The Primary Cause Of Bathory's Extreme Deviance
The ideas of immortality and vampires have been around for a long time. Long before Dracula, there lived the “Bloody Countess”, who was known to take young peasant girls and torture them before bathing in their blood. Holding the Guinness World Record for ‘the most number of victims attributed to one murderess’, Erzebet (Elizabeth) Bathory killed at least 650 young girls for the sake of staying young and beautiful (Glenday, 2009). The primary cause of Bathory’s extreme social device is nurture. An application of the concepts of Albert Bandura, the secondary agents of socialization, Sigmund Freud, Karen Horney, feminist sociology and Karl Marx will be used to prove that nurture is the primary cause of this person’s extreme deviance.
Humans …show more content…
are malleable, children even more so. With Bathory’s questionable external environment influencing her from a young age, there was no doubt a direct connection the person she’d later become. According to Albert Bandura, people learn by watching, then imitating (Todd, 2015). During his experiment, two groups of children were left to play with a doll, with one being shown a more aggressive way. Bathory, being from a noble lineage, was taught many things by her own blood rather than at a local school. This unfortunately led to her being taught extra. According to Bashapedia (2011), “Elizabeth had a diabolist uncle, said to have been "addicted to rituals and worship in honour of Satan"; she had an aunt named Klara, who was a well known sadist bi-sexual who found pleasure in torturing her servant.” (para. 1). This no doubt affected Bathory’s perception on pain and torture in later life. In order for any society to remain functional, there are five basic social institutions that must cooperate. If one is dysfunctional for an individual, it can possibly throw their whole life off balance, some more severely than others. These “agents” of socialization include family, peers, religion, workplace, and school. Because of family and school intertwining, Bathory’s socialization skills reflected upon a century’s worth of knowledge passed down from generation to generation. However, they also reflected upon her line’s reputation of illness and violence, mentioned in the following passage, The Bathory family had a history of schizophrenia, sadomasochism and a purely sadistic streak which Elizabeth inherited. Just like other children her age, Elizabeth had been witness to her family's cruel treatment to servants and sometimes lower nobility. She had even witnessed a gypsy's tortuous execution where they had been sewn up inside a hollowed horse and left to die. As a child, Elizabeth experienced violent seizures, possibly caused by epilepsy, that some speculate may have caused her sadistic nature in her later life. She also suffered from violent bouts of rage and uncontrollable behaviour. (Bashapedia.pbworks.com, 2011, para. 1)
Bathory was almost certainly “exposed to incredible violence” (Clark, 2008), meaning that her childhood experiences almost certainly affected her negatively both physically and mentally.
Once one gets a certain idea in their head, it can be near impossible for some to change their minds. After her husband died, Bathory’s vanity and pressure to impress her husband coincided with the sadism that was nurtured into her (Bashapedia.pbworks.com, 2011, para. 4). According to Sigmund Freud, one tends to use defence mechanisms when their “ego distorts their issues to deal with anxiety” (Todd, 2015). This can include acting out and explosive feelings. Bathory exhibited a number of Freud’s proposed defence mechanisms. Her upbringing influenced her to think torturing young peasant girls was acceptable, and started killing even more after her husband’s death (Craft, 2009). Clear portrayals of denial, repression, and displacement are seen. Karen Horney, founder of feminine psychology, argued that women were pushed by society and culture to depend on men for both love and status (Todd, 2015). Bathory reportedly started killing girls for their blood, as she convinced herself that her servant girls’ blood made her look fairer and younger (Pavlac, 2005). When questioned after capture, she states that she wanted to look beautiful for her husband, who died 10 year prior, (Clark, 2008) as well as never grow old (Pavlac, 2005). Although she already had a high status already, she was convinced her beauty was the only thing that would keep her that way.
The debate of feminism is known to have trialed across time for centuries.
Bathory, even though she was a woman, was well educated and was well over the intelligence average of the Hungarian population. She challenged the norms for men and women, but ended going to lethal extremes doing so. Gender roles were more prevalent during the 16th century and were imposed onto women greatly, and much of the time one’s mindset depended on how they were raised – something that could be extremely different between men and women. Despite that, Bathory grew up demanding to be treated equal as her male counterparts. She was taught many ‘masculine’ skills, and even made her husband take her last name at marriage – something almost unheard of at the time (Craft, 2009). However, she still felt the need to look nice for her husband, even after he had died (Clark, 2008). Karl Marx’s Conflict Theory focused on the economic conflict and power imbalances between contrasting groups, such as between men and women, or majority and minority groups (Todd, 2015). Bathory, who was brought up in a privileged household, clearly used the conflict between the rich and poor to her advantage. Since boys were preferred over girls for labour, Bathory pretended to open a school in her castle and ‘lured noble girls to her castle under the promise of an education’ (Pavlac, 2005). She knew many parents would comply. Because most girls were of low nobility, nobody noticed their disappearances, not until Bathory started going for those of the
aristocracy.
