In Shakespeare’s time people believed in witches. They were people who had made a pact with the Devil in exchange for supernatural powers. If your cow was ill, it was easy to decide it had been cursed. If there was plague in your village, it was because of a witch. If the beans didn’t grow, it was because of a witch. Witches might have a familiar – a pet, or a toad, or a bird – which was supposed to be a demon advisor. People accused of being witches tended to be old, poor, single women. It is at this time that the idea of witches riding around on broomsticks (a common household implement in Elizabethan England) becomes popular.
There are lots of ways to test for a witch. A common way was to use a ducking stool, or just to tie them up, and duck the accused under water in a pond or river. If she floated, she was a witch. If she didn’t, she was innocent. She probably drowned. Anyone who floated was then burnt at the stake. It was legal to kill witches because of the Witchcraft Act passed in 1563, which set out steps to take against witches who used spirits to kill people.
King James I became king in 1603. He was particularly superstitious about witches and even wrote a book on the subject. Shakespeare wrote Macbeth especially to appeal to James – it has witches and is set in Scotland, where he was already king. The three witches in Macbeth manipulate the characters into disaster, and cast spells to destroy lives. Other magic beings, the fairies, appear in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Elizabethans thought fairies played tricks on innocent people – just as they do in the play.
One time at home I was sitting at the counter and lightly kicking the wall (because I was bored,) and got a wooden splinter stuck under my toenail. That's pretty vanilla but as a kid it was the grossest thing that happened to me.
Tenorio thought that Ultima is responsible for the death of his daughter.
Explanation:
Tenorio have just cause to seek revenge on Ultima because he thought that Ultima is responsible for the death of his daughter. Tenorio accuse Ultima of her murder and kill her as a witch. Tenorio claims that he found Ultima's bag of herbs under his daughter's bed which clearly shows that Ultima is responsible for his daughter's death while on the other hand, Tenorio killed Narciso because Tenorio find out that he is on his way to the Márez house to warn Ultima about the intensions of Tenorio.
