use of violence + intimidation to control powerless

• ‘he shuffles on his stretching toes’ (ch3, p.g.52)

  death ch5, p.g.87

  even mild-mannered kent allows harsh + unfair punishment of 1 week in pillory

  despite lack of questioning, and no obvious signs of their involvement in dove-cote fire they're quickly thrust into pillory

  even though old man can barely stand, especially in rain of ch3
• ’in any other place but here, such wilful arsonists would end up gibbeted’ (ch1, p.g.12)

  ‘a sturdy vagabond and fire setter should expect to have his ears cut off and then be hoisted to the gibbet’ (ch6, p.g.98)


  in the village, it’s taken for granted that law is enforced with harsh punishments

  same acceptance of violence as legitimate punishment is expressed by ej as wt in ch1

  use of corporal punishment to atone for crimes + set example for others to avoid committing such atrocitys
• ’nothing like a heavy show of justice…to persuade a populace’


  jordan= disgusted from moment of arrival w/ state of village

  mutilated corpse, rundown manor house + next morning w/ willowjack’s death

  uses threats of force against villagers- specifically the culprit for theft of master‘s property

  ready to use force to intimidate community + make them conform to his wishes
• ‘soldiers’ (ch7, p.g. 111)

  ‘twenty sidemen…or a troop of soldiers’ (ch11, p.g.174)

  sidemen, how they seem to villagers

  implying they will inflict violence if necessary

  baynham sent out of village, villagers fear he has been sent for reinforcements

  due to assault on groom
• ’crashes and cries’ (ch10, p.g.159)

  ‘license…..to do precisely what they want’

  ‘no matter what they did last evening, they could claim they did it only at their master’s bidding’ (ch10, p.g. 160)

  sidemen act violently against women, under guise of witch accusations

  given license to do anything due to overruling power of ej

  if anyone questions them, it was for their master, to satisfy his cruel will
• ’i’m too shocked by them to move… it’s just that they are not the women i have known’ (ch13, p.g.194)


  extent to which the women are made victims demonstrated by changed appearance as they emerge from manor house
• ‘privilege’ followed by ‘malice’ in ‘pageant’ (ch13, p.g. 202)

  menacing image of violent sidemen armed following ej

  imply privilege is customarily sustained by force
• ’the knowledge of her torments at their manor lies leaden in my stomach’ (ch11, p.g.178)

  ‘they’d drag me by the ankles to the manor house’ (ch11, p.g.179)

  psychological effects of violence

  vividly shown in wt’s distress about kg + fear of what sidemen may still do
• ’waking nightmares’ (ch13, p.g.209)

  wt further tormented

  by fears of what may have happened to q, who was being hunted by sidement

  fears gruesome violence
• effectiveness of violence

  dismayingly, the violence used by ej is effective in achieving his goals

  he leaves the village without suffering (except for inconvenience of burnt title deeds to manor)