστημόνων που εξακολουθούν μέχρι σήμερα να υμνούνται ως πατέρες του νεώτερου ορθολογισμού. Ανάμεσά τους ήταν ο άγγλος πολιτικός φιλόσοφος Τόμας Χομπς, ο οποίος, παρά τον σκεπτικισμό του για την πραγματικότητα της μαγείας, ενέκρινε τις διώξεις ως μέσο κοινωνικού ελέγχου. Μανιώδης εχθρός των μαγισσών -το μίσος του απένταντι τους και οι εκκλήσεις του για το αιματοκύλισμά τους του είχαν γίνει εμμονή- ήταν ο διάσημος γάλλος νομικός και πολιτικός φιλόσοφος Ζαν Μποντέν, τον οποίο ο ιστορικός Hugh Trevor-Roper ονομάζει Αριστοτέλη και Μοντεσκιέ του 16ου αιώνα. Ο Μποντέν, στον οποίο πιστώνεται η πρώτη πραγματεία για τον πληθωρισμό, συμμετείχε σε πολλές δίκες και έγραψε έναν τόμο με "αποδείξεις" (Demonomania 1580). Εκεί επέμενε ότι οι μάγισσες έπρεπε να καίγονται ζωντανές, αντί να στραγγαλίζονται "φιλεύσπλαχνα" πριν πεταχτούν στις φλόγες, να καυτηριάζονται, έτσι ώστε η σάρκα τους να σαπίζει πριν πεθάνουν, και επίσης να καίγονται ακόμα και παιδιά.
Ο Μποντέν δεν αποτελούσε μεμονωμένη περίπτωση. Σε αυτόν τον αιώνα των "ιδιοφυιών" -Μπέικον, Κέπλερ, Γαλιλαίου, Σαίξπηρ, Πασκάλ, Καρτέσιου-, τον αιώνα που γνώρισε το θρίαμβο της επανάστασης του Κοπέρνικου, τη γέννηση της νεώτερης επιστήμης και την ανάπτυξη του φιλοσοφικού και επιστημονικού ορθολογισμού, η μαγεία έγινε ένα από τα αγαπημένα θέματα δημόσιας συζήτησης για τις ευρωπαϊκές πνευματικές ελίτ. Δικαστές, νομικοί, αξιωματούχοι, φιλόσοφοι, επιστήμονες, θεολόγοι, όλοι ασχολήθηκαν με το "πρόβλημα", έγραψαν φυλλάδια και δαιμονολογίες, συμφώνησαν ότι επρόκειτο για το πλέον απεχθές έγκλημα και ζήτησαν την τιμωρία του.
Δεν υπάρχει λοιπόν αμφιβολία ότι το κυνήγι των μαγισσών υπήρξε μια πολύ μεγάλη πολιτική πρωτοβουλία. Η επισήμανση αυτή δεν σκοπεύει να ελαχιστοποιήσει τον ρόλο που έπαιξε η Εκκλησία στο διωγμό. Η Ρωμαιοκαθολική Εκκλησία πρόσφερε το μεταφυσικό και ιδεολογικό ικρίωμα για το κυνήγι και παρακίνησε σε διώξεις των μαγισσών, όπως είχε νωρίτερα υποκινήσει τις διώξεις των αιρετικών. Χωρίς την Ιερά Εξέταση, τα πλείστα παπικά διατάγματα που έκαναν έκκληση στις κοσμικές αρχές να αναζητήσουν και να τιμωρήσουν τις "μάγισσες", και, πάνω απ' όλα, χωρίς τις προαιώνιες μισογυνικές εκστρατείες, το κυνήγι των μαγισσών δεν θα ήταν εφικτό. Ωστόσο, αντίθετα με τα στερεότυπα, η επίχειρηση αυτή δεν αποτελούσε απλώς προϊόν του παπικού φανατισμού ή των μηχανορραφιών της Ιεράς Εξέτασης. Στο αποκορύφωμα της Ιεράς Εξέτασης, οι περισσότερες δίκες διεξάγονταν από κοσμικά δικαστήρια, ενώ στις περιοχές δράσης της (Ιταλία και Ισπανία) ο αριθμός των εκτελέσεων παρέμεινε συγκριτικά μικρός. Μάλιστα, μετά την προτεσταντική Μεταρρύθμιση που υπονόμευσε την εξουσία της Καθολικής Εκκλησίας, η Ιερά Εξέταση άρχισε να περιορίζει τον ζήλο των αρχών εναντίον των μαγισσών, ενώ ενέτεινε τις δικές της διώξεις εναντίον των Εβραίων. Eπιπλέον, η Ιερά Εξέταση βασιζόταν πάντοτε στη συνεργασία με το κράτος για την πραγματοποίηση των εκτελέσεων, καθώς ο κλήρος ήθελε να βγει από τη δύσκολη θέση να χύσει αίμα.
