The Witch Scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail
At the beginning of the semester when I made this blog, I asked Dr. Williams if he understood why my blog's url was "witchesmadeofwood." When he said he didn't, I was a little disappointed because its name comes from one of the most famous witch scenes in all of popular media history. A brief 3-minute clip of a witch trial from Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) satirizes witch trials that have taken place across human history. Take some time to watch the clip here, and then follow me as we break down what happens, and you find out the answer to the question, "Why do witches burn?"
This scene does a fantastic job capturing the absurdity of claims brought against people who have been accused of practicing witchcraft. When the townspeople want to burn a witch they have found in their village, they are asked, "Well how do you know she is a witch?" Their response summarizes the craze surrounding witches and their depiction perfectly. "Because she looks like one." The woman in question has a long, false nose and a witch hat that the townspeople placed on her. Then she is accused of performing an act against a townsperson who wildly claims, "She turned me into a newt," despite the fact that he appears as a normal human.
The character that heads the impromptu witch trial states that "there are ways of telling if someone is a witch." He then proceeds to ask a series of questions that leads the viewers through an absurd train of thought beginning with the question, "Why do we burn witches?" and "Why do witches burn?" It is here that we have the answer to why my blog is named what it is. Witches burn, according to this skit, because they are made of wood.
But this trial is far from over, we still have to figure out if the woman in question is made of wood or not. How do we do this? We figure this out by continuing to follow the string of faulty, but comical logic including claims about building bridges, floating in water, making comparison to ducks because they also float in water, until we finally arrive at the test that will determine if she is a witch. The townspeople conclude that if she weighs the same as a duck, then *logically* she is a witch! And we can burn her! So, they throw her up on the scale with a duck at the opposite end. The scale is obviously inaccurate and it balances out, revealing that the woman is indeed a witch to be burned.
Of course the sketch is meant to be comical, and I always laugh every time I see it, but there is something important to take away from it. If you really believe someone is a witch, there is always a way that you can try to make that fact true in your brain. The Puritans held witch trials based on faulty accusations, using different tests like urine cake eating, seeing if children would erupt into fits if the accused witch looked at them or touched them, or by seeing if they could say the Lord's prayer. None of these tests would really tell if someone was a witch or not, but the Puritans used them anyways. So I say the next time we think someone is a witch, we should try to weigh them against a duck or build a bridge out of them, because why not?
Thank you for an amazing class, Dr. Williams.
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