Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
American life in 1700s
Witch hunting 15th century
The rise and the fall of witch hunting
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
This story is a powerful example of people being incriminated or punished because of fear and bias. Most cases are one person’s word against another, lacking evidence, facts, and witnesses. Many people in this time period were hung for a crime that is very uncommon today. There never really was any proof that witchcraft was a fact. Every case of witchcraft that was taken to court was primarily one person's word against another. The people of Salem in the novel The Crucible by Arthur Miller were enveloped in mass hysteria leading to several deaths that were. caused by the rumors of Satan and witchcraft. Many people of Salem were hung because of peer pressure, fear of accusations, and fear of the unknown.
In the same way, peer pressure is a huge issue that affects today's youth. Many crimes every year go unreported and are left unsolved due fear of the consequences In
…show more content…
Reverend Hale had said “The Devil is alive in Salem, and we dare not quall to follow wherever the accusing finger points”(Miller 68). The people were living in fear of the unknown not the fear of the devil. People including Reverend Hale incited mass hysteria when he pushed the idea that the devil was at work. Reverend Hale had no proof of the devil or his works so why did everyone believe him? People in the 1700s were very dedicated to their religion and they believed that if people were falling sick, it was because the devil was at work. If the crops did not grow the devil was at work. If a well ran dry it meant the devil was at work. All in all if something negative impacted the community the devil was at work. People had dedicated their lives to God and were required to consistently attend church. There were jobs as Arthur Miller had mentioned that would require two people to go throughout Salem and to see who was and was not in
Mr. Hale’s trip to Salem solely took place so he could just if the girls’ sickness had to do with witchcraft. The manner at which he approached it doomed it from the start, he came in the middle of the chaos with the attitude that he could just fix everything with his books. His stubbornness to look at the situation from another point of view collided with the small town’s fear. This presence seemed to confirm their fear that the devil was already present. Salem was small enough where every one knew everyone and where he or she lived and worked. Word can spread fast and people became determined to stamp out the evil in their town.
they had seen with the devil. With all of these accusations the chaos begins and Salem Village will never be the same.
The Salem Witch Trials marks a vulnerable era in history. The play allows us to see that uncontrolled rage, pride, and even religion at times, can lead to destruction and mayhem. With these factors, it’s quite clear to see why Salem was vulnerable to these
In 1962 the penalty of witchcraft was to be hung or smashed. There was a big outburst of witchcraft and spells that were going around among the people of Massachusetts in 1962. Some of the women of Salem began the witchcraft many people started to catch on and fallow them. A lot of these people were hung do to what the bible said about the wrongs of witchcraft. When these women of Salem Massachusetts started to do witchcraft and pass it on to other people they were put on trial for their actions, which at the time was, illegal. It had caught on all over England and was spreading fast. Arthur Miller made a play called the Crucible that was about the Salem witchcraft trials. Arthur miller took the historical accounts and changed them to be suitable for the play. The crucible had many alterations to the historical documents that took place in1962 which were in the characters, the historical differences, and why the theme of history was changed.
Crucible- a severe test, a hard trial or also could be define as a pot for melting metals. A severe trail could be as other then a physical it also could be mentally a severe trial like person verses self. In The Crucible, Miller reflects the theme that pressure can force people from there can force their morals. The characters in The Crucible have morals that they must up hold to be accepted into the town and church. It is a struggle to keep these values when there are moral hazards like desires, greed, hate, and obsession.
Being isolated from any other group of people with different beliefs created a church led Puritan society that was not able to accept a lot of change. The church was against the devil, at the same time it was against such things as dancing and other premature acts. The reputation of the family was very important to the members of the community. When the girls were caught dancing in the woods, they lied to protect not just themselves but the reputation of their families. They claimed that the devil took them over and influenced them to dance. The girls also said that they saw members of the town standing with the devil. A community living in a puritan society like Salem could easily go into a chaotic state and have a difficult time dealing with what they consider to be the largest form of evil.
Reverend Hale arrives in Salem thinking that he will become a hero and rid Salem of the devil. Hale is speaking to the townspeople when he says, "Have no fear now--we shall find him out if he has come among us, and I mean to crush him utterly if he has shown his face!" Hale thinks that there is an actual devil in the town, and they must defeat it. He is trying to show the people of Salem that he is their savior, and that he knows exactly what to do.
