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Indigenous people and culture have been under attack for countless centuries. Indigenous representation is often in the form of servitude or untamable savages who destroy everything in their path. During the Victorian era, Victorian attitudes towards indigenous people were not any better, and the imperialist and Eurocentric culture of the Victorians often branded indigenous people as the “savage other”. In Lois the witch, Elizabeth Gaskell explores the consequences of the Salem witch trials and their blemish on history. The story deals with the fear of the other which in this case is exemplified through the fear of witchcraft but also the fear of the indigenous others like Hota and Nattee.
The main character, Lois, finds herself implicated in these accusations and she shares the same fate as the indigenous people like Hota and Nattee. Nature is treated like a background character, but her presence and eventual implication in the Salem witch trials lead the reader to believe that she was the one practicing actual witchcraft.
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This puts her at the center of the story despite the typical indigenous character traits of being seen and not heard is given. Through the indigenous characters’ portrayal as the monstrous other, Lois the witch explores the threat of the Victorian fear of the other. Nettie’s uncertain but predictable fate tells the reader a lot about the way Victorians dealt with indigeneity and their understanding of it. t
Lois the witch deals with the fear of the other, resulting in characters acting erratically and emotionally.
This text portrays indigenous people as the “mysterious other”, and even Lois is othered because she comes from England. Thus, this novel examines the fear of the supernatural as well as the fear of the unknown. . There are parallels between the supernatural and the indigenous other, causing these early Victorians to correlate them to one another. The threat of the unknown is something these Victorian characters were afraid of, and their fear of them caused a visceral reaction amongst them. There was a lot of ambiguity surrounding the indigenous people which led many people to associate them with evil and the supernatural. Patrick Brantlinger explores the representation of indigeneity in Victorian writing and its relationship to the supernatural. “Gothic fiction hardly seems celebratory or nationalistic, yet it typically identifies the terrors it evokes with the past and with foreign places and evildoers” (14). Indigeneity is often regarded as ambiguous and foreign. People tend to fear what they do not understand and therefore condemn it. In Lois the Witch, the indigenous character is ambiguous, and their practices are foreign to the people of the town, therefore making their condemnation easier.
At the first sign of trouble, Hota becomes the first person accused of witchcraft. The town’s collective panic about witchcraft gives way to panic. Hota does not get a fair trial and she is condemned as a witch. There is no clear evidence of Hota being a witch other than Hester’s claim. Hester’s position as a privileged child allows her to make claims without further need for clarification. “The narrator ended with saying that Hota was to be hung the next morning, despite her confession, even although her life had been promised to her if she acknowledged her sin; for it was well to make a Nature' of the first-discovered witch, and it was also well that she was an Indian, a heathen, whose life would be no great loss to the community” (Gaskell 130). Just like Prudence’s claims against Lois, those claims were enough to condemn Hota as a witch. Hota’s role as the indigenous servant made her an easy target to make an example of. Hota is treated like a disposable object, serving only as an example of what will happen to anyone accused of witchcraft. There is no real evidence of her being a witch, simply a child’s claim against her. The text also suggests that Hota is innocent, making her the first innocent victim of the witch hunts. Hota’s indigeneity makes her life have little value to the people of the town, and they are quick to accuse and condemn her.
Throughout the story, Lois’ innocence appears to canshebe evident. In Nature's case however religion can she be,, there are subtle hints that she could be the one partaking in witchcraft. Nattee’s role as the oppressed other, does not allow her to have much freedom or control over her own life. She must serve the household and do their bidding no matter what. She is treated as part of the household, a simple object that can be owned and manipulated. Due to this, the only way that she has any type of control over her oppressors is by telling them stories:
The poor old creature, herself believing and shuddering as she narrated her tale in broken English, took a strange, unconscious pleasure in her power over her hearers – young girls of the oppressing race, which had brought her down into a state little differing from slavery, and reduced her people to outcasts on the hunting-grounds which had belonged to her fathers. (Gaskell 209)
Nattee’sNature's delight in causing a reaction within the members of her household can be interpreted as a way for her to take back some of the control from her oppressors. Her freedom is limited, and by having a brief control over the reactions and feelings of those who oppress her, she is able to have power over them for a brief amount of time. By telling the stories of her people, she is using her culture and indigenous roots to have some type of control over the people she serves. Her stories could also be interpreted as a warning to the family; she is telling threligio she and her people are capable of. She is reminding them that despite being part of the oppressed, the supernatural is on her side.
During the Victorian era, religious controlled a significant portion of people’s lives. People were immersed in their religion, rejecting anything they deemed to exist outside of it. Indigenous beliefs did not fit in with many traditional Victorian beliefs which frightened the Victorians. “Many men are spiritual enemies in visible forms, permitted to roam about the waste places of the earth. I myself believe that these Red Indians are indeed the evil creatures of whom we read in Holy Scripture” (Gaskell 106). The difference in religious ideologies plays a significant role in the othering of native people. Anything that was deemed as “evil” or outside the norm was approached with caution and fear. Many Victorians did not understand nor wanted to understand religious beliefs they considered foreign. They were frightened of anything that did not directly deal with their version of Christianity. In Lois, have from the Witch, the entire town of Salem was in a frenzied panic. They were quick to accuse and condemn anyone they suspected of being a witch regardless of the evidence. Ultimately, Hota, Nattee, and even Lois were prime suspects because they did not follow the religious ideology of everyone else in the town.
Lois the Witch deals with the supernatural and the other. the indigenous characters are portrayed as background characters until they are accused of something they may or may not be guilty of. The oppressive force in this story comes in the form of various characters, and anyone who opposes them suffered an untimely fate. The fear and panic that has overtaken Salem has caused the people to accuse anyone that acts differently than them asoleadingof as leading ofleadinas leadin witches. The people who are deemed as “other” are the first ones to go, and the town is looking for someone to blame. The indigenous characters in this story do not simply fade into the background; they are the scapegoats of the people in town and they are not treated fairly by the others. Their treatment in the town goes beyond the simple practice of oppression; they are used as examples and are the perfect victims to blame when the panic starts. The indigenous characters in the story are not only portrayed as the typical “savage Indian” or as the “noble savage.” Instead, they are others who become correlated to the supernatural that ultimately leads to their demise.
Victorian Attitudes Towards Indigeneity in Lois The Witch. (2022, May 24). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/victorian-attitudes-towards-indigeneity-in-lois-the-witch-essay
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