Giles Corey is a name that resonates with those who have studied the history of the Salem Witch Trials. A man of resolute character, he is often remembered for his steadfast refusal to enter a plea in the face of accusations of witchcraft. His unwavering stance in the face of persecution has made him a symbol of courage and determination, and his story continues to inspire people to this day.
Giles Corey was born in England in 1611 and emigrated to America with his wife, Martha, in the early 17th century. He settled in Salem, Massachusetts, where he became a successful farmer and a prominent member of the community. He was known for his strength of character and his deep commitment to his beliefs, and he was widely respected for his integrity and honesty.
In 1692, the Salem Witch Trials began, and Giles Corey found himself caught up in the frenzy of accusations and paranoia that swept through the town. He was accused of witchcraft by several people, including some of his own neighbors, and was brought before the court to face trial.
But Giles Corey refused to plead. He knew that if he pleaded guilty or not guilty, he would be subjected to the same unjust and brutal treatment that had already been meted out to so many others. He knew that he would be subjected to torture, and that he would be forced to give false testimony against others in order to save himself. He refused to be part of such a travesty of justice.
Instead, Giles Corey chose to remain silent. He stood before the court and endured the torture of being pressed with heavy stones in an attempt to force a plea from him. But he remained steadfast, refusing to say a word. His silence was a powerful act of defiance against a system that had become corrupt and unjust, and it inspired others to resist the madness that had overtaken the town.
In the end, Giles Corey’s refusal to plead cost him his life. He died after two days of being pressed, his body crushed by the weight of the stones that were piled on top of him. But his legacy lived on, and his story became a symbol of resistance against tyranny and oppression.
Giles Corey’s courage and determination continue to inspire people today, and his story is a reminder of the importance of standing up for what is right, even in the face of great adversity. His refusal to plead was an act of incredible bravery, and it serves as a powerful example of how one person can make a difference.
In the years since Giles Corey’s death, his story has been retold in countless books, plays, and movies. His memory has been honored in many ways, including a memorial stone that was erected in his honor in Salem in 2017. The inscription on the stone reads: “More weight,” which are said to be the last words that Giles Corey spoke before he died.
Giles Corey’s story is a testament to the power of the human spirit, and his legacy continues to inspire people to this day. His courage in the face of persecution serves as a reminder that we must always stand up for what is right, even when it is difficult or dangerous. And his refusal to plead is a powerful symbol of resistance against injustice and oppression, inspiring us all to be brave and to never give up in the fight for justice and equality.
The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts in the late 17th century. The trials took place between February 1692 and May 1693 and resulted in the execution of 20 people, 14 of whom were women.
The events leading up to the Salem witch trials began in January 1692 when nine-year-old Elizabeth Parris and her 11-year-old cousin Abigail Williams began exhibiting strange behavior such as fits, convulsions, and screaming. The local doctor, William Griggs, diagnosed the girls with bewitchment, and the girls accused three women of practicing witchcraft: Tituba, a slave from Barbados, Sarah Good, a poor beggar, and Sarah Osborne, an elderly woman.
The accused women were interrogated and Tituba eventually confessed to practicing witchcraft and accused others of doing the same. This sparked a wave of accusations throughout the community, and by the end of February, more than 20 people had been arrested and jailed on charges of witchcraft.
The trials were presided over by a special court, the Court of Oyer and Terminer, which was established to hear cases of witchcraft. The court was led by William Stoughton, the Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, and included several other prominent members of the community.
The trials were based on spectral evidence, which was testimony about dreams and visions of the accused person engaging in witchcraft or harming others. This type of evidence was highly controversial and not admissible in other courts, but it was allowed in the Salem witch trials.
The accused were also subjected to various tests to determine if they were witches, such as the “touch test,” where the afflicted person would be touched by the accused person to see if they would stop their fits, and the “float test,” where the accused person would be thrown into a body of water to see if they would float, which was seen as a sign of witchcraft.
