Damned Women Summary

In Damned Women: Sinners and Witches in Puritan New England, Elizabeth Reis thoroughly discussed how the Puritan religion played a role in shaping the lives of the Puritan individuals. Puritanism had stressed women as having the role of only obeying their husband and tending to both the children and the household. Women who followed the Puritan religion were supposed to abide by the standards determined by God; those who did not abide were condemned as the ones who were found to be greatly possessed by Satan and were the ones who had been accused of participating in witchcraft. Therefore, the gender stereotypical ideals that Puritanism portrayed had been a key factor in why Puritan women were more likely to be possessed by Satan and accused of witchcraft. The concept of Satan altered the lives of Puritans through the actions that these individuals had decided to involve themselves in. Puritan individuals had followed this idea of predestination where they were told from birth, whether or not they were going to end up in heaven or hell. Being told your faith at such a young age could either guide you in the direction of two paths, the path guided by God or the path guided by Satan. Those that associated themselves with Satan and had constantly committed sins had immensely …show more content…
Elizabeth Reis had illustrated within the novel that Puritan women had been constrained to gender stereotypical ideals that society placed upon them. However, women who went against the norm of taking care of their children, the household and their husbands had challenged what society depicted for them by resorting to sinning and turning themselves over to Satan. Overall, Puritan stereotypes formed for the female gender had been a factor in the course of the Salem Witch Trials and the way Satan had been