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Psychological aspects of salem witch trials
Societal effect of salem witch trials
The effect of the Salem witch trials
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Many people believe that teenagers are reckless, rude, and untruthful human beings. It seems that teenagers are always under the pressure to “look cool,” and not do anything embarrassing. Reputation means a great deal to many high schoolers, because it seems that you only get one chance to make a good impression. In the Crucible, Abigail and the other girls fear that their reputation will be destroyed if the would be known as witches. Teenagers today have so much pressure on themselves. They have to get good grades, to get into their choice of college. They also are under the pressure to have and keep a good reputation, just as Abigail and the girls of Salem had to keep theirs.
We have all experienced a time during our teenage years when our parents told us not to do something, but we did it anyways, because we thought that we could outsmart our parents and not get into trouble. In the Crucible, the following quote “She made me do it! She made Betty do it!” Abigail is blaming Tituba, for them dancing in the forest, and told everyone that Tituba was with the Devil and that she was a witch. This shows that Abigail and the girls did no want to get in trouble, or confess for dancing in the forest. So they came up with the idea of saying that it was witchcraft and that they were forced upon their own will. In today’s society teenagers are faced with the same type of pressure. When on person gets in trouble, they tend to point the finger at someone else, for mainly one reason: so they do not get into trouble for their wrong doings. In the Salem Witch Trials the girls of Salem told a lie, so they would not get into trouble for dancing in the forest. In the end this caused them to hurt the lives of many men and women who were wrongly accused, because of false accusations. A good reputation is hard to achieve and even harder to keep. Teenagers take their reputation very seriously. One accusation or wrong action can see like the end of the world. Some teenagers believe that if they can blame someone else, then their problems will disappear. But that belief is misinterpreted. Anything that goes around comes around.
Power is a very strapping word.
Witchcraft burned tens of thousands of people in the Middle Ages. Just in Salem, Massachusetts, the citizens accused over one hundred and fifty people of witchcraft. As a result of these accusations, the court hanged twenty of these supposed witches. How much evidence was there to convict the supposed witches? Not enough to select death as the punishment. However, the court sentenced the accused to be hanged if they did not confess which causes another problem: why hang when one could confess to a lie and live? Indeed, the court system broke down during these witch trials.
In the Town of Salem Massachusetts, 1692, a group of adolescents are caught dancing in the forest. Among the adolescents in The Crucible, Abigail Williams and Mary Warren. The girls are horrified that they have been caught dancing, a sinful act, therefore they devise a story to evade punishment: they claim to have been bewitched. The first person who they accuse of witchcraft is a the black maid, Tituba. This results in her jail sentence as well as fearful suspicion throughout the town. Arthur Miller demonstrates the impact of lying as the girls recognise and manipulate their power in the town. Lead by Abigail, they go further, claiming countless others guilty and dooming them to exile. Miller demonstrates that there power is so great that even when Mary attempts to stand against her friends, she is quickly overwhelmed and once again plays along with their trickery. As the girls’ conspiracy continues, controversy arise over their truthfulness; people choose sides often lying themselves to support their side, further altering the lives of all involved.
Salem 1692, two girls ,Betty Parris, age nine, and her eleven year old cousin Abigail Williams, had a dream. They wanted to be the best actors in the village. They worked very hard to do that and they got twenty people killed. Betty and Abigail were Puritans and they are not supposed to lie or they would end up with the devil in the afterlife, but it seemed like they didn’t care. That’s why we ask, why were people blaming the innocent for being witches in Salem, 1692? The Salem Witch Trials were caused by two poor, young girls who acted possessed. There were also other people who took the risk of lying and accused other people. Most of the accusers were under the age of twenty and woman. The little girls caused the Salem Witch Trials hysteria by pretending to be possessed. Most of the accusers were poor and lived in the western part of the town.
Is there any idea worth more than a human life? In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, John Proctor decides that he has nothing left to live for, and therefore becomes a martyr. The question for him or one in his position would be whether or not there exist causes worth dying for and if his position is one such case. There is no principle worth more than a person’s life and therefore principles worth dying for, only principles worth living for.
?What is left when honor is lost?? Publilius Syrus' quote, though dating from 100 B.C., still seems pertinent to our era (Quotations). Many people still feel that once integrity is lost they are nothing and many are willing to stand up to keep their integrity. Without integrity, we are nothing. During the time that Arthur Miller wrote his most famous play, The Crucible, innocent men and women are accused of having Communist leanings. Their whole lives are ruined in a short amount of time because they refuse to compromise themselves by selling out their friends. Miller tries to make a statement about these unfair trials by comparing them to the Salem witch-hunts and trials of 1692. The main protagonist of his play is a man named John Proctor who is accused of witchcraft but stands up to maintain his name and his honor, even though he is hanged for it. During the H.U.A.C. trials some took stands for their beliefs with the knowledge of possibly being shunned by society. Knowing this, instead of taking the cowards' way and giving the names of their friends, they refuse to tell the committee anything in the same way that John Proctor stands up against a court that is ruining the lives of innocent people.