As the trials progressed, the accusations became more and more absurd, and many innocent people were caught up in the hysteria. One of the most famous cases was that of Rebecca Nurse, an elderly woman who was highly respected in the community. Despite a lack of evidence against her, she was convicted and hanged on July 19, 1692.
The tide of public opinion began to turn against the trials in the fall of 1692, and the court was eventually dissolved in early 1693. The remaining accused were either released or pardoned, and the families of the executed were compensated.
The Salem witch trials remain a fascinating and tragic chapter in American history. They were the result of a combination of factors, including religious and social tensions, economic instability, and a belief in the supernatural. They serve as a reminder of the dangers of mass hysteria and the importance of due process and the presumption of innocence in a just society.
Here comes your favorite holiday of the year, as the leaves start to change and the temperatures begin to cool. However, the most exciting part is when the Jack-o-lanterns and pumpkins show up on porches, signaling the beginning of Halloween fever.
Excited? Well, if you love Halloween so much, then it would be a shame not to be able to experience it in all its glory. Below is a list of fall destinations awaiting your arrival as one of the most anticipated annual holiday draws nearer.
You may not know this, but the country of Ireland is often considered to be the birthplace of your favorite celebration of the year. It goes back to the customs followed by the Celtic and is also known as a pagan tradition.
Dublin is a wonderful place for you to start your Halloween celebrations. Meath, which is located at an hour’s drive from the city, hosts a handful of exciting activities at The Spirits Of Meath Festival. You can also make your way to Derry, which includes a grand costume parade, as well as fireworks on account of the holiday.
New York City is popular for hosting one of the largest parades for Halloween across the globe. Over 2 million participants dress up in creative costumes every year, as per a chosen theme. You can also attend one of the many exciting parties organized in the Big Apple or just go trick and treating with your loved ones.
Oaxaca is one of the several fall destinations that kick off Halloween on the 31st of October and keep the party going until the 2nd of November. It is considered to be an important holiday for Mexicans, especially to honor the deceased.
Feel free to dress up in skeleton costumes or paint your face and join the locals, as they use colorful flowers and bright colors to make each Halloween memorable.
28 Days Later and Jack The Ripper have given London the reputation of a spooky place, which is often covered in white fog. Where else would you find a better place to embrace your Halloween spirit? So, put on your best costume and attend the holiday celebrations that are hosted at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
Like Ireland, Scotland also has ancient Celtic roots and celebrates the Samhain every year. Therefore, it is safe to say that the country is one of the two to have bragging rights with respect to the origination of the spooky festival.
If you enjoy going into haunted castles and standing around frightening tombs, you cannot miss out on the holiday celebrations in Edinburgh. You are bound to enjoy the haunted stories that are told in this town and have the time of your life.
So, what are you waiting for? Figure which of the aforementioned fall destinations you will be spending Halloween in this year and book your tickets right away. Happy trick-or-treating!
DR. FRANKENSTEIN’S LAB — Isn’t there something about Halloween that just makes old-timey, melodramatic movies sing?
Sure, you can enjoy a few episodes of “The Twilight Zone” any time of the year, and cruising down some highway with a 1920s radio drama playing is heaps of fun even before Oct. 31. But for some reason, adding the anticipation of trick-or-treaters, a bowl of fun-size candy, and a few well-lit jack-o-lanterns turns hackneyed dialogue and hammy delivery into something melodious.
That’s why, for this month’s classic film article, we’re recommending one of the most gloriously melodramatic and rightfully influential horror movies of all time: James Whale’s “The Bride of Frankenstein.” As The Guardian declares, “Bride is a wild ride, even today. It flits between the classical and the gutter, the camp and the serious in a manner that’s hard to pin down.”
Here are some reasons why this classic is still relevant today.
The history
In 1935, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was beginning his third year in office, 20% of the American population was unemployed, and filmmakers were ushering in the beginning of what we now call “The Golden Age of Hollywood.”
