Question

Which phrase from the excerpt most clearly makes the witch trial seem ridiculous?

Answer 1

B - "She would duck the devil out of her."

Answer 2

The correct answer is “…she would duck the Devil out of her.”. Taken from the article “A Witch Trial at Mount Holly” by Benjamin Franklin (1730), the phrase from the excerpt presented above that makes the witch trial seem ridiculous is the one that reads “…she would duck the Devil out of her.”. This phrase narrates the moment when the female accuser floats in the water and declares that the accused cursed her causing her “to make her so light, and that she would be duck’d again a Hundred Times, but she would duck the Devil out of her.”. Franklin ridicules the female accuser who innocently believed she could “duck” the curse and the devil that made her float, showing no rationality. Franklin has used humour as a rhetorical device throughout all his writings. A clear example of his technique is this article “A Witch Trial at Mount Holly” in which Franklin highlighted the hypocrisy of Puritan culture through satire.