Cataplasma and Hawthorne

Studying Nathaniel Hawthorne, I've watched on youtube an interesting documentary about the Salem Witch Trials which provides uselful information about this terrific event that Hawthorne uses to subtly criticize Puritanist hypocrisy in his short tale studied in the course "Young Goodman Brown". I'd like to highlight that apart from describing the whole process till the imprisonment and execution of many people accused of witchcraft and its subsequent consequences for Puritanist society, there are also some explanations about the belief in "spectral evidence. In the documentary it is also mentioned that one of the judges who condemned these people, was John Hathorne, one of the author's ancestors.