The Crucible Comparison Essay

Comparison and Contrast: The Crucible/ Salem Witch Trials vs The European Witch Trials
Introduction
Hook→ If you were involved in a mass hysteria hoax, would you be able to get out of it?
Opening statement→ Over 100,000 trials followed by tens of thousands of deaths hit Europeans, and others, hard in the 16th century.
Bridge→ Many places throughout the the world in history have had witch executions and imprisonments along with Europe. These events being so common back then led to the creation of a play and movie The Crucible that shows a story that could have taken place in Europe.
Topic sentence→ The Crucible and the European witch trials have many similarities and differences that make them both memorable and important.
The Crucible- Summary
The Crucibles antagonist is Abigail who likes the idea of witchcraft that was brought about by her slave, Tituba.
Tituba, Mary, Betty, and Abigail all meet in the woods and use Tituba's magic to have fun.
Reverend Parris caught the

girls performing these acts in the forest and scolded them for it. When Betty, Abigailes cousin, starts to go crazy the town begins to relate it to witchcraft.
In all of this, Abigale holds a cleaning and service job for the Proctors. Elizabeth Proctor and Abigail do not get along for the main reason that Abigale it attracted to her soon to be husband John.
Abigailes relationship being too flirtatious cause her to be fired and for her to move in with her uncle, Reverend Parris.
Abigail wanted to marry John, but when she was open with him and told him about her involvement with witchcraft, he dumped her. This made Abigale furious and then wished to use Tituba's gift of witchcraft to hurt John.
Reverend Hale was a new witch hunter in town so this is when Abigail wanted her revenge.
People were still suspicious of her and her friends being involved with witchcraft, and since blaming people in the town previously didn't work, she threw Tituba under the bus. After this, Abigale wanted to get rid of Elizabeth in hopes that by doing this he would come back to her. Mary, one of her close friends, was getting too friendly with Elizabeth, so Abigale pretended she was being stabbed by a needle and planted a doll in Mary's house after accusing her of doing this. After finding the doll, Mary was convicted of witchcraft, but as she was she blamed John for converting her.
John wished to save Elizabeth from being suspected, so admitted to committing adultery with Abigale.
After this, Elizabeth lied to try and save Johns public image, and John kept on overnight up things and saying things that stated Elizabeth's innocents in all of this.
Abigale stole all of Reverend Parris's money and ran away to Fiji.
John, who would not lie to keep his public image, would not admit to being a witch and was hanged for it.
Direct Quotes-
“You must understand, sir, that a person is either with this court or he must be counted against it, there be no roadbetween . This is a sharp time, now, a precise time- we no longer live in the dusky afternoon when evil mixed itself with good and befuddled the world.” Danforth in Act III→ is the attitude of the authorities toward the witch trials.
“Let you not mistake your duty as I mistook my own…. The very crowns of holy law I brought, and what I touched with my bright confidence, it died; and where I turned the eye of my great faith, blood flowed up.” Reverend Hale in Act IV→ The Reverend causes a lot of damage by coming into Salem too confidently and forcefully that initially caused John to be accused.
“I speak my own sins; I cannot judge another. I have no tongue for it.” John Proctor Act V→ Confesses to witchcraft and his affair with Abigail in this sentence.
“Reverend Parris, I have laid seven babies up baptized in the earth. Believe me, sir, you never saw more hearty babies born. And yet, each would wither in my arms the very night of their birth. I have spoke nothin’, but my heart has clamored intimations” Mrs. Putnam Act I→Mrs. Putnam thinks that the seven babies deaths are all because of the evils in Salem in the form of witchcraft.
European Witch Trials- Introduction/Summary
The European witch trials took place in between the sixteenth and seventeenth century.
In total, over nine million women were burned or killed in Europe alone during the witch trials.
Salem, Massachusetts Witch Trials-Introduction/ Summary
Lasted roughly from February of 1692 and May of 1963
Started by a group of girls claiming to be possessed by the devil and accused several of the local women of witchcraft.
Massachusetts General Court annulled guilty verdicts against accused witches and granted indemnities to their families.

Killed twenty people in all.
A smaller population count led to a less sever mass hysteria
Common Themes/ Similarities Between All Witch Trials
In the trials, mostly women were tried, tested, and, most of the time, imprisoned if anyone even suspected them of witchcraft. Women were mostly suspected of witchcraft because of their ability to seduce or lure men naturally.
Early witchcraft trials were unfair and some that were burned at the steak, hung, drowned, or executed differently were found to be innocent only moments after their deaths.
Witchcraft hysteria began and elongated the looking and suspicions relating to witches.
Some were accused because they owned cats, which were labeled as messengers or advisors from the devil.
Belief in supernatural powers of the devil to give people the power to harm others in exchange for their loyalty.
4.

Requirements/Conclusion
Although the Salem Witch Trials and the European Witch Trials started differently, they both had the same effect. The Salem Witch trials were begun by four teenage girls covering up for something they we doing in the woods and blamed witchcraft for their behaviors. The European witch trials were begun by mass hysteria spreading across the nation and three Europe. Since the Salem witch trials started in this way, it was easily controlled and stopped by the townspeople of Salem who didn't agree with it after a few members of the community died. The only way this could have started was with a combination of psychological factors that caused a sever mass hysteria. Group think, peer pressure, the foot-in-the-door complex, deindividualization, and conformity all played a part in creating the panic and fear that started the trials. The human brain is never immune to natural societal concepts that make up our communities; these things have been, and always will be, vital parts of our social interactions with one another.
Sources: On work cited page.