MOTION: We assert that superstition is evil.
I. Introduction:
a. Definition: According to the Longman dictionary superstition is a belief that lucky or unlucky things can happen as a result of an action or magic
b. Superstition is evil because people in the book believe that witchcraft is real and they are killing people based on their assumptions about if they are witch or not.
II. Argument 1: Superstition resulted in people being hanged or prisoned.
a. Proof: Rebecca Nurse death - Hale: “I have this morning signed away the soul of Rebecca Nurse, Your Honor. I’ll not conceal it, my hand shakes yet as with a wound!”(104)
Prisoners – Elizabeth: “There be fourteen people in the jail now, she says. And they’ll be tired, and the court have power to hang them too, she says.”(55)
i. Explanation:
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According to these quotes from the book we can easily assume that courts hanged and prisoned people on wrong ideas like superstition. b. Proof: According to the website that I made a research about the time these event passes Sarah Good, Elizabeth Howe, Susannah Martin, Sarah Wilds and Rebecca Nurse, were prisoners and they were tired so that they hanged by the court on July 19. i.
Explanation: This information I got from the website also confirms that the evil things happened back then because of superstitious beliefs. Which resulted as peoples getting hanged.
III. Argument 2: Superstition can lead to injustice
a. Proof: One person’s idea can effect on other peoples life.
i. Explanation: For example when Abigail went to the court she was acting like Marry Warren was a witch and also she made the others girls act as well to make a powerful impression. Which lead court that Marry Warren might be a witch.
b. Proof: Specter Evidence
i. Explanation: From the same website that I made research I also got this information, Afflicted girls can claim that the accused person ‘specter’ attacking them even though the accusation was not physically happening. This passage is really similar to the book because Abigail also did these things in the book. When John and Marry Warren went to the court, Abigail act like Marry was attaching her with things that cannot be seen by others.
IV. Conclusion: According to the book and also information from the websites concludes that superstition is really evil because it resulted in deaths and lead
injustice.
Sources:
• "Superstition." Longman. N.p.: n.p., n.d. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary
English. Web. 13 Oct. 2014.
In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, Miller demonstrated that it was Abigail William’s flaws – mendacity, lust, and arrogance – that led her to be responsible the most for the tragedy of the witch hunt in Salem, Massachusetts. Driven by lust, Abigail was able to lie to the Salem community in hopes of covering her and her friends’ deeds and gaining the attention of John Proctor. Her arrogance enabled her t0 advance her deceit.
For example, as a result of the lie Sarah is put in the position by the court that she may either confess to the crime and save herself or not confess and get hung. The act also affects the town of Salem because the girls notice how much influence they have over the court and begin to accuse of witchcraft anyone they do not like. Although Mary Warren does contribute to the hanging of many people, but when Proctor begs to her to go to the court with him and confess to save Elizabeth, she gets a chance to redeem herself. She tells the court that the whole witchery situation was just the girls pretending. Mary says, “I cannot charge murder on Abigail” and adds, “[s]he’ll kill me for sayin’ that!”
Abigail Williams is accused of witchcraft early on. In order to avoid conviction she confesses to witchcraft, accuses Tituba of forcing her to drink blood and do witchcraft, and accuses Elizabeth Proctor, Sarah Good, Goody Osburn, Bridget Bishop, Goody Sibber, Goody Hawkins, Goody Booth, and countless other innocent people in court. She throws herself down in the court and does other dramatic actions in order to convince the court that a person is in fact a witch. This leads to people being falsely accused of witchcraft and forced to accuse others in order to live. Because of Abigail's growing power in the court, people become fearful of her. One of the most important people who begins to fear her is Elizabeth Proctor. Elizabeth is afraid that Abigail will accuse her of witchcraft. She also gives more insight into Abigail's behavior in court. She states that Abigail will “scream and howl and fall to the floor” when the accused are brought forth (50). The people and the court begin to believe that Abigail can see who the witches are. Her words and actions become the deciding factors in a defendants fate.
Witchcraft started in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Superstition started when women were accused of acting strangely. These superstitions turned into trials, and later lead to mounds of hanged people. Most of the people accused were innocent, but the harsh judge rulings left them with nothing to live for. The only options for the tried, no matter if guilty or not, were to claim guilty, living the rest of their life in prison, or to plead not guilty and hang. Due to both consequences being equally as punishable, many people isolated themselves from society. Unfortunately, some people caused the uprising of the salem witch trials more than others did. In the play The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, Abigail Williams single handedly attributed to the
In all of human history, people have written about inhuman beings, many of which include gods, demons, wizards, sorcerers, sorceresses, and witches. Nowadays mystical beings are seen everywhere in media. Most of society stopped believing in these creatures years ago, but for 17th-century Salem, witchcraft became a living nightmare (Fremon, 1999).
