Sign of a Witch
‘YEAR OF WONDERS’ – A PASSGE THAT IMPACTED ON ME AS A READER – ‘SIGN OF A WITCH’- MOB SCENE.
Year of wonders is a brilliantly written book with numerous scenes involving the good, the bad and the ugly. There is one chapter within the novel that stands out majorly from the rest; this chapter is ‘Sign of a Witch’. Within this mesmerising chapter horrific events unfold upon transfixed and innocent individuals by a mentally distorted mob fixed within a trance of evil thoughts. This mob aims to kill off all witches in Eyam they’ve accused of having brought in the plague. A certain passage touches me emotionally with the way the author has portrayed one characters physical and emotional state (Anna Frith) in such a simple but yet effective way. “I groaned and tried again to rise, but my limbs would not obey me. I saw the noose go around Anys’s neck and knew they planned to hang her with her own rope, using the stowes as the scaffold.” It gives me a description and paints a vivid image in my head of how Anna was at that exact moment in time, physically incapable, distressed, agonised and accepting the death of a nurturing friend. This passage also shows me how the plague had struck Eyam, mentally affecting all villagers, and driving them crazy enough to commit such ungodly acts as had unfolded upon both Mem and Anys Gowdie that dark night. The plague had brought along evil with it, slowly inflicting the souls of Eyam, having people demand answers to questions they could have never answered and ultimately ending in situations of violence and chaos.
IDENTIFY LANGUAGE FEATURES USED WITHIN THE MOBBING SCENE.
Similes – “Lit her up as if she were on fire” pg.93, “Her amber eyes glinted yellow as a cat’s”
Year of wonders is a brilliantly written book with numerous scenes involving the good, the bad and the ugly. There is one chapter within the novel that stands out majorly from the rest; this chapter is ‘Sign of a Witch’. Within this mesmerising chapter horrific events unfold upon transfixed and innocent individuals by a mentally distorted mob fixed within a trance of evil thoughts. This mob aims to kill off all witches in Eyam they’ve accused of having brought in the plague. A certain passage touches me emotionally with the way the author has portrayed one characters physical and emotional state (Anna Frith) in such a simple but yet effective way. “I groaned and tried again to rise, but my limbs would not obey me. I saw the noose go around Anys’s neck and knew they planned to hang her with her own rope, using the stowes as the scaffold.” It gives me a description and paints a vivid image in my head of how Anna was at that exact moment in time, physically incapable, distressed, agonised and accepting the death of a nurturing friend. This passage also shows me how the plague had struck Eyam, mentally affecting all villagers, and driving them crazy enough to commit such ungodly acts as had unfolded upon both Mem and Anys Gowdie that dark night. The plague had brought along evil with it, slowly inflicting the souls of Eyam, having people demand answers to questions they could have never answered and ultimately ending in situations of violence and chaos.
IDENTIFY LANGUAGE FEATURES USED WITHIN THE MOBBING SCENE.
Similes – “Lit her up as if she were on fire” pg.93, “Her amber eyes glinted yellow as a cat’s”