In the 17th century, English Puritans were forced to flee Europe due to their strict Christian beliefs to set up a new life in America, the ‘New World’. Although they aspired to a utopian society, the system that evolved was an oppressive, patriarchal theocracy (theocracy = based on strict religious values).
This is best shown in the infamous Witch Trials in Salem, Massachusetts, where around 25 women were hanged on the belief that they were witches. The mass hysteria around this time reveals what little power women had in this society, as they could not defend themselves from these accusations, made against innocent women due to personal vendettas.
The critic Anne Kaler writes that New England Puritan women were given names like “Silence, Fear, Patience, Prudence, Mindwell, Comfort, Hopestill, and Be Fruitful” so as to be “reminded…of their feminine destiny”. They were not allowed to use combs or mirrors, and could only wear plain, functional clothing. Margaret Atwood can trace her family tree back to a woman called Mary Webster, who, in 1683, underwent attempted hanging as a
witch – but survived her ordeal. Atwood also went to Harvard University, which is in Massachusetts, not far from where the witch trials took place.