In conclusion, Bathory’s inner conflicts were nurtured by her external surroundings and put into practice in her later life. Her exposure to violence from a young age and family’s indifference about pain and torture definitely contributed to the women who killed near to 650 girls and only be sentenced to imprisonment (Glenday, 2009). Being a woman in the 16th century was difficult, but Bathory demanded equality and – unfortunately – used it to her advantage negatively as well. Though she had a number of mental illnesses, her lineage encouraged it instead of helping her cope with it, nurturing her to become the “Blood Countess”. In closing, Elizabeth Bathory was definitely a product of nurture than of nature.
Humans …show more content…
are malleable, children even more so. With Bathory’s questionable external environment influencing her from a young age, there was no doubt a direct connection the person she’d later become. According to Albert Bandura, people learn by watching, then imitating (Todd, 2015). During his experiment, two groups of children were left to play with a doll, with one being shown a more aggressive way. Bathory, being from a noble lineage, was taught many things by her own blood rather than at a local school. This unfortunately led to her being taught extra. According to Bashapedia (2011), “Elizabeth had a diabolist uncle, said to have been "addicted to rituals and worship in honour of Satan"; she had an aunt named Klara, who was a well known sadist bi-sexual who found pleasure in torturing her servant.” (para. 1). This no doubt affected Bathory’s perception on pain and torture in later life. In order for any society to remain functional, there are five basic social institutions that must cooperate. If one is dysfunctional for an individual, it can possibly throw their whole life off balance, some more severely than others. These “agents” of socialization include family, peers, religion, workplace, and school. Because of family and school intertwining, Bathory’s socialization skills reflected upon a century’s worth of knowledge passed down from generation to generation. However, they also reflected upon her line’s reputation of illness and violence, mentioned in the following passage, The Bathory family had a history of schizophrenia, sadomasochism and a purely sadistic streak which Elizabeth inherited. Just like other children her age, Elizabeth had been witness to her family's cruel treatment to servants and sometimes lower nobility. She had even witnessed a gypsy's tortuous execution where they had been sewn up inside a hollowed horse and left to die. As a child, Elizabeth experienced violent seizures, possibly caused by epilepsy, that some speculate may have caused her sadistic nature in her later life. She also suffered from violent bouts of rage and uncontrollable behaviour. (Bashapedia.pbworks.com, 2011, para. 1)
Bathory was almost certainly “exposed to incredible violence” (Clark, 2008), meaning that her childhood experiences almost certainly affected her negatively both physically and mentally.
Once one gets a certain idea in their head, it can be near impossible for some to change their minds. After her husband died, Bathory’s vanity and pressure to impress her husband coincided with the sadism that was nurtured into her (Bashapedia.pbworks.com, 2011, para. 4). According to Sigmund Freud, one tends to use defence mechanisms when their “ego distorts their issues to deal with anxiety” (Todd, 2015). This can include acting out and explosive feelings. Bathory exhibited a number of Freud’s proposed defence mechanisms. Her upbringing influenced her to think torturing young peasant girls was acceptable, and started killing even more after her husband’s death (Craft, 2009). Clear portrayals of denial, repression, and displacement are seen. Karen Horney, founder of feminine psychology, argued that women were pushed by society and culture to depend on men for both love and status (Todd, 2015). Bathory reportedly started killing girls for their blood, as she convinced herself that her servant girls’ blood made her look fairer and younger (Pavlac, 2005). When questioned after capture, she states that she wanted to look beautiful for her husband, who died 10 year prior, (Clark, 2008) as well as never grow old (Pavlac, 2005). Although she already had a high status already, she was convinced her beauty was the only thing that would keep her that way.
The debate of feminism is known to have trialed across time for centuries.
Bathory, even though she was a woman, was well educated and was well over the intelligence average of the Hungarian population. She challenged the norms for men and women, but ended going to lethal extremes doing so. Gender roles were more prevalent during the 16th century and were imposed onto women greatly, and much of the time one’s mindset depended on how they were raised – something that could be extremely different between men and women. Despite that, Bathory grew up demanding to be treated equal as her male counterparts. She was taught many ‘masculine’ skills, and even made her husband take her last name at marriage – something almost unheard of at the time (Craft, 2009). However, she still felt the need to look nice for her husband, even after he had died (Clark, 2008). Karl Marx’s Conflict Theory focused on the economic conflict and power imbalances between contrasting groups, such as between men and women, or majority and minority groups (Todd, 2015). Bathory, who was brought up in a privileged household, clearly used the conflict between the rich and poor to her advantage. Since boys were preferred over girls for labour, Bathory pretended to open a school in her castle and ‘lured noble girls to her castle under the promise of an education’ (Pavlac, 2005). She knew many parents would comply. Because most girls were of low nobility, nobody noticed their disappearances, not until Bathory started going for those of the
aristocracy.
In conclusion, Bathory’s inner conflicts were nurtured by her external surroundings and put into practice in her later life. Her exposure to violence from a young age and family’s indifference about pain and torture definitely contributed to the women who killed near to 650 girls and only be sentenced to imprisonment (Glenday, 2009). Being a woman in the 16th century was difficult, but Bathory demanded equality and – unfortunately – used it to her advantage negatively as well. Though she had a number of mental illnesses, her lineage encouraged it instead of helping her cope with it, nurturing her to become the “Blood Countess”. In closing, Elizabeth Bathory was definitely a product of nurture than of nature.