In 1953, Arthur Miller, wrote a play called The Crucible. This play was written to compare the witchcraft trials to McCarthyism, which was the practice of holding people accountable for being communists without actual proof. The Crucible became very popular in the 1950’s due to the relatable plot of the story since most feared the accusation of Communism. This story takes place in the city of Salem, where people of a true Puritan community live. There, people have strong religious beliefs and restrictions to what is acceptable in the community. One of those regulations was children were not permitted to play; if one was ever caught disobeying they would face serious public punishment. This punishment became a reality for children when caught dancing in the woods. The entire town became hysterical while trying to find the root problem to the children’s behavior.The faithful people of Salem determined that they had found witchcraft. As the hysteria arose, people started to worry about their reputations, questioning the actions of others and becoming delirious in attempts to save
Great events, whether they are beneficial or tragic ones, bring change in a person. These scenarios can give one an entirely new perspective on life, and turn around his way of thinking. Events such as the Salem Witch Trials show the people involved what they could not see before. In Arthur Miller's The Crucible, Elizabeth Proctor, Reverend Hale, and John Proctor gain valuable insight into themselves, as well as others.
Many of the people in the Salem witch trials fell heavily due to peer pressure and had very sad outcomes. John Proctor or Tituba were judged and were accused of witchcraft due to the fact that people did not like them for being different and doing things outside of society’s rules. John Proctor wouldn’t allow himself to admit to his peer’s lies and died with his pride. However, some characters like Mary Warren were pressured to do the right thing and tell the truth, but chose to let the others get to her.
Honor, dignity, and integrity are traits that are becoming more and more rare in our society. The Crucible, a play written in 1952 by Arthur Miller, is based on the Salem witch hunts of 1692 and parallels the Red Scare and McCarthyism in the 1950s. In the play, Miller attempts to focus his themes around traits such as honor, dignity, and integrity, and as a result, the theme "is it better to die honorably or live dishonorably" becomes vital to the story and well conveyed throughout it. The characters that exemplify this idea are John Proctor and Giles Corey, both of whom die by the end of the play, and Reverend John Hale and Abigail Williams, who live through the trials.
Both the struggles of young women to conform to standards set by their societies and the struggles of all people to uphold their reputations—in the Puritan culture and today’s world—are prominent issues displayed in The Crucible and Conversion. These societal standards put unjust pressure on women to appear “perfect.” Whether it is as an ideal Puritan, a loyal friend, or a prepared college girl, everyone wants to have a pristine reputation. Conformity is often seen as a way to be perfect and obtain a perfect reputation, when in reality, it is not. Seen mostly in young women in The Crucible, conformity plays a role in causing the problems which eventually result in multiple deaths. In the Puritan society, everyone knew everything about the
This adversity I compromised was caused by pressure from other villagers. Imagine five students who claim that their money was stolen by someone in the school. The only logical way to get out of this situation is to blame others to take the spotlight off you. Even if no one stole the money, people would start to do that. This is pretty much the same case, only the Salem Witch Trials are dealing with people’s lives while this imaginary event might give you detention or get suspended from school.
Reputation is the beliefs or opinions that are generally held about someone or something. A famous American poet once said: “Oh reputation dearer far than life”. James Russell Lowell highlights the importance of reputation by declaring it more important than even human life itself. This idea is also found in ‘The Crucible’ as many characters will be challenged between telling the truth and dying, or saving their reputation. In ‘The Crucible’, this theme beholds a key position in the unrolling of the story as an impression of control over the outcome of people’s lives is created by its importance.
The Crucible was written in the early 1950s as an exploration of events which took place in Massachusetts in 1692. What does the play have to offer an audience in 2014?
The witchcraft trials became a significant event in Salem. There were 20 innocent people that died and many more accused. There is a debate on whether who was the main reason for the witchcraft trials and all the deaths of the accused. There are good arguments on about every side. Judge Danforth, Abigail Williams, John Proctor, Reverend Hale, Reverend Parris, Elizabeth Proctor and Mary Warren are all the main arguments for the blame. Personally, I believe that Abigail Williams is the main reason why the witchcraft trials came about and that so many people have died and were accused.
The theme of reputation and quest for people is also portrayed clearly in The Crucible. In the old days, children were considered unimportant. They weren't allowed to speak until given permission to, and they didn't make important decisions at all. However, during the witch court trials, Abigail and other girls had the power to say who was innocent and who was guilty. Probably, for the first time in their lives, they had power over Salem and they wanted to maintain it. Moreover, the authorities of Salem were afraid of losing authorities and power. For example, the judges, Governor Danforth and Ezekiel Cheever didn't want to admit that they were being fooled by a bunch of girls so they insisted that witchcraft existed in the town of Salem.