In 1692 many people died during the Salem witch trials; which were in effected greatly by peer pressure. It started off when the girls of Salem ran off into the night and went dancing in the forest. Then when the girls were caught some of the older girls threatened others and some just had great influence on others. For instance, Abigail started accusing random women of witchcraft and the other girls did it to, just for the excitement. Peer pressure can lead to all sorts of behavior.
...in their family to become sick and possibly die. Many people were accused of witchcraft. More than twenty people died all together. One person was flattened to death because he was accused of witchcraft. When people were accused they had to go to jail, which the conditions were terrible. Then, they had to get a trial from the Court of Oyer and Terminer. After an accused witch had their trial, and went to jail, they would be carted off to Gallows Hill. This was the hill where all the witches were hanged. After a witch was hanged, later that night, their family would usually take the body down and give it a proper burial. The Salem Witchcraft Trials were one of the most terrible times in the history of America. As you can see the chaotic Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692 were caused by superstition, the strict puritan lifestyle, religious beliefs, and hysteria.
First, the Puritan values and expectations were strict, and those who had defied their teachings would have been at a much higher chance of being accused as a witch. Second, economic struggles within Salem Town and Village had further divided the two, by crop failure and livestock death. Ultimately causing economic damages. Third, personal opinions and disputes had contributed to the trials and accusations. The law system was unfair during the trials, so when or if someone was accused the court would side with the accuser, unless of course, they were a witch themselves. In conclusion, the people who died and who were accused of witchcraft were not really witches, Salem and it’s inhabitants were under the influence of mass hysteria, personal beliefs and grudges that eventually became the chaos of the Salem witch hunts of
Once the accusations began, many innocent people in the community were taken away. They were then either forced to admit that they were witches, to free themselves from a public hanging, or deny that they were witches, saving their integrity, but subjecting themselves to an unjust public hanging.
Women started to accuse other women and they also accused a few men. Murrin details that this caused a challenge in the local judical system: “…a number of judicial irregularities, including an unusual heavy dependence by the courts on spectral evidence ( when an accused witch’s spirit or specter, supposedly tormented the victim) and the use of open confessions by the accused to escape punishment” (339). New England had a organized way of doing things when it came it witches, but once accusations arose in Salem they started a new system which led their town into hysteria. “The Salem witch panic stands out, in part, because the judicial execution of twenty people within three months became an event of enormous drama in a region that hanged comparatively few offenders and in a colony that hanged only five people for witchcraft before 1692 and only one before 1656”
This trial was held in Salem but people all around Salem who were accused of witchcraft were bought to Salem for trial. The Salem Witch Trial was a trial for people being accused of associating with witch craft. Over 100 men and women majority of them being women were in this trial. The trial had a 3 step process first was a confession then a testimony of two eyewitnesses to the act of witchcraft and a rare ‘’spectral evidence’’ where most of these witches didn’t make it too. A spectral evidence is when the accused person’s spirit or spectral appeared in a testimony dream when the accused witch was at another location. During a trial if you could recite the ‘’Lord’s prayer’’ you were not a witch and you could indeed be let go during trial just for reciting the prayer (Louis-Jacques, Lyonette. "Http://news.lib.uchicago.edu/blog/2012/10/29/the-salem-witch-trials-a-legal-bibliography-for-halloween/." The University of Chicago Library News. 29 Oct. 2012). The trial was during the Puritan times so people believe during trial, these witches could harm anyone in the court houses (Purdy, Sean. ‘’Conjuring History: The many interpretations of The Salem Witch Trials.’’ Reviver Academic Journal, vol. 3, no. 1, 2007, pp. 2.). At the end of the trial 19 men and women were hanged at Gallows
Salem became overrun by the hysteria of witchcraft. Mere suspicion itself was accepted as evidence. As a Satan-fearing community, they could not think of denying the evidence, because to deny the existence of evil was to deny the existence of goodness; which was God. In the 17th century a group of Puritans migrated from England to America - the land of dreams - to escape persecution for their religious beliefs.
When other people heard about all of what was going on in Salem they started turning on their neighbors thinking and mostly believing that these people were witches because of the way they would go about their everyday activities. During this time of panic and disorder, people started finding ways to torture these “witches” with many different tactics to see if they were real witches or if they were innocent. Most of the people involved in the horrible torture devices were killed because no human could stand these horrible tests