#ik they used to quarantine people by marking their house with a cross if they were affected and making them stay inside

[muralconservator]

hi so this is the main art discussion but this is a shorter relevant one

ooo that's quite interesting

I do think that him holding the candle in the art does make a case that suggests he might've lit it himself or caused it on accident though I have some other ideas.

The man of the house he was staying at beginning to pray for forgiveness for longer and longer periods and Andrew describing the village as 'plague-stricken' kind of reminds me of how they used to think illness was caused by the wrath of God, there's a line mentioning that in the story as well.

there was also the belief that illness was caused by bad air that could be purified via heat and smoke, therefore leading fires to be lit to ward off the bad air, perhaps the fire was lit in hopes of helping the illness but accidentally got out of hand and spread?

#I was gonna say that I was aware that this might be stretch because those more more medieval/renaissance type beliefs #but there's literally plague doctors in the back of the first artwork for his story #I don't know what I think about the hut tho #ik they used to quarantine people by marking their house with a cross if they were affected and making them stay inside #so I thought maybe that but idk I feel like that's a stretch ???? #asks