![]() ![]() Each day was spent doing hard labor, hoping it would be enough to sustain your family until the next day. During this time, village life was painful. The first theme, persecution, sets the overall mood of Baroque Europe. The four main themes highlighted are persecution, fantasy, womanhood, and finally the witch. However, the theme-by-theme presentation she uses not only makes for an interesting read, but ensures the over-arching ideas are well integrated and flowing. There are many conceivable ways in which Roper’s thesis could be developed. Essentially, the witch craze was started due to a prevailing form of envy at work amongst Reformation villagers. ![]() Roper states “witchcraft accusations were a hall of mirrors where neighbors saw their own fear and greed in the shape of a witch ”. ![]() Incorporating both psychology and the traditional anthropology method to explain witchcraft takes Witch Craze from ordinary to extraordinary. Instead of taking a cookie-cutter approach to clarifying how the idea of witchcraft was able to captivate and enthrall the villagers of German towns, Roper takes an exceptional route. Roper spends much time bringing specific stories to light, painting a picture of village life in Europe during the time of the Reformation. In the book, Witch Craze, Lyndal Roper accepts the daunting challenge of explaining the mass fear of witchcraft in European history. ![]()
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