Witch-Hunt. The Scapegoat of Modern Medicine ("Vinegar Tom")

Abstract

This article explores the play "Vinegar Tom" (1976) by the English playwright Caryl Churchill (1938). The subjects under study are the figure of the Other, one of Churchill’s main themes, the witch-hunt that took place in England in the 17th century and the relationship between the Catholic religion and modern medicine. In some of her plays Churchill explores the conversion of the Other into different phantasmatic realities. Specifically, here we will see how she examines one minority: the women accused of witchcraft during their trials, which involves the mechanism of the scapegoat and, in this case, an important role for the Catholic Church. We will explore the beginnings of modern medicine and its implications, then and now, for how women’s bodies were conceived and their current relationship with medicine. Churchill
tells the story of the Others, the minorities, the excluded and analyses the ghosts and phantasmatic realities that she detects today. She is always interested in their different origins and the article will look at this methodology and research. "Vinegar Tom" is a play about witches but without any witches. Its main topics are not evil, hysteria and possession by the devil but poverty, humiliation and prejudice, and how the women accused of witchcraft saw
themselves.