Margery Kempe: Housewife Gone Nuts

Margery Kempe: average wife, mother, businesswoman and the town nut. I honestly feel sorry for her because here’s a woman who was not educated and while her marriage seems to have been relatively happy, she was still at the whim of her husband. And with motherhood coming so quickly after her marriage, I think many women would feel the restrictions placed on them at the time.

            Margery suffered an illness after the birth of her first child and she sought spiritual guidance to confess an indiscretion from when she was younger. When the priest begins chewing her out for other, minor sins she seems like she begins to lose it. Lynn Harry Nelson on vlib.org says that “She broke. She tried to throw herself out of the window, screamed, blasphemed, and struck out at all who approached” (Nelson).This was a full-on mental breakdown and it resulted in her getting locked up.

            Before Margery embarked on her pilgrimage to Jerusalem, she gained the ridicule and suspicion of her neighbors. Nelson says that “she began to chat with God more frequently.,. Most important, she began to cry. Here she began to encounter trouble, for seizures of this sort could either be the work of God or of the devil, and opinion was split…” (Nelson.). This makes it sound like Margery is the rope in a tug of war between God and Satan. Her public acts don't really help her case for really talking to God. The public displays of extreme emotion would be enough for anybody to put several feet between themselves and Margery.

 

 Perhaps we saw Margery losing her faith and trust in the Church as an institution after the bad confession experience and so she turned more fully to the personal devotion to God. Perhaps she was dealing with post-partum depression. Maybe she had always been mentally unstable. What I found interesting is that in her writings, she refers to herself in the third person and calls herself “the creature” in the four excerpts from her book on luminarium.org. She is definitely an interesting person to read about because she did such extreme things that not a lot of women did at the time.

The miracle God gave Julian

      Wow a lot of people jumped on this website after class! Before I get started I have decided to change my font, I really like Verdana font (just a little side note). Also I do know everything I just wrote in this mini paragraph probably does not count in my word count.

      I do have to say, I did not really enjoy reading about Julian of Norwich. Don't get me wrong, it was a miracle she lived through her illness and I would like to read more about those seven days talked about on page 1. But the fact that she spent her life writing a book just seems boring to me (4). The fact that she became an Anchoress (4) instead of traveling to spread the word about God made me wonder why God picked her. I know that sounds bad to say, but I believe people that receive visions from God should share them and help bring the community back to God. He could have picked anyone, but he picked Julian and she barely publicized her talent or God's words. 

       At the same time, it must take a strong person to live as a Solitary. It must take someone stronger to write a book about visions the person was receiving from God. On that note, I will give Julian a little credit. In that time period, Julian was rare; she was a strong woman that devoted her life as a Solitary. 

http://thenoontimes.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/icon-of-julian-of-norwich-juliet-venter1.jpg

         While looking up Julian of Norwich, I found this picture. I have to say this is by far the best picture I have found of Julian. Also out of all three women we have discussed, this is the best picture I have posted on this blog. I am a little curious as to why there is a cat in this picture. I would like to note in class, Dr. MB said no one really knows what Julian wore; if know one knew what Julian wore, why is she wearing a nuns outfit in this picture? Seems the person that created this picture agreed with the author of our reading because on page 4, the author mentions that Julian "probably dressed in the black of a Benedictine nun (4)".

http://www.virginiawieringa.com/galleries/plog-content/images/icons/personal-work-inspired-by-icons/lady-julian-of-norwich.jpg


        Even in this picture, Julian is touching a cat. I would like to know what she is holding between her thumb and index finger; and in this picture, is Julian an 
Anchoress yet? To conclude this blog, there is not enough information about Julian for me to understand her. I have a lot of unanswered questions about her and her visions.

Blog post #1

What is Magic Now???

Midway through the class, I’m not exactly sure what magic is anymore. Is it something that people used as a scapegoat to get another women’s husband or was it actually real? Perhaps it was a little bit of both?

People had to have seen things that were actually magical, because some of the texts we’ve read are just so farfetched to just “make up”. Unless they were on some hardcore drug, I’m convinced they saw some really funky stuff that actually scared them to believe magic is real. I’m seriously scared to think of the freaky rituals people performed, especially involving babies or blood, or anything. But I honestly don’t think people could be that gullible. Nothing in the texts would pass as magic in today’s world. The world would not go on a craze claiming everyone who looked at you funny was a witch. It would more likely be considered an extremely weird cult or something emotionally disturbed people partake in.

That being said, I believe that magic is real, in some sort of way. However, I don’t believe that all the cases made in the texts we read are absolutely true. There are always people who learn how to “work the system” and can manipulate it to their digression. After a while, when people realized that this “witch” thing wasn't going away, they realized

“Hey, maybe I could use this to get back at people I don’t like. If I tell the town I saw Sarah in the field last night, and say I heard her mumbling to herself, they’ll all believe that she’s a witch.” It’s messed up to think people would do this, but you cannot tell me people did not do this. So if you don’t like someone, just call them a witch.

Clearly I can rant about this for a long time. I’m not sure what I believe in. I am Christian, but I do not exclude all possible things out there. Unexplainable things happen on a day to day basis. Surely it could be the works of God, but the act in which he does it: isn’t that magic? I wish there could be magic like that in Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings, but who doesn’t!? But realistically, there has to be some sort of balance keeping everything together. In order to have balance there has to be “good” magic and “bad” magic. So, is there evil out there? No doubt. It’s always nice to assume there is no such thing as magic because we all fear the evil aspect of it. Ignorance is bliss I guess.