Silent films were being replaced with “talkies,” color films were making a comeback and studios were, according to AMC’s film site, exploring genres such as “gangster films, musicals, newspaper-reporting films, historical biopics, social-realism films, lighthearted screwball comedies, westerns and horror to name a few.”
The year 1935 was teeming with hardship and creativity, and it was also the year an openly gay director released, as the Alamo Draft House puts it, “the first sequel in Hollywood history to be better than the original.
To this day few titles enjoy that honor, and of those less than a handful followed an opening chapter met with as much praise as the original “Frankenstein.” Much like Joe Dante and his “Gremlins” sequel, that success can be credited to Whale’s insistence on more control.
Stephen Brophy of MIT’s “The Tech” said, “He (Whale) resisted a sequel but eventually gave in, insisting that he be allowed to develop the project in his own way. The mordant humor of ‘Bride’ is the delicious result.”
“Bride” was met with both commercial and financial success for Universal Pictures, but with that success came Whale’s narrowing circle of projects he was willing to work on.
There is a lot of speculation concerning what ultimately ended Whale’s career as a director, but biographer James Curtis says, “Whale’s success was short-lived. With his troubled production of Remarque’s ‘The Road Back‘, he was pitted against ominous forces that didn’t want the film made. His career faltered and, being openly gay, he found work increasingly hard to get. He quit just ten years after the triumph of ‘Frankenstein’, and died a suicide only months before the film’s eventual release to television.”
The influence
As Senses of Cinema points out concerning Whale, “one can make a strong case that he was the greatest director of horror in the history of cinema, or at least the most influential.”
Long before Tim Burton was dazzling our darker sides with striped villains and spiraled mountains, Whale’s flair for emotionally disorienting set pieces and theatrical reflection was defining the genre. Part of Whale’s influence came from his love of German silent sci-fi films like “Metropolis” and “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,” while, again from Senses, “Whale was (also) a painter before he was a stage and film director, and his eye for design is part of what makes his films so memorable.”
Burton is perhaps the director who embraces Whale’s spirit most obviously, going as far as to create multiple versions of “Frankenweenie”— a love letter to both “Frankenstein” and “The Bride of Frankenstein” — but Lloyd Rose of The Washington Post notes several additional Hollywood juggernauts who are better off for Whale’s influence.
From Rose: “The mix of beauty, perversity, wit and fear in Whale’s monster pictures is the goal that every horror director worth his salt has aspired to since. His dark, horrid, funny work paved the way for Alfred Hitchcock‘s American career.” Rose goes onto include Brian De Palma’s “Carrie,” Orson Welles’ “Citizen Kane” and “Gordon Willis‘ moodily lit interiors in the ‘Godfather’ films” as examples of Whale’s influence.
But Whale wasn’t only a visual artist, as Gloria Stuart semi-famously details on the laserdisc commentary of “The Old Dark House.” (A tip-of-the-hat to anyone who knows what makes that commentary semi-famous.)
Stuart said of Whale (as recorded by Dennis Polkow in the Chicago Tribune), “He was a real actor’s director. I worked twice with John Ford and there was no comparison. Ford would just say, ‘Action,’ and left you on your own. With James, everything you were to do had been carefully thought through and worked out in the most minute detail. He was a ‘hands-on’ director in that he was into every aspect of the picture — makeup, costumes, scenery, lighting, props: everything. He was always meticulous, discerning and helpful.”
Does it hold up today?
There are so many reasons to watch “The Bride of Frankenstein” this Halloween season, the least of which is its place in history. There will always be time to discuss what modern audiences see in Whale’s dark tale, but “The Bride of Frankenstein” is still a mesmerizing stand-alone classic.
As Roger Ebert said of the film, “You don’t have to deconstruct it to enjoy it; it’s satirical, exciting, funny, and an influential masterpiece of art direction.”
“The Bride of Frankenstein” should be taken moment by moment, as entire sub-plots just disappear and conclusions come suddenly. As a result, some viewers may find a few of Whale’s decisions frustrating, but taken scene-by-scene, it’s everything right with monster movies.