One night the girls were caught dancing in the woods naked by Reverend Parris. Abigail threatened the other girls she would kill them if they ever said what they were actually doing, which was conjuring spirits. Abigail was the one who had done most of the wrong dong including drinking blood. Because of this event the start of the whole witch hunt and hysteria can be accredited to Abigail. Whenever she would be accused she would make up a lie, and threaten the other girls to say it was the truth.
She even claims that John should know her better than to expect such a thing from her. Elizabeth often believes that she has not been a good enough wife to John and that she does not deserve his love, or any love. She confesses, “I counted myself so plain, so poorly made, no honest love could come to me!” (137). Her confession displays humbleness, an admirable trait in any Puritan. All of the young girls in The Crucible exemplify conformity by submitting to Abigail Williams. As the leader of these young girls, Abigail persuaded them to do whatever she said, including accusing people of witchcraft. These accusations led to the deaths of many men and women. Mary Warren is a victim of Abigail’s peer pressure. She eventually admits that everything she claimed was a lie that Abigail made her tell. She explains these lies by saying, “It were only sport in the beginning, sir, but then the whole world cried spirits, spirits” (107). This confession is her way of saying that they never meant for one small lie to turn into something so huge. Later, Mary agrees to testify against Abigail in court, but, in yet another
The religion of Witchcraft dates back about 25,000 years, to the Paleolithic Age, where the God of Hunting and the Goddess of Fertility first appeared. Out of respect for the overwhelming power of Nature grew a belief in beings, gods, who controlled the winds, the seas, the earth and the fires (Rinehart). People have been slaughtered for ages because they had different belief systems or they simply were not liked. Whether they were witches or not, hundreds of thousands of people have been burned at the stake, dunked in freezing rivers, or otherwise tortured because people accused them of being witches.
To further complicate matters, John decides not to reveal to the court that Abigail has admitted to him in private that they were just sporting in the woods. Abigail spreads additional accusations and false rumors about her neighbors. These accusations have no basis in truth and their only purpose is for Abigail’s own benefit. Furthermore, Abigail is jealous of John’s wife, Elizabeth, and she schemes to get rid of her in order to take her place. Abigail’s plot is to accuse Elizabeth of witchcraft.
The crucible by Arthur Williams describes the battle between justice and society, religion and superstition. And of how one man attempted to settle what was truly right when the odds were stacked not only against him, but against his own friends and family. In beginning sequence, it begins with a group of girls in the dead of night gathering materials such as warty toads and onions and for one a live rooster. The girls then retreat into a place where they perform a ritual that is assumed to provide them each with a man of who they wish to marry. During this one of the girls named Abigail Williams asks the assumed caster Tituba if she will kill John Procter’s wife so she may marry him. Tituba denies and soon after this they are caught by reverend
When people are exposed to fear, they will tend to make things up or create false ideas. Fear can cause people to do things that they would not normally do to survive. Some people do say fear does not breed superstition; however, without fear, superstition would not be. Fear breaks superstition; superstition breeds fear can be supported by the puritans ideology, religious beliefs, and their theory of the Devil is everywhere.
“Superstition is a belief or way of behaving that is based on fear of the unknown and faith in magic or luck: a belief that certain events or things will bring good or bad luck” (Merriam-Webster). “Superstition is an irrational belief that an object, action, or circumstance not logically related to a course of events influences its outcome” (The Free Dictionary). “Superstition is the belief in supernatural causality—that one event causes another without any natural process linking the two events—such as astrology and certain aspects linked to religion, like omens, witchcraft and prophecies, that contradict natural science” (Wikipedia). Superstition, a belief or practice generally regarded as irrational and as resulting from ignorance or from
Belief in witchcraft is the traditional way of explaining the ultimate cause of evil, misfortune or death.” The African worldview is holistic. In this perception, things do not just happen. What happens, either good or bad, is traced back to human action, including “ancestors who can intervene by blessing or cursing the living.” Witches, on the other hand, harm because they want to destroy life.
In 1692 superstitions somehow became the way of thinking. The misuse of it led to the executions of many innocent people in this country. Witchcraft was the crime, for which they were wrongly accused. Fact Net Inc. (see Internet Source) defines superstitions as "Beliefs held despite evidence. They are based on the belief that some people, Plants, animals, stars, words, numbers or special things have magical powers, which contradicts what we know about the world."
“Superstition is the religion of feeble minds,” once stated by Edmund Burke. People believe in superstitions to change the outcome of an event. They hope for the best and try to avoid bad luck. Believing in a superstition affects a person by creating a positive outcome; however, sometimes superstitions change the person’s behavior in a terrible way. Dr. Stuart Vyse, a professor of psychology at Connecticut College, explains the bright side and negative sides of believing in a superstition, and how it affects each person.