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A witch was supposedly a man or woman who had made a pact with the Devil in exchange for magic and supernatural powers. It was also believed that all witches had their own "demon advisor", which was some type of pet; snake, toad, bird, rat etc. There was also a type of mark on a person's body which was considered to be the "devil's mark", and accused would be searched in order to determine if they had the mark. If they had a mark, they were a witch.

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Witches or people who were accused of witchcraft were usually interrogated, put in trial and in many cases were tortured into confession. The most common type of torture was sleep deprivation because it caused hallucination. After a confession or sufficient evidence from neighbors or other people, the witch would be executed, usually publicly. Most common types of execution included: hanging, strangling at stake, burning at stake and more.

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Witchcraft and sorcery became illegal, and there was a law stating that practicing witchcraft or associating with witches is a capital offence, punishable by death. The laws changed throughout the years, sometimes becoming harsher, and sometimes reducing punishments for the severity of the witchcraft used, as well as considering the intent of it.

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Most, if not all people during that time believed in evil spirits, magic, and the devil. Witches were believed to be very real.

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There were many false accusations and circumstances where completely innocent people were being executed for witchcraft. It is said that approximately 4,000 people in Scotland were accused of witchcraft during that time, but there were also cases which were not reported and which have not been counted, so it is estimated that around 30,000 people have been accused and tried for witchcraft. Throughout Europe, scholars say that about 60,000 people have been executed for witchcraft.

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This witchcraft idea involved and affected all the people, wealthy, poor or middle class, and nearly all of them blamed witches for the bad things happening in their lives. All types and social classes of people had been accused, from the most rich, to most poor, to most average person, anybody could have been easily accused

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There were different types of magic that the witches and the accused practiced back then, but the one that worried people the most was image magic. Image magic was the use of wax figures or poppets of certain people to poke and stab with pins in order to cause the person who the figurine represents pain or death. The concern for these grew even more after in England, there were figurines of Queen Elizabeth and her advisors found hidden in dung heaps in Lincoln's Inn fields. The owner of the figurines had intended for the figurines to completely melt in the heat of the dung piles, causing the Queen and her advisors great pain, and eventually death.

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It was not hard to get accused of witchcraft, as there was a specific charge called "mischief following anger" which could cause a person to be accused of witchcraft, if they acted out of anger. The notorious case of Elizabeth Stile, who had a bad temper and often begged for money is an example of this charge. When she was refused money, she got angry and the person who refused her money soon became very ill. This was evidence to accuse her of witchcraft, and the fact that she had a pet rat, whom she was said to have fed with her own blood, as well as that she had the "devil's mark" on her, was enough to prove her guilty and execute her.

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If another witch is tortured and reveals the names of her accomplices, they will also be accused and tried for witchcraft. If a vengeful neighbor or person in town accuses someone of witchcraft, the accused will have to be interrogated, searched or tortured. Neighbor's or witche's testimony was enough to rule someone guilty.

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Witchcraft and the belief in the supernatural was so popular that its impact was seen in literature and many different works. Shakespeare used the supernatural and witchcraft as parts of his plays, such as in Macbeth, Julius Caesar, The Tempest and more. It is understandable that his work would be inspired by it as well, since at the time, witches were such a topic of fear and interest that everything was about them and anything bad that would happen to people, was blamed on witchcraft and the supernatural.

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King James VI of Scotland was convinced that there were witches that were working with the Devil and wanted to murder him through the use of magic. His fear led to the creation of witch trials in 1591, lasting 7 years, which influenced other countries to hold similar trials. Witchcraft and trials were on the rise after this, and it became very easy to get accused of witchcraft.