A Delusion of Satan Essay

Milton’s Satan in Paradise Lost is a complex character meant to be the evil figure in the epic poem. Whenever possible Satan attempts to undermine God and the Son of God who is the true hero of the story. Throughout the story Milton tells the readers that Satan is an evil character, he is meant not to have any redeeming qualities, and to be shown completely as an unsympathetic figure. Satan’s greatest sins are pride and vanity in thinking he can overthrow God, and in the early part of the poem he is portrayed as selfish while in Heaven where all of God’s angels are loved and happy. Satan’s journey starts out as a fallen angel with great stature, has the ability to reason and argue, but by Book X the anguish and pain he goes through is

To learn more about the Salem witchcraft hysteria, Historian Paul Boyer, and Professor Stephen Nissenbaum sought to further understand the accusations of witchcraft. During the late 1600’s life in colonial New England was one led by religion and politics. Salem was broken up into two factions, Salem Village, and Salem Town. Salem Village, which was led by the Putnam family was a rapidly growing

When the Puritan came to the New World after being rejected in England for their beliefs, they knew the demand of perfection in God’s eyes could never be fully accomplish. Humans could never live up to the standards that God set out. After settling in New England, the Puritan became well aware they needed to have law enforcement with religious obligations, and most importantly the sexual temptations. Knowing that human could never fully obey God’s word and always be tempted, the puritans enforced certain punishments for certain sexual crimes, including fornication, adultery, rape and buggery or sodomy.

This is a book broken into chapters with 376 pages. This novel discusses the people and events that occurred during the Salem Witch Trials in Massachusetts. The author, Emerson Baker, does this by taking a large number of primary documents, scholarly interpretation, and speculations from the centuries that surround the trials. Baker examines the trials inside the 1600 time period, he then places the trials into the bigger picture of American history

The setting took place at the time when the English immigrated to North America with the belief that the English church was not strict enough. Because the immigrants were extremely religious, they had formed a new church known as Puritan Christianity. In addition, the Puritans believed that there was no separation between the church and the justice system. One must follow the Ten Commandments strictly, or else they will be punished to the fullest extent of the law. The reverends or the judges, those who were responsible for resolving any legal matters, were said to be the ones pulling through God’s will. Ultimately, the punishments brought upon the accused were extreme, as they were either publicly whipped, had their ears removed, or were ordered to be hanged.

Abigail, herself says “I want the light of God, I want the sweet love of Jesus! I danced for the Devil; I saw him; I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss His hand.” After proclaiming this, the religious officials of Salem are left, in essence, with no choice but to believe her.

The pressure and consequences of puritan lifestyle is shown in “their creed forbade anything resembling a theater , vain enjoyment, They did not celebrate christmas, or holidays from work meant only that they must concentrate even more upon prayer”. This quote shows how the puritans society suppresses individuality. To the extent that most human desires were evil , even salem foulk believed that the virgin forest was the devils last preserve. What makes this puritan lifestyle such a burden was the predilection . ”Minding others people's business was time honored among the people of salom”. This created the suspicions that would lead to the trials .

Three centuries ago, the Puritan religion was the base of the Salem village and many townspeople strongly believed in the existence of witches and witchcraft. According to the common Puritan belief, witches were in alliance with the devil and were granted power to harm. People were blamed for illness, failed crops, to bad weather, and many other things that were evident centuries ago. Due to the belief in witchcraft villagers were, perhaps, inclined to the most improbable explanations. The Puritans held strict views, ways of living, perspectives fears, and fantasies. Many Puritan ministers used the the fear of witchcraft to scare the believers into following the church. Historians believe these strict Puritan ways of life may have brought upon the witchcraft hysteria in Salem. At the time, witches and witchcraft were a serious and viewed as a real threat; almost as real as

about the fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that began in the mid-spring of

Concurrently, as the Puritans intended on maintaining their way of life within the New World, a key goal of theirs was to avoid bringing great harm to the natives they would encounter. The English had witnessed the abuse of natives during the Spanish conquests and the harsh religious demands placed among non-Catholics in the Spanish Inquisition. The torture and destruction of the native of life had been incredibly embarrassing upon the Spanish people, and in all obviousness, phenomenally painful and paralyzing to the natives themselves. These “Spanish Cruelties” were not only in great opposition to the Puritan beliefs, but as one knows, the last thing the Puritans wished to do would be to embarrass the great mother country of England.

The 17th century Puritans were known to represent a religious group migrating from England to America in order to practice religious freedom. These groups were determined to “purify” churches of England from Catholic practices. Puritans are known for their religious, social, and political influences on early America. Edmund S. Morgan’s novel The Puritan Family highlights a part of history that many would tend to look over upon- that is, the complex structural life of Puritan Families in the 17th century.

In my opinion, the author’s purpose and goals for writing this book, was to discover the beliefs and historical context that fueled the witch panic of 1692. I believe that the people in town accused others of witchcraft

In the book “In the Devils Snare: The Salem Witch Trials” by Mary Beth Norton, it starts by giving details of what was occurring in Massachusetts before the accusations and trials began. Norton starts off by describing the First and Second Indian Wars and how it affected the colony of Massachusetts when 150 Wabanaki Indians burn and rob the whole town of York, killing 50 and capturing over 100 townspeople. Mary Beth Norton than begins to write about the town of Salem, describing the first of many “fits” the town’s pastor Samuel Parris’ niece Abigail, and many other accusers would have, in the accusations of so-called witches also called specters. Young girls in the town of Salem began having strange fits described as falling on

The Puritans goal in New England was to create the perfect pure society where nobody sinned and God ruled completely. They attempted this by making laws about and regulating every aspect of life in the colony. To achieve this, the church needed to rule the colony. And if the church ruled the colony, only the real Puritans could be part of the church. They believed only a minority of the population pure enough to be a part of the church. In reality very few people were ever able to give enough evidence that they had completed their part. As a result, two-thirds of the population failed to qualify as church members. The Puritans enacted many laws to keep the non-Puritans living religious lives. They created an official whose only job was to check up on ten families daily to see if anything out of the ordinary was happening and to make sure everyone who was able went to church. Their idea was that everybody, even if they weren’t part of the church, should be very religious. Therefore they created their laws with principles based on the Old Testament. They dreamed of a society where everybody followed the laws and lived a peaceful, god-fearing existence. To make this dream realizable, the Puritans created severe penalties for breaking the laws. These ranged from whipping and being thrown in the stocks for minor offenses, to banishment and death by hanging for serious ones. To be a good Puritan one had to work hard all

Puritans may have tried to give themselves the appearance of a perfect society, but it was really just as corrupt and full of sinners as any society today. In the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Crucible by Arthur Miller and “To My Dear and Loving Husband” by Anne Bradstreet, there is evidence for this. In Puritan literature, although they try to hide it, sin is very common, in that Puritans do the opposite of what they preach, but still harshly punish those